No. 8 Loyola Maryland and Holy Cross have met just once with the Greyhounds waltzing to a 20-4 rout on Dec. 22, 2014. This is the Patriot League opener for both teams, and Loyola went 8-0 last spring in its inaugural season in the conference.
The Crusaders began their campaign with a 10-9 win over Fairfield last Saturday. It was the program's first victory over the Stags, who had won the previous eight meetings. Freshman Logan LeBlond's three-point outing (two goals and one assist) was the most by a freshman in a season opener since Feb. 20, 2010 when James Kennedy had four points (three goals, one assist) against St. John's.
Since a 13-12 loss to then-No. 9 Virginia on Feb. 7, the Greyhounds (2-1) have beaten then-No. 17 Penn State and No. 16 Towson. Loyola and Massachusetts are the only Division I teams to clash with three top 20 opponents in Cascade/Maverik media poll in their first three games. Junior attackman Zach Herreweyers, who has a hat trick in each game, is the first player since at least 2004 to score three or more goals in each of his first three games.
Here are a few factors that could play a role in the outcome at Ridley Athletic Complex on Saturday at 11 a.m.
1) Another rotation in the cage? In Wednesday's 15-11 win over Towson, the Greyhounds started senior goalkeeper Pat McEnerney, but they opened the second half with freshman Grant Limone. After the game, coach Charley Toomey announced that McEnerney would start against Holy Cross, but kept he open the possibility Limone could see some playing time, too.
"We talked about it at the very beginning of the season," Toomey said. "We feel like we have guys that we're very prepared to go halves with. It is kind of a feel of the game, how is the game being played?"
2) More runs for the second midfield? Maybe it was the lopsided nature of Wednesday's game, but Loyola's second line of sophomore Mike Perkins and freshmen Jay Drapeau and Brian Begley got more playing time. Drapeau scored his first career goal, and Begley picked up two ground balls, which is an encouraging sign for Toomey.
"We ask a lot of our first midfield. We can see that second midfield starting to produce," he said. "Jay Drapeau showed some athleticism down that alley, and Brian Begley got some meaningful minutes. We're growing up. We're playing a lot of guys that are getting first minutes and hopefully, we're going to continue to develop offensively and defensively."
3) Pouncing on ground balls? The Greyhounds have collected 34.7 loose balls per game, while their opponents have averaged 30.3 ground balls. But they scooped up one fewer ground ball than Towson did, and junior midfielder Tyler Albrecht – who plays on the starting midfield, faceoff wings and defensive midfield – said the team prides itself on chasing down loose balls and gaining possession.
"Every ground ball is important," Albrecht said. "I'm kind of used to rotating between [sophomore midfielder Brian] Sherlock and I, taking those wings after faceoffs, and it's tough battling injuries and stuff like that. But we're there for each other, and it's tough on everyone now. Like Coach said, we've got a lot of good young guys like Brian Begley, who's in there and rotating with me on wings as well."