Here is the fourth installment of a series that checks in with the eight Division III programs in the state to give a glimpse into the past and the future. Teams are scheduled to appear according to the chronological order in which their seasons ended. Friday's visit was with Goucher. Monday's visit is with McDaniel.
REVIEW
The good: The Green Terror finished with a 7-7 overall record and a 4-4 mark in the Centennial Conference, but had a chance to make their first appearance in the league tournament since 2012. The team needed just one victory against either Gettysburg or Ursinus, but came up empty-handed. Still, Matt Hatton -- who left after the season to assume the athletic director vacancy at Archbishop Curley -- praised the players for their determination until the end.
"We were competitive across the board until the last whistle in the last game," he said. "That's a credit more to the guys on the team, particularly the seniors, for creating an environment like that. It was going to be a hard-working environment. It was going to be fun, but it was also going to be serious about the task at hand and trying to accomplish that task."
**The program was buoyed by the play of the defense, which surrendered just 8.5 goals per game to rank 61st out of 221 Division III teams. McDaniel -- which allowed 12.3 goals in 2014 -- held 10 opponents to fewer than 10 goals courtesy of a unit led by senior defenseman Drew Cortese, a Centennial Conference honorable-mention selection. The scary part, according to Hatton, is that there were skilled defenders who didn't get much playing time due to the logjam at nearly every spot.
"We were really deep defensively," he said. "There are guys that didn't play a whole lot this year who I think in years past would have played an awful lot for us. So as long as they take the offseason seriously and accept and embrace those roles, they're going to be in good shape."
**The one issue confronting the team in the preseason was the void in the cage, where Christian Dallmus had been a three-year starter. But junior Eric Ritchie, who made three starts in 2014 and recorded a 12.23 goals-against average and a .554 save percentage, shined with an 8.28 goals-against average and a .582 save percentage. His save percentage trailed only Ursinus' Brian Neff (.637) in the Centennial Conference. Hatton said Ritchie answered any doubts in the preseason about his ability to succeed Dallmus.
"One of the question marks going into the season simply because we had graduated a player who had played so many minutes at that position was the goalie play," Hatton said. "I felt like our junior, Eric Ritchie, did a really, really nice job in the goal. I think his numbers dictated that for the most part. I think there were a couple games he would have liked to have back, but I think that comes with the territory. I thought he really held it together and did a great job."
The bad: The Green Terror spent late April at home for the third consecutive year after failing to secure one of the four seeds in the Centennial Conference tournament. A 9-5 loss to a hobbled Washington College squad in the league opener on March 21 stung, but the program can only blame itself for missing out on getting just one victory over either Gettysburg or Ursinus in its final two contests of the season.
"We had the opportunity," Hatton said. "I just wish we had won one more game. As it turned out, we were basically one game out of it. We could have been [as high as] third place because we beat Dickinson, but Dickinson beat Franklin and Marshall and we lost to Ursinus. So that was the equalizer. It was bittersweet."
**The offense regressed, sliding from 9.3 goals per game in 2014 to 7.9 this past spring. The unit scored 10 or more goals just three times, winning all three. But the team went 4-7 in contests in which it failed to reach the double-digit mark in goals. One factor, according to Hatton, was the offense's inaccuracy, which was demonstrated by a 24.6 shooting percentage from the field.
"Our shooting was pretty bad," he admitted. "Sometimes you think -- just like in basketball or any other sport -- you've got to shoot through it to get better. I can tell you that all the coaches and everyone in the program took that part very seriously. It wasn't for a lack of preparation or lack of opportunities. From our first preseason scrimmage through the last game of the season, we generated plenty of quality shots, but for whatever reason, we just didn't shoot the ball well enough. Were all of those shots quality opportunities? In retrospect, probably not. The other piece is, did we have the right shooter shooting the ball? I think maybe being a bit more judicious about what shots we were taking and being more effective with whatever shots were decided are going to be critical."
**Although sophomore faceoff specialist Zach Bicho won 55.7 percent (147-of-264) of his draws and scooped up 90 ground balls, McDaniel lagged in corralling loose balls. The team averaged 25.7 ground balls, which was better than only seven other teams in the country. Hatton said as good as the defense was at limiting opponents' ability to put the ball in the net, the unit was deficient in grabbing those balls when they were available.
"I'm surprised that defensively, we didn't get the ball off the ground," he said. "The way that I look at that is if you're a 60-minute guy at that position and you're good, you should average three to four ground balls per game. If you average that out over 15 games, that's at least 45 ground balls, and I don't think we had one pole with 45 ground balls. At the end of the day, ground balls lead to possessions, which lead to opportunities, and if you get out-groundballed, that's usually a pretty telling statistic as far as whether or not you're going to be able to win a game."
PREVIEW
Personnel changes: After graduating just two seniors last year, the hit is deeper this season. The program bade farewell to a pair of starting attackmen in Pat Bivons (11 goals and 20 assists) and Patrick Serio (19 G, 3 A). Freshman Calvin Fleagle, who registered 11 goals and four assists as a midfielder, is a natural attackman, and junior Zach Monzo (8 G, 4 A) is also a candidate. But Hatton said the unit's fortunes will rise and fall depending on the lone returning starter in sophomore Timothy McNichol (18 G, 5 A).
"Timothy McNichol has basically been a two-year starter heading into his junior year," Hatton said. "I think at times, he played really well this year and at times, he didn't play as well as we would have liked or as he would have liked. I think for him, his big thing is going to be consistency because he's clearly going to get the top [defenseman]. I think he's a guy you can build around."
**With midfielder Sean Brett (9 G, 2 A) graduating and Fleagle perhaps moving to attack, that leaves sophomore Jason Lawrence (13 G, 7 A) as the only returner in the first line. Sophomore Dylan Chaikin (2 G, 1 A) and junior Patrick Huckenpoehler could make a case for playing time, but Hatton said sophomore Troy Becker has demonstrated that he can play both midfield and attack.
"Troy Becker is going to fit somewhere in this mix," Hatton said. "He came to McDaniel as an attackman. We made the decision that his best opportunity to get on the field and contribute was to come through the box. Last year -- that was his freshman year -- I think that was a real different animal for him. I felt like he made a lot of strides this year as a sophomore. … Whether he's playing attack or midfield, he can play."
**McDaniel also suffered losses on defense. A pair of starting close defensemen in Cortese (14 ground balls and nine caused turnovers) and Alec Schunk (19 GB, 15 CT) departed, and defenseman Zac Bitzer (8 GB, 10 CT in seven starts) is also gone. Hatton pointed out that any one of the four players in sophomores Alex Hanna (24 GB, 3 CT) and Emmett Turley (6 GB, 11 CT) and Robert Breed and junior Tony Roney (7 GB, 5 CT) who rotated at long-stick midfielder could shift to close defense. He also noted that junior Daniel Fleagle is available.
"I don't know how much of a drop-off there will be," Hatton said. "I think their issue is going to be whether they're going to be able to get the same leadership out of that group and the D-middies as they did with Alec, Drew, Zac, Ryan [Weiss] and Kevin [Nicholas] in front of them. But skill-wise, I'm not sure there's going to be a big drop-off there. All of those guys are really athletic and are high-level Division III defenders."
Forecast for 2016: Cloudy. The Green Terror returned nine of 10 starters from the 2014 squad that went 6-9 overall and 3-5 in the Centennial Conference, but the improvement didn't net a winning record or a berth in the league tournament. So what's in store for the program after graduating five starters including its top playmaker (Bivons), its leading goal manufacturer (Serio) and its best defenseman (Cortese)? The next head coach -- who has yet to be named -- may find that the cupboard is not bare, but there is a lot of work ahead for McDaniel to return to a position of strength in the Centennial.