Graduation took a visible toll on Frostburg State's faceoff unit, but don't tell that to the players who make up the current group.
A unit headed by junior Erik Geiser and sophomore Kyle Horak has won 63.4 percent (71 of 112) of its faceoffs. Geiser, a junior, has won 67.8 percent (40 of 59) of his draws and scooped up 26 ground balls, while Horak, a sophomore, has claimed 59.6 percent (31 of 52) and picked up 14 ground balls.
They have been aided by sophomore long-stick midfielders Alex Philips (10 ground balls) and Chris Santina (seven) and a group of short-stick midfielders in sophomore John Gamber (14) and seniors Chris Rios (10) and Spencer Barnett (nine).
Asked if he was surprised by their play prior to the team's 15-5 victory over Illinois Wesleyan on Monday, coach Tommy Pearce replied, "Pleased. I thought they had it in them, but it still had to be proven. I don't want to say that I'm surprised, but I'm pleased with how it's going."
The Bobcats (5-0) had graduated faceoff specialist Billy Lark, a first-team All-Capital Athletic Conference selection who had won 64.7 percent (242-of-374) of his draws and collected 111 ground balls. They also bade farewell to short-stick defensive midfielder Zach Douglas (58 ground balls) and a pair of long-stick midfielders in Korey Bosley (25 ground balls) and Jake McNew (23 ground balls).
One element to the faceoff unit is that Gamber, Geiser and Horak can also line up as short-stick defensive midfielders if they lose the draw. That has helped Frostburg State's personnel plans.
"One of the questions going into the season was whether or not Erik Geiser was going to have to take all of the faceoffs for us and whether he would be able to play some D-middie, too," Pearce said. "Kyle Horak has been doing a great job of splitting the faceoff role with Erik so that Erik can also keep playing some D-middie for us. And when Kyle doesn't win a faceoff, he stays on the field and plays defense because we feel good about him playing defense, too."