Here is the opening 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. So, Wednesday begins with a visit with St. Mary's.
REVIEW
The good: Like many others, the Seahawks (5-8 overall and 4-4 in the Capital Athletic Conference) were impacted by February's deluge of snow, but they arguably endured a rougher beginning. Games against Roanoke and Muhlenberg were canceled, contests against Washington College and Salisbury were moved indoors to The Calverton School, and a game at Dickinson was rescheduled a few times. The team was unable to practice outside between Feb. 13 and March 9, but coach Chris Hasbrouck appreciated his players' unwavering approach.
"With the adversity of the scheduling changes and all of the other changes we went through and the lack of practice, I'm not sure another group of guys could have played and competed the way that this group did," he said. "They know that when you come here, we don't have an indoor facility and we don't have turf. In most years, that doesn't have an overly adverse effect on us. But there was a lot of adversity this year.
"When you don't get on a field between Feb. 13 and March 9 and you still have to play four games, it's tough. That being said, this is one of the best groups of kids. Never one word of complaint. They just strapped it on every day, and worked as hard as any group I've ever seen. And the testament is that during our end-of-year meetings, every kid came in and said, 'We need to work harder.'"
** On a senior-heavy squad, injuries took their toll, opening the door for several younger, inexperienced players to gain some much-needed playing time. Freshman attackman Colin Dempsey started in 10 of 12 games that he played and registered four goals and one assist. Freshman defenseman Tanner Lamberti also made 10 starts and posted 16 ground balls and eight caused turnovers. And freshmen Conner Campbell (13 ground balls and four caused turnovers as a long-stick midfielder) and David Fritz (two goals, one assist, 18 ground balls and three caused turnovers as a short-stick defensive midfielder) started in the Rope unit.
"The continued development of the younger guys was great," Hasbrouck said. "Conner Campbell, a freshman LSM, did an excellent job and at certain points in the year, he was probably our best LSM. Some of the younger guys, Colin Dempsey and David Fritz, were tremendous, too. … Their development has been excellent to see."
** St. Mary's ranked 77th in Division III in scoring, averaging 10.9 goals, and one area the team excelled was on man-up offense. The extra-man unit ranked fifth, converting 47.4 percent (18 of 38) of its chances. It was the offense's must successful rate since at least 2008, but Hasbrouck said the squad did not make any significant overhaul to its man-up schemes.
"Through the last three or four years, that's really been a struggle for us," he said. "We really emphasized high-quality shots and our shooting technique, and that's something we're going to continue to do. I think they've bought into that. It was six guys who were very, very unselfish. It didn't matter to them who was going to score the goal, it was that we were scoring goals."
The bad: For the second consecutive season, the Seahawks finished with a losing record and barely squeaked into the conference tournament as the No. 6 and final seed. They lost four games by fewer than three goals, including an 8-6 setback at York in the first round of the CAC tournament. Hasbrouck said this is the first time he can recall using the words "frustrating" and "underachieving" to describe a single campaign.
"I take that myself," he said. "I think, typically, we've been an overachieving team, and I think that's led us to some moderately successful seasons, and we've been building on that. I think this year, very frustrating with the lost games, the canceled games early in the year, and we just couldn't get on track. It was tough. That being said, once we did get back outside and started to play, we underachieved. I take full responsibility for that because I thought we had a lot of potential. We just didn't get a break our way."
** One area of the game where the team struggled mightily was faceoffs. St. Mary's won just 35.9 percent (120 of 334) of its draws, and the inability to regain possession after scoring a goal severely undercut the offense's ability to mount runs against opponents. That forced the defense to spend more time turning back chances than it should have, according to Hasbrouck.
"That put on us an incredible amount of pressure, and I think that came to bear in a few games," he said. "I knew we had the potential to score goals and go on some runs, but we'd go down one or two and you could just tell that we'd get tight, knowing that we had to score on the next shot. And at times, that affected our shot selection. They were pressing a little bit because they knew we were struggling at the X. … We played so much defense throughout the year. Our defense did improve dramatically because when you're playing that much defense, you're going to be better. But it put a tremendous amount of pressure at both ends of the field."
** The offense shot 30.8 percent, scoring 142 goals on 461 shots. That was good enough to rank 46th in the nation in efficiency, which would seem like a decent number. But Hasbrouck said better accuracy could have been the difference between a winning record and a losing mark for the Seahawks.
"Our thing is to continue to improve our shooting," he said. "… We don't just want to shoot the ball to shoot it. I'm watching a lot of the playoff lacrosse and the teams that are shooting the ball overhand, that ball's going into the net and those teams are winning. Teams that shoot the ball sidearmed, that ball's not going into the goal and a lot of those teams went home. I think that's one of those timeless lessons that I'm going to continue to stress to our guys. We want to have really great shooting technique and cash in those shots and take high percentage shots."
PREVIEW
Personnel changes: The good news is that St. Mary's returns its starting attack of junior Conor Jordan (13 goals and eight assists), sophomore Brendan Steele (9 G, 4 A) and Dempsey. But the offense graduated its entire first midfield of Matt Tarrant (20 goals and 13 assists), Eric Simon (29 G, 1 A) and Tim Perugini (16 G, 4 A). Still, Hasbrouck has high hopes for a deep group that includes junior Matt Carney (2 G, 6 A), freshman Ian Riehl (3 G), and sophomores Greg Louzan (12 G, 2 A), Brendan Rollins (4 G, 1 A), Luke Eshleman (1 G) and Mike Becraft.
"We were senior-heavy in the midfield and it was tough to get minutes, but I think we're really, really excited to see those kids get a real opportunity," Hasbrouck said. "They've had two years to learn the system, hit the weights, really improve their game, and those guys are chomping at the bit. When we're practicing and to see those kids really compete with the top two lines and it's basically a draw, we're really, really excited to see their continued development."
** The team must also replace a pair of starting defensemen. Grant Lowenfeld opened the season as the veteran leader on that end, but made just four starts before suffering a season-ending knee injury. Colomon DeBor started in seven of the 12 games he played, recording 11 ground balls and five caused turnovers. But junior Phil Cappello (26 GB, 7 CT) – who was slowed by a knee injury suffered in 2014 – appears poised to join sophomore Mike Freiji (25 GB, 10 CT) and Lamberti as starters with junior Cole Meyerhoff joining in the rotation.
"Phil Cappello came back from the knee injury that he had in his sophomore year, and I think losing the practice time and some of that evaluation time really hindered Phil," Hasbrouck said. "At the end of the year, Phil was playing as well defensively as any kid in the conference. He was really solid, bearing down and turning kids back at the goal line. And we've got some other younger guys waiting in the wings."
** The Seahawks relied on faceoff specialist Reese Cassard (39.9 percent on 59-of-148) and 19 GB) to take a majority of the draws, but he has since graduated. Junior Caleb Jardeleza (35.1 percent on 34-of-97 and 10 GB) has the most experience, but Hasbrouck said sophomore Colin Tiffey (24.0 percent on 6 of 25, 3 GB) is a promising prospect at that spot.
"He's just a tough kid that we're liking right now," Hasbrouck said. "He gave us an opportunity to win some draws. He might have done it a little bit in high school, but he's got that wrestler body. He's a stocky, strong kid. He's in the weight room, he's got a good stick, he's got good reaction time. He really came on at the end of the year. I think those two are certainly going to battle for it. Nobody has put more pressure on them than those two kids themselves. They understand that for us to be successful, those two need to come in and give us an opportunity to win the ball, and I believe in them."
Forecast for 2016: Stormy. As mentioned above, St. Mary's returns its entire starting attack, but this year's offense was powered by that senior-driven midfield. Louzan has demonstrated some potential, but can the others ramp up their production? The defense returns several pieces including junior goalkeeper Joey Casey (10.50 goals-against average and .521 save percentage), but the unit may continue to be overtaxed if the faceoff play doesn't improve. Overall, there are significant questions for Hasbrouck and his coaching staff to address. And opponents like Salisbury, Frostburg State and Christopher Newport are not showing that they intend to slow down and make life in the Capital Athletic Conference easy for the Seahawks.