Landmark Conference 2023

[beachbum1334]

Would love to see some OOC matchups like Landmark v NESCAC in the regular season. Think those would be good matchups. Also would like to see some of the mid tier landmark teams test their luck against ranked opponents. curious to see if the mid tiers like Moravian and susqy can take the next step put up a decent fight against ranked opponents. Keep the schedules coming! Excited for the spring slate.

[Tightyrighty]

Sadly don’t think we’ll ever see it unless they do something like the Mustang Classic or the NCAA tournament where travel is paid for. We’re talking about schools having a ton of travel to meet even if it was a neutral site.. Additionally, I think MORO and susq would get smoked by any real ranked team. Look at Catholic who was ranked 20/19 and see how they did against them. I think they’re too far from doing that kinda stuff and it starts with recruiting and getting better kids. I wonder what the science is behind recruiting kids? Like how did Catholic go from not making their conference playoff a year after winning it then 4 years later you see them go back to back and be ranked? Just wonder how coaches do it and how they get solid kids for their programs

[Laxdds]

Catholic is playing at Gettysburg 3/22. I'm looking forward to it should be a good OOC game for both.
Go Bullets!

[River Donkey]

Ok, so we are saying the top 3 in the Landmark can beat the last team in the NESCAC?? No argument here, but is that something to be proud of?

"I think Catholic and Etown and even Scranton handle teams in the bottom half of the NESCAC (Bates, Conn, Colby, Hamilton, and give games to Middlebury and Williams)". Read the whole post, just throwing Bates out there since we were on that topic. Saying that the Landmark teams have no shot at NESCAC teams as you previously mentioned, River Donkey, is just wrong.

Bates and Colby I’ll give you and Bates is only temporary.
But Hamilton is very good, much better then you think. Conn College I give a slight edge to also. We are entitled to our opinions but I am not wrong at all I’m saying Landmark can’t compete with NESCAC. And I think the majority of the country and NCAA selection committees agree with me. When the Landmark champ is no longer relegated to a NCAA play in game maybe we can talk. But your claims of parity even in the top three vs bottom 3 are way off.

[River Donkey]

Would love to see some OOC matchups like Landmark v NESCAC in the regular season. Think those would be good matchups. Also would like to see some of the mid tier landmark teams test their luck against ranked opponents. curious to see if the mid tiers like Moravian and susqy can take the next step put up a decent fight against ranked opponents. Keep the schedules coming! Excited for the spring slate.

Toughest thing with this would be getting a NESCAC team to schedule a Landmark team. Issue is NESCAC teams would have to much to lose and nothing to gain in the matchup. The Landmark is a solid mid tier D3 conference but still a long way off from competing with Centennial let alone NESCAC, or Liberty.
Sax has done a great job and tremendously improved Catholic and forced the rest of the conference to up their games. That being said, how long does Sax stay at Catholic??

[DeepPocket]

I’m of the thought that if you have to remind people that you’re elite… well, you know the rest.

… Landmark can’t compete with NESCAC…

… NESCAC teams would have to much to lose and nothing to gain in the matchup…

Following the logic that the Landmark “can’t compete,” with them, then the NESCAC teams have nothing at all “to lose” by scheduling them…

Perhaps it’s actually in the lower NESCAC’s interest to schedule the likes of upper tier Landmarks, so as to remind everyone just how elite they are...

[BigFella]

Love the January optimism but there isn’t a kid on Etowns roster that was recruited by a Nescac and riding Last years second place finish to catholic probably isn’t it considering they got doubled up in the championship. Etown had one close loss to a top 20 team early season while losing handily in the others, not sure that translates to them beating half the nescac. The reason most of the Nescacs don’t finish ranked is because it’s the best conference by far and cannibalizes itself every year.

Catholic team is different this year, we’ll see what happens. This is etown and scrantons year to catch them.

[LI_Lax14]

I am still not sold on Mcguire. He had success early but those were Perzinksi's team and they still fell short of winning it all. As most of his recruits start to filter in can they maintain their presence as one of the top teams. I think if anyone has a shot to challenge Catholic this year its Scranton.

[InsiderRoll]

I am still not sold on Mcguire. He had success early but those were Perzinksi's team and they still fell short of winning it all. As most of his recruits start to filter in can they maintain their presence as one of the top teams. I think if anyone has a shot to challenge Catholic this year its Scranton.

It certainly is Catholics league to lose, but what is coming back that has you so optimistic? They graduate their top 6 scorers and league defensive player of the year, starting face off guy. All of this leads to them only returning 26.7% of last years points, that is probably among the lowest in the country. Are any of them coming back for 5th/6th years? Are there transfers? They seem to have plenty to prove, whereas last year it was obvious they were the clear and away favorites, and they delivered on that expectation.

[InsiderRoll]

I am still not sold on Mcguire. He had success early but those were Perzinksi's team and they still fell short of winning it all. As most of his recruits start to filter in can they maintain their presence as one of the top teams. I think if anyone has a shot to challenge Catholic this year its Scranton.

It certainly is Catholics league to lose, but what is coming back that has you so optimistic? They graduate their top 6 scorers and league defensive player of the year, starting face off guy. All of this leads to them only returning 26.7% of last years points, that is probably among the lowest in the country. Their only returning starters appear to be the goalie, 3rd defenseman, and 2nd SSDM. Everyone else seems to be gone. Are any of them coming back for 5th/6th years? Are there transfers? They seem to have plenty to prove, whereas last year it was obvious they were the clear and away favorites, and they delivered on that expectation.

[ReturnOfTheWAC]

I am still not sold on Mcguire. He had success early but those were Perzinksi's team and they still fell short of winning it all. As most of his recruits start to filter in can they maintain their presence as one of the top teams. I think if anyone has a shot to challenge Catholic this year its Scranton.

It certainly is Catholics league to lose, but what is coming back that has you so optimistic? They graduate their top 6 scorers and league defensive player of the year, starting face off guy. All of this leads to them only returning 26.7% of last years points, that is probably among the lowest in the country. Their only returning starters appear to be the goalie, 3rd defenseman, and 2nd SSDM. Everyone else seems to be gone. Are any of them coming back for 5th/6th years? Are there transfers? They seem to have plenty to prove, whereas last year it was obvious they were the clear and away favorites, and they delivered on that expectation.

And on top of that is their coach actually a budding star? Catholic has been a sleeping giant for years and under achieved, the last two years have been great but a win over W&L really does not tell me they have arrived and I think this is a prove it year for their coach and program is for real to me.Their schedule is clearly built to prove it and I give them credit. Lets see what they are about

[LI_Lax14]

As far as I am concerned as the 2x defending champ Catholic is the team to beat until someone knocks them off. I couldn't agree more that this is the year that Coach Sax really shows what he is capable of doing. Catholic has lost a ton of talent but there were a lot of young guys that got some time with injuries last year that showed promise. They also return the best goalie in the conference who is battle tested. Catholic has also benefited over the years from the transfer portal so I have to imagine they have at least 1-2 quality transfers that we are all not aware of that can make an impact.

[Skeetshooter]

Top players at each position this season?

[laxdad30]

I'd love to offer my opinion, but I'm a bit biased... lol

[LI_Lax14]

G- Pezone Catholic
D- Pierce Scranton
LSM- Burke Drew
DM- Stein Catholic
FO- ??? All the good ones graduated and there isn't a returner worth mentioning
M- Crapanzano Scranton
A- Kozak Scranton

[DeepPocket]

G- Pezone Catholic
D- Pierce Scranton
LSM- Burke Drew
DM- Stein Catholic
FO- ??? All the good ones graduated and there isn't a returner worth mentioning
M- Crapanzano Scranton
A- Kozak Scranton

Keep an eye on FO Nazziola from Drew. Got smoked by Etown (where he gave up considerable size to Gilbert) but was over 50% vs Catholic’s McShea. If he can bulk up he might be the guy.

[nevadajoe]

G- Pezone Catholic
D- Pierce Scranton
LSM- Burke Drew
DM- Stein Catholic
FO- ??? All the good ones graduated and there isn't a returner worth mentioning
M- Crapanzano Scranton
A- Kozak Scranton


Are Pezone and Stein returning for a 5th year?

[LI_Lax14]

G- Pezone Catholic
D- Pierce Scranton
LSM- Burke Drew
DM- Stein Catholic
FO- ??? All the good ones graduated and there isn't a returner worth mentioning
M- Crapanzano Scranton
A- Kozak Scranton


Are Pezone and Stein returning for a 5th year?

Pezone is a natural senior and Stein is back for 5th year.

[LI_Lax14]

As 2023 schedules are rolling out, I have to admit that Catholic and Scranton clearly have the most challenging non-conference schedule. Two teams that are clearly prepping for the post season.

[PenaltyB0x]

G- Pezone Catholic
D- Pierce Scranton
LSM- Burke Drew
DM- Stein Catholic
FO- ??? All the good ones graduated and there isn't a returner worth mentioning
M- Crapanzano Scranton
A- Kozak Scranton

Keep an eye on FO Nazziola from Drew. Got smoked by Etown (where he gave up considerable size to Gilbert) but was over 50% vs Catholic’s McShea. If he can bulk up he might be the guy.

LI-Lax14 i think you were spot on. As for the FO race I think there's 3 names that should be considered now that McShea and Gilbert are gone.

1: Ryan Prum - Susquehanna: He's been a multi year starter and has a lot of game experience. He's done well against an easy out of conference schedule. As for Landmark play, he really struggled against McShea, but handled Catholic's backups in the semi final game. He also hung in the fight going 48% against Gilbert. Prum also had a solid day against Drews FO guy last year as well. Keep an eye out for him, he's my preseason #1.

2: GJ Nazziola - Drew: Took on Drew's #1 FO role last year, and excelled. Yes, Drew has a really weak out of conference schedule, but he still put up good stats and continued it into the majority of Landmark games. Nazziola actually went 4/11 against Catholic's McShea last year, but he handled Catholic's backups no problem. He also really struggled against Gilbert, where he had his worst game of the year statistically. Nazziola also went under 50% against Susquehanna's Prum, which is why he's my second pick.

3: Ryan Macksoud/Cooper Dicicco - Catholic: With McShea gone, I'm not sure who will win the starting spot. I wouldn't be surprised if we will see a combination of both to start the year. Macksoud saw the greater number of reps last year, but Diccico is the upperclassman. Very interested to see one of them scrap it out for a starting spot and how they match up against a tough out of conference schedule and even conference play where the two struggled a bit. I have them at 3 purely because Catholic has won two years in a row without losing a conference game, you have to believe their talent is strong even if they didn't play in the past.

Side note. Damn. Didnt know Stein was coming back for another year. He has proved to be one of the best *if not the best* D mids in the conference for the past two years.