STANDISH, ME - The Saint Joseph's men's lacrosse program has high expectations heading into the 2012 campaign after posting the most impressive season in program history a year ago.
Head Coach Mike Edgar, set to begin his fifth year at St. Joe's, is the only skipper in program history and has pushed his program to new heights each year. The Monks went 2-9 as a first-year NCAA DIII independent program in 2008, improved to 4-13 with a 2-7 mark as a member of the North Atlantic Conference (NAC) in 2009, and notched a 10-8 record, including a 5-4 record in NAC play, en route to gaining the team's first-ever postseason berth in 2010.
Logically, the next goal for the young program was to not only participate in the conference tourney, but to host a playoff game as one of the top four playoff seeds and advance to the next round. As a first-year member of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC), the Monks accomplished the first goal after going 10-8 overall and 4-3 in GNAC play en route to collecting the #4 seed in the conference tournament. Saint Joseph's hosted #5 Becker College in a quarterfinal matchup and achieved the second objective with a 10-9 victory over the Hawks.
With the first-round win St. Joe's moved on to face top-seeded Mount Ida College in a GNAC Semifinal matchup. Although the Monks fell to the eventual GNAC Champion Mustangs, the tournament success was an important step and the playoff experience should prove to be valuable for the returning players this spring.
This year, Saint Joseph's is preparing like a team that has plans to make a lengthy run in the GNAC Tournament and contend for the conference crown. The Monks also look to win more than 10 games this season for the first time in program history. Fans should also note that the winner of the GNAC Championship contest will earn an automatic berth into the NCAA DIII National Tournament this spring.
St. Joe's seems poised to accomplish these goals after posting impressive numbers last year, when the Royal Blue paced the GNAC - and ranked fifth in all of NCAA DIII Men's Lacrosse - in ground balls per game (44.33), man-up goals (2.11 per game) and penalty killing with an impressive 83.2% rate - the 15th-best man-down defense percentage in the country.
If the program is to develop into a GNAC Championship contender this spring, the Monks will be doing so without the services of two top-scorers from a year ago - Spencer Hunt and Zach Chaisson - and the team's best face-off specialist, departing-senior Eliot LaMarre.
The team may not miss a beat, however, as the Monks return eight starters, a core group that includes junior goalkeeper Chris Driscoll (Saco, Maine), senior attackman Jonathan Horgan (Hingham, Mass.), senior midfielder Paul Dolewa (Saco, Maine), long-stick midi Robert Murtha '13 (North Kingstown, R.I.) and top defenders Albert Comins '13 (Newbury, Mass.) and Joe Connolly '13 (Portland, Maine/South Portland).
Driscoll registered a fine season as a sophomore when he set the program's single-season records for games (17), minutes (888), saves (153), wins (10), and shots faced (486). The third-year starter also ranked third in the conference in goals against average (8.65) and fourth in save percentage (.544) last season.
In 2011, Horgan became the program's first-ever First Team All-Conference selection after tallying 24 goals and 30 assists for 54 total points to go with 42 ground balls. Horgan, who missed nearly the entire 2010 campaign due to injury, led the GNAC with 1.88 assists per game and ranked fourth in the conference in points per game (3.38).
Dolewa produced a fine season with 24 goals and 13 assists for 37 points and a program-record 12 man-up goals as a junior. He led the conference in man-up goals per game (0.67) and ranked sixth in the league in shots per game (6.83). Murtha emerged as one of the most athletic LSM's in the conference and recorded 42 ground balls, 20 caused turnovers and three points (2G, 1A) in 15 contests.
Comins and Connolly played major roles in a season where the Monks set program records in team caused turnovers and goals against average. Comins, a Second Team All-Conference selection for the second straight season, produced 51 ground balls and 27 caused turnovers in 16 games while Connolly added 26 ground balls and 14 caused turnovers in 18 starts.
Coach Edgar and his staff tirelessly recruited last year and the work yielded an impressive class of 16 newcomers to the program. Top rookies include midfielder Nathan Hopkins (Scarborough, Maine), a 6'5, 200-pound presence who brings three Maine Class A Championships to the table, attackman Max Meserve (Kennebunk, Maine), a talented scorer who netted 29 goals and 15 assists for Kennebunk as a senior, midfielder Dalton Eldridge (South Gardiner, Maine), the 2011 Kennebec Journal Player of the Year who produced 36 goals and 28 assists for Gardiner last spring, and long-stick midi Colby Main (Jericho, Vt.), an athletic player who looks to make his presence felt in the heart of the field.
The Monks' roster is certainly the deepest - and perhaps most talented - group to date for the fifth-year NCAA program. Of particular importance is the depth at the midfield posts – a luxury that Coach Edgar figures to utilize in in an attempt to control the most integral part of the field.
Saint Joseph's kicks off the 2012 campaign with a game at Husson University on Saturday at 3:00 PM. The Monks then host Thomas College on March 6th and Southern Maine on March 8th before heading to the New Jersey metro area for contests versus FDU-Florham (3/11) and Swarthmore College (3/13) while the College is on Spring Break.
