Holy Cross

[HCDC]

Not a lot of noise re HC here or on any of the team’s social media accounts. Everyone’s run out of things to say now that team posted its first .500 season since the Taft administration.

Anyway, no season-opening victory since the 2015 vs. Fairfield. Since then, HC has not looked ready to play in the season opener. Glad to see they scrimmaged this past weekend ... although it was Bryant’s twitter account that alerted me to the event (nothing from HC). Team’s success last season and return of most starters might be enough to overcome any rust/cobwebs.

Biggest question heading into this season is the defensive midfield. Having lost Mckenna, Hannan, and Murphy, they will be running an almost entirely new crew. Maitland is the only guy returning that saw significant minutes last season. Hopefully with a year under his belt he’ll be ready to carry a big load. Curious to see how soph football player Hugee slots in. I read that he had been recruited by Denver for lacrosse but wanted to play football, so ended up at HC.

I assume Conlin and New will start at close D. Farrell will be tough to replace.

Lost jr. A Rowan Hart. Not on the roster. Not sure what happened to him. Played lots his freshman yr. Barely played last year, but when he got in the Lafayette game for 4th Q, he was very active and had a goal, an assist, and another pretty feed that should have been an assist. I remember watching him in that game and wondering why he wasn’t getting more PT ... and also feeling excited to see him fill Babiak’s shoes this season. Who fills that third attack spot? I think Waldron was far more effective at midfield last year than he had been at attack. Lynskey too. Other than Helfrich, who hasn’t shown much of a dodging or feeding game, the rest of the options at attack are fr and soph who didn’t see tons of time last season.

Streaming – looks like all games except Vermont will be accessible through streaming, either PLN, opponent’s streaming service, ESPN+, or CBSSports. The PL website has a helpful list. Speaking of streaming, I’ll give a shout out to Patrick Hart for his work as analyst/commentator, broadcaster for HC’s games. In the early PLN days, HC did not have consistently good broadcast commentary and it was kind of tough to listen to. In my opinion, Hart puts HC up there with Loyola and Navy for high quality broadcast that is a nice accompaniment to the game.

Before last season I said HC needed to score more than 10 goals/gm and keep opponents below 10 for a chance at a .500 or better season. They did both, scoring more than 10 g/gm for the first time in the last 30 yrs. Critical that they replicate that again this season, hopefully improving their numbers. Team’s that don’t meet those targets really struggle to hit .500,

Looking forward to Saturday.

[Sllaxdad]

Thank you, that was perfect. Good luck to the boys and staff.

[HCDC]

I hesitate to make predictions .... so I won’t, but I’ll note that this is the first year in the history of the PL where it feels like HC has a realistic chance of winning the league. There doesn’t seem to be a clearly dominant team this year and HC has a strong core returning with lots of experience ... and it seems like there’s good team chemistry and strong leadership from the senior class.

5-3 or even 6-2 seem achievable in the reg season. HC doesn’t have significant tournament experience and they’re not terribly deep, so the league tourney, with multiple games in a short time period, will be a challenge. See what happens.

[HCBosfan]

Hey HCDC, the season is upon us. Kodzis, Spag and one freshman will be at Attack, frosh is very good. mid field you have some freshman who looked great this past fall and Waldron, Lynskey, Mullaney and Baker. They will be running two lines this year and have the guys to do it. Defense they have been playing Conlin at LSM. It is hard to replace some of last years defense, especially with Farrell gone. But they did look good this past fall. Bryant was not much of a scrimmage. Definite "cobwebs". OC and the freshman from Cali, look good at the dot this fall.

Saturdays game is no walk in the park and Merrimack is a good team and well coached. In fact there is really not many games that are a walk in the park. I think Loyola is beatable as well as Lehigh. It is going to come down to GB's and how tough they want to play. The offense is better than last year, because they are deeper. However going to miss Babiak, he was key last year. The team got big over the fall and the winter, however so did all the other teams.

looking forward to get this winter/spring sport going. I gave my predictions as us coming in 4th in the PL.

[kramerica.inc]

I think Loyola is beatable as well as Lehigh.

Quoted for posterity

[HCDC]

Conlin at LSM? Interesting.

Not expecting any game to be a walk in the park.

Also, to be clear, not predicting HC to finish first ... just noting that this is the first year ever that it seems like it’s even possible. Never before, entering a season, have I thought it was a realistic scenario. Lots will have to go right.

[HCBosfan]

I think Loyola is beatable as well as Lehigh.

Quoted for posterity

Well HC beat Lehigh last year and had a good game going with Loyola and was one goal behind late in the game. Put up 15 goals, not too bad.

[HCBosfan]

Well its a win. My thoughts were the Offense looked good but stalled in the 3rd quarter, seemed like they changed the offense. They spread around the scoring pretty well. Nice appearance from the freshman which was nice to see. Into the second quarter I thought we were going to hammer Merrimack. Merrimack did a good job holding the ball and using the clock,which cooled us down a bit i thought. Fogo OC went 64%, good start there.

Defense we need some work. To many shots that were not contested, that timing will take some practice. They also looked a bit tired, but that was the norm for most of the games I saw this weekend. Takes time to be in shape for games.

Overall, Merrimack was a decent team. Well coached offensively and made good adjustments into the second half. Their Defense was not overly impressive. We were 60% SOG, which I am not sure I have seen that percentage that high before. To Providence next weekend. Providence killed BU, BU look very bad and really is feeling the effects of losing so many good players from last year.

[Sllaxdad]

Looking past PC. Historically we do not play a consistent game against the Friars and it looks like last week was no different. Good outtakes to build upon. JT was spot on, the D is developing into a solid group with New and Conklin off to strong starts, FO team playing as expected. Too much talent and experience on the O side of the ball not to be positive going forward. Time to clip VT this Saturday. Go Saders.

[HCBosfan]

Agree with that. Also the Defense for Providence was much more aggressive than Merrimack and that is what the defense going forward will look like. I think the offense found out late how to handle it. I agree there are to many weapons on offense not to do well. The freshman definitely got a taste of a strong defense and they will be better this weekend. VT, is always tough. We played well in the second half against them last year, but like Providence we got to a slow start. I think that was the best outing we have had against Providence for a long time. only 6 goals was pretty impressive and the last one was during a press and empty net. Looking forward to the rest of the season.

[Sllaxdad]

Contributions from all units. Need to Cut down TOs on the clear jumps out. Looks like there was improvement from all for a nice W against a good team. Well done.

[isaacwright22]

Some highlights I tossed together..cold day for both teams.

[tech37]

Some highlights I tossed together..cold day for both teams.

great musical score

[DMac]

Sure is....geezuz h!

Meanwhile, those Catamounts have got the best fight song in the business.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc_kIAuDSsI

[isaacwright22]

Lol bunch of boomers in here I forgot

[HCBosfan]

Well another nail biter. The game was played in a cloud. Such crappy weather. A win nevertheless, we shouldn’t have let it get this close but our D looked a bit tired in the 4th. Tuesday games as we know can go either way. ULowell’s offense picked it up early and late.

[Sllaxdad]

Progress. We now have an alumni who is a professional lax player. 1st is school history. Matt Farrell. Great kid too!! Cannot be happier for him and hopefully the school makes a big splash.

https://laxallstars.com/2020-mll-supple ... t-results/

[Lenwood117]

Progress. We now have an alumni who is a professional lax player. 1st is school history. Matt Farrell. Great kid too!! Cannot be happier for him and hopefully the school makes a big splash.

https://laxallstars.com/2020-mll-supple ... t-results/

Awesome, good for him

[HCBosfan]

Total crap, two games in the PL and this. So sad for the seniors to go out this way. HC made so many improvements in its program because of the 2019's and the 2020's. They leave the program better than they found it. Good luck to the Seniors, hope a couple of them join Matt Farrell in the pro's. Good luck Coach Burke, you have done a great job with this program.

[laxknight]

https://goholycross.com/news/2020/4/1/m ... onors.aspx

Well deserved for Conlin. Taking into account that this is not an official list, it is still quite hard to remember the last time that HC has had an AA on their roster (if ever). O'Connell was very deserving to be on that list as well (finished 8th in the country at 66.2% FO). Can only wonder where this season could have went...felt like HC had a lot of the pieces necessary to be a contender in the PL.

With the NCAA granting an extra year of eligibility, any word on whether HC seniors would return for another year?