STANDISH, ME – The Saint Joseph's College Men's Lacrosse team took a huge step forward during the 2010 season under third-year Head Coach Mike Edgar. The Monks capped the season with a 10-8 record overall and went 5-4 in conference play this spring.
The Monks, bound for the Great Northeast Athletic Conference in 2011 after two seasons in the North Atlantic Conference - with a pair of playoff appearances - broke 17 team-season records, including wins, winning percentage (.556), points (323), goals (207), ground balls (841) and goals against average (9.12) during the 2010 campaign. St. Joe's finished the year ranked fourth in all of NCAA DIII Men's Lacrosse with 46.72 ground balls per game and seventh in man-down defense (.854).
Also, the third-year varsity program nearly doubled its win total for the previous two years combined (6) and won six of seven contests heading into the NAC playoffs. The Monks earned victories over Emerson, Johnson State and Thomas for the first time in team history and earned the fifth seed in the NAC Tournament.
Saint Joseph's also gained recognition by way of conference postseason honors. Freshman attacker Spencer Hunt (Jeffersonville, VT), who led the Monks in goals (42), assists (34), points (76) and shots (158), was named as the NAC Co-Rookie of the Year. Hunt, who shared the rookie accolade with Maine Maritime midfielder Tom Houle, was selected as the NAC Rookie of the Week twice during the season and is the first SJC lax player to earn a conference individual honor. Ace defender Albert Comins '13 (Newbury, MA) earned All-NAC Second Team honors after notching 77 ground balls and a team-record 36 caused turnovers as a freshman.
The Monks kicked off the 2010 season with a spring road trip to Brooklyn, where the Royal Blue would take on Bard College and Mount St. Vincent. St. Joe's zipped past Bard by a 17-0 score and posted the team's first-ever shutout win on March 6th, but the triumph wasn't without cost as the team lost 2010 leading scorer Jonathan Horgan '12 (Hingham, MA), who went down with an injury early in the contest, for the year.
Despite the loss of Horgan, St. Joe's played well the following day against Mount St. Vincent, but was unable to overcome a 2-10 effort in man-up situations and fell 10-4 to the Dolphins. Even though the Monks ended up on the wrong side of the scoreboard, the setback was a sign of improvement as the Royal Blue had been trounced, 21-7, by the Dolphins in 2009.
Saint Joseph's closed out the spring trip with a contest at Salem State, where the Monks fell 15-3 to the Vikings, but quickly rebounded with a pair of convincing wins over Emerson and Daniel Webster upon returning to Maine. The Monks tallied 15 straight goals in a 16-2 win over Emerson on March 17th and utilized a second-half surge to topple Daniel Webster, 14-4, three days later.
A pair of hard-fought losses to in-state rivals Southern Maine and Husson followed, as the Monks carried a 3-4 record into an April 3rd game against NAC opponent Green Mountain College. With the help of a single-game record 14 points from Hunt, St. Joe's got back in the win column with a 25-3 triumph over Green Mountain and raised the team record back to .500.
Next up for the Monks was a game at Westerlea Way Field against Maine Maritime Academy. St. Joe's jumped out to a 2-0 lead with a pair of early goals from Benson Pasquarello '12 (Kennebunk, ME) and Dylan Chase '13 (West Newbury, MA), but the Mariners responded with seven unanswered tallies and headed north with a 15-11 win.
After a 14-5 loss to Mount Ida College in Newton, MA on April 10th, the Monks proceeded to rattle off three straight victories over Rivier, Johnson State and Maine-Farmington over the next 11 days. St. Joe's routed Rivier, 19-0, in Nashua, NH on April 13th behind hat-trick efforts from Hunt, Chase and Paul Dolewa '12 (Saco, ME) before clawing past Johnson State, 11-9, on April 18th with the help of a five-point performance from Kody Peckham '11 (West Gardiner, ME). Hunt filled the cage with an SJC game-record nine goals in a 20-1 win over Farmington on April 21st.
After suffering a 16-7 loss to eventual NAC Champion Castleton State on April 24th, Saint Joseph's prepared for the conference tourney by collecting three consecutive wins over Lyndon State, Thomas and Mitchell. SJC keeper Christopher Driscoll '13 (Saco, ME) etched his name in the St. Joe's record book with 23 stops and Pasquarello netted three goals in the win over Lyndon on April 25th, while a nine-point effort from Hunt propelled the Royal Blue past Thomas in the team's NAC regular season final two days later. Hunt tallied his second-straight nine-point effort in an 18-7 win over Mitchell and the Monks tied an NCAA DIII record for fastest consecutive goals scored by the same team early in the second half, as Blake Edwards '11 (Glide, OR) and Elliot LaMarre '11 (Raymond, NH) tallied markers just four seconds apart.
With the regular season over, the fifth-seeded Monks headed to Castine, ME to take on #4 seed Maine Maritime Academy in the opening round of the NAC Tournament. Unfortunately for the Royal Blue, the Mariners managed to score goals in bunches and dealt the Monks a 22-6 defeat. Dolewa scored three goals and added a helper and Driscoll made 11 stops between the pipes in the losing effort.
The loss signaled the end of the road for the Monks' five seniors – Joe Vining (Poland, ME), Kyle Joseph (Oakland, ME), Andrew Moravick (Biddeford, ME), Luke LaFreniere (Alton, NH) and Stephen Lucafo (Raymond, NH). Although this group will certainly be missed on and off the field, St. Joe's returns a talented corps of contributors as the team looks forward to a new challenge with a schedule in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference next spring.
Several individuals enjoyed outstanding seasons:
- Hunt set new team records for assists (34), points (76), shots on goal (81) and game-winning goals (4) as a rookie. His goal total (42) is the second-highest in the team's short history.
- Chase also enjoyed a solid freshman campaign, as the first-year attacker tallied 27 goals, 20 assists and 47 total points.
- Dolewa showed significant improvement with increased shot percentage marks and has proven to be a consistent performer for the Monks. The second-year midfielder contributed with 29 goals, 16 assists, 45 total points and 62 ground balls in 2010 and ranks second in program history in career goals (60), points (85) and ground balls (119).
- Peckham, the team's all-time leader in goals (61), points (86) and man-up goals (10), has increased his production each season and posted 26 goals, 13 assists, 39 points and 28 ground balls as a junior.
- LaMarre ranked 22nd in the country and third in the NAC with a 61.5% (177-288) face-off percentage and paced the Monks with a single-season record 91 ground balls as a junior midfielder.
- LaFreniere and Pasquarello both tallied 19 goals and Tookie Amosun '11 (Gardiner, ME) registered nine goals, five assists and 42 ground balls.
- Driscoll enjoyed a solid season in the cage for the Monks and set single-season records for games (13), minutes (694), saves (148), save percentage (.571) and shots faced (413) as a rookie. Second-year keeper Marco Stefano (Steep Falls, ME) made six starts for the Royal Blue and posted an 8.26 goals-against average with a .547 save percentage and a 5-2 record.
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Back (L-R): Paul Dolewa, Joe Vining, Joseph Connolly, Michael Greatorex, Bryan Johnson, Blake Edwards, Middle (L-R): Andrew Moravick, Christopher Driscoll, Ross Hardaway, Dylan Chase, Benson Pasquarello, Front (L-R): Jonathan Horgan, Elliot LaMarre, Spencer Hunt, Marcus Dominic-Cardona, Kyle Joseph, Albert |
