New England is known for many things, including the sport of lacrosse.
It is time to add the sport of lacrosse to an ongoing list of what makes our region so spectacular – if you already have the sport on your list, then pat yourself on the back.
This past Memorial Day Weekend we saw a trio of New England teams, including Merrimack College, capture their first-ever NCAA championship at the home of the New England Patriots (Gillette Stadium).
It was a great moment, not just for all three hard-working coaches and their players, but for our region, too.
Maryland or the mid-Atlantic may be a hotbed, according to some lacrosse experts, when it comes to finding some of the best players in the country. The same could be said for New York, as well, especially Long Island.
But I think it is fair to say Massachusetts is a great place to find some talented lacrosse players, along with the other five states that make up the region we call New England.
From a quick glance of the 2018 Merrimack College roster, 15 student-athletes represent the Bay State, while 10 are from New Hampshire and five from Connecticut.
Do I need to say anything more?
If my math is correct, 30 student-athletes from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire helped Merrimack win its first-ever D2 National Championship against Saint Leo. Nine different players located the back of the net, including rising sophomore Christian Thomas, who recorded a game-high 10 points on seven assists and three goals.
Thomas is from Wrentham, Massachusetts, but played lacrosse at the New Hampton School in New Hampshire. He and the Warriors concluded their title match by establishing a new NCAA Championship Game record across all three divisions for margin of victory (17).
Thomas wasn’t the only player from our region that helped the Warriors cap their 2018 campaign with an overall record of 18-1. Sean Black, a rising sophomore from Cheshire, Connecticut, contributed four assists and three goals, while soon-to-be senior Michael O’Connell, who played high school lacrosse at Lincoln-Sudbury, added five points on three goals and two assists.
Goalie Peter Brown, who will be a sophomore next school year, is from Cheshire, Connecticut – he deflected eight shots between the pipes to secure his 16th victory of the spring.
The New England connections continued with Yale University and Wesleyan University – again, both teams capped impressive tournament runs with title game victories over Duke University and Salisbury University.
Yale’s roster may not totally reflect our region, but does include a pair of New England players, including defender Will Weitzel, who grew up in Newton and played lacrosse at the Roxbury Latin School. Weitzel may not have recorded a single stat against the Blue Devils, but did record multiple career-bests this season, including 19 ground balls, seven caused turnovers and three assists. He also appeared in 20 games this past spring – yes, one of those games happened to be the championship.
As for Wesleyan, they received a major boost from Harry Stanton, a New Canaan, Connecticut native that capped his impressive four-year career with the Cardinals with three points (two goals, one assist) against the Sea Gulls. Stanton, who was tabbed the game’s Most Outstanding Player, is currently the program’s all-time leader in goals with 224.
With Stanton gone next year – he graduated prior to his team’s championship win against the Sea Gulls – perhaps we could see a few Massachusetts players step-up next spring, including Andover’s Jackson Curran, who netted three goals in eight contests.
In addition to all three New England men’s lacrosse teams, the region also saw Boston College and Middlebury College contend for some national hardware in the women’s D1 and D3 championships, respectively. Sadly, both teams came-up short, but one should certainly expect both teams to be back in the mix next season.
New England is a great place and it certainly should be considered one of the best regions to find future collegiate lacrosse players.
Noontime's Take
The Scoop / Summer '18 37