Landmark Conference 2024

[nevadajoe]

https://landmarkconference.org/news/202 ... rence.aspx

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR - Brennan Lorence - Susquehanna
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR - Colin Pierce - Scranton
COACHING STAFF OF THE YEAR - Susquehanna - Head Coach Stewart Moan
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR - Myles McCutcheon - Scranton

FIRST TEAM
ATTACK
Gavin Gismondi SR Elizabethtown
Matthew McAree SR Scranton
Brennan Lorence JR Susquehanna
MIDFIELD
Aaron Judge JR Moravian
Alex Eglitis SR Scranton
Kieran Thomas JR Susquehanna
DEFENSE
Joel Maragoto SR Elizabethtown
Colin Pierce GR Scranton
Aidan Kennedy JR Susquehanna
LSM
Ted Zaborowski SR Susquehanna
SSDM
Connor Stewart SR Elizabethtown
FACEOFF
Ryan Macksoud JR Catholic
GOALIE
Jozef Korpics SR Susquehanna

SECOND TEAM
ATTACK
Victor Rosado JR Catholic
Jacob Morgan SO Goucher
Trevor Dzama SR Moravian
MIDFIELD
Charlie Collins JR Drew
Alex Kilgour GR Elizabethtown
Joe Boyle SR Scranton
DEFENSE
Mike Tayloe JR Catholic
Sean Nolan SR Goucher
Jason Levy JR Moravian
LSM
Andrew Lord SR Scranton
Matt Baer SR Moravian
SSDM
Aden Moskovitz JR Moravian
FACEOFF
TJ Chapman SR Elizabethtown
GOALIE
Brayden Franey SR Elizabethtown

HONORBLE MENTION
ATTACK
Riley Langen GR Elizabethtown
Jack Gaillard JR Susquehanna
MIDFIELDERS
Brady McMahon SO Catholic
Tyler May JR Goucher
DEFENSEMEN
Zach Palinkas JR Scranton
GOALKEEPER
Ben Franco GR Lycoming
LSM
Ben Clark JR Elizabethtown
SSDM
Matt Giordano SR Drew
Kyle Bennett SR Scranton
Marshall Woodrosky JR Susquehanna
FACEOFF
GJ Nazziola SR Drew
Gannon Mesko JR Moravian

Some interesting results here. I wonder how pissed Langen is going to be going into these playoffs knowing he went from 1st team to honorable mention.

Tomorrow is going to be a fun day

My guess is that all he is interested in is helping his team win the championship and get the AQ.

Having said that, this is the first year that the All-Conference team has included an Honorable Mention list and I think that's a great idea. Most of the players selected by the coaches and missing for my first and second teams would have been included in my Honorable Mention list. It was a struggle for me to have just two teams, especially at attack and defense.

Next step is to think about who might be USILA All-Americans from the Landmark.

I think Lorrence, Pierce, Stewart and Korpics are deserving.

[LaxCrusader1]

Semi-Final Predictions...

The first round was pretty predictable and played out as I had imagined. Drew had more offense than i anticipated, the 16-5 prediction I gave ended up being 19-10, with the same margin. Idk if Scranton will like letting up 10 goals to a Drew team before seeing SU, but i think we'll get an exciting game either way.

Catholic handled Moravian with ease, and avenged their loss on Moravian's senior day with some balanced offense. Rosado went 3g/1a and the cardinals had 3 other players with 2 goals, and 4 more with 1 goal. Merchant was outstanding in cage with 15 saves to 5GA. This is a Catholic team that can cause some problems for any of the teams in the top-4. Now, it's all about whether or not they can play at this level somewhere other than D.C.

Semi #1: Scranton @ SU - With some great matches over the years, this one expects to be one of the biggest. Can Susquehanna avoid the need for another come from behind victory against a top-4 team? Will Scranton's defense hold them down on their quest to repeat, or, will Korpics be the hero yet again?

For now, I am going with my heart and the cinderella story. Give me the Hawks in another OT thriller by the reverse score as their previous matchup, 10-9.

Semi #2: Catholic @ Etown - Again, my heart wants Catholic to win this game because of how interesting it would make the rest of these playoff match ups. However, Etown is simply too dominant at home and I think the Cards will have some nerves going into this one on one day's rest. Still, a valiant effort will be put forward and the game will be competitive until some point in the 2nd half when a crucial transition goal will be made by Etown. Give me the Blue Jays, 14-8.

[nevadajoe]

Two great semi-final match-ups today.

At 4:00, Scranton is at Susquehanna. Scranton won the regular season game 10-9 on a Joe Boyle goal with just over a minute and a half left in the game. These are two teams with strong offenses and solid defenses. Offensive POY will be up against Defensive POY. It could come down to faceoffs and goaltending.

At 7:00, Catholic is at Elizabethtown. This is one of the fiercest rivalries in the Landmark. Elizabethtown used a six-goal fourth quarter to take a 14-9 win on April 17. They have met four times for the title since 2017 with Catholic winning three of those games. Elizabethtown has an explosive offense and a solid defense. Catholic needs a consistent game from both their defense and offense to challenge for the win.

[LaxCommish1981]

Update. SCRANTON rolling over Susquehanna.

8 to 0. 5 minutes left in 2nd. RIVER Hawks with only 5 shots.....

[laxdad30]

Update. SCRANTON rolling over Susquehanna.

8 to 0. 5 minutes left in 2nd. RIVER Hawks with only 5 shots.....

FINAL

Scranton 14
Susquehanna 4

[Fortunecookie]

My tea leaves didn’t predict this outcome In Susquehanna vs Scranton game.

Kyle Holmes the lefty was just on fire today, unreal.

Wowza.

It is ON with another Etown vs Scranton Championship.

Congratulations to all of the winners of accolades!

[nevadajoe]

Scranton came out with a solid game plan and totally dominated Susquehanna, racing out to a 10-0 halftime advantage which was impossible for the River Hawks to overcome and rolling on to a decisive 14-4 win. Scranton's defense was excellent, limiting Susquehanna to just 8 shots in the first half while accumulating 34 of their own to score those 10 goals. Kyle Holmes had a career best performance scoring 7 goals. Myles McCutcheon (2 G, 1 A), Joe Boyle ( 1 G, 2 A) and Matt McAree ( 1G, 1 A) led the Royals offense. Jason Kozak assisted on 3 goals. Colin Pierce, with 7 ground balls. and Zach Palinkas, with 3 caused turnovers and 3 ground balls, led the dominant performance by the defense. John O'Connor won the faceoff battle, winning 15 of 21 with 5 ground balls. Declan Allen had 7 saves to take the win.
Brennan Lorrence and Nick Remund had 2 goals each for Susquehanna. Jozef Korpics had 12 saves.

Catholic led 3-0 after the first quarter but Elizabethtown scored 7 goals, 5 by Gavin Gismondi, in the second quarter to open up a close game and go on to a 17-8 victory. Gismondi finished with a career-high 8 goals along with an assist for the Blue Jays. Riley Langen added a goal and 4 assists. Colin Kondracki and Reese Levinson had 2 goals and an assist each. Connor Stewart led a solid team defensive effort, causing 2 turnovers and grabbing 4 ground balls. TJ Chapman won the faceoff battle, taking 15 of 25 and picking up 10 ground balls Brayden Franey was outstanding in goal with 17 saves.

Scranton and Elizabethtown will meet in a rematch of last year's championship final, which was won by Scranton by a score of 13-12.

Elizabethtown will be looking for their 4th title, which would tie them with Catholic for the most Landmark titles. They won three straight in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Scranton has won two titles, in 2011 and last year.

[Lax99]

Kudos to Susquehanna on an amazing season. Being a second seed In these playoffs and having a 14-4 season is not what I expected at all from the River Hawks. One game does not define a season. Especially Coach Moan being a one man staff. Having Chris Ciccarello and Marc Manfredonia who will be back next year as well as many returners, I expect the River Hawks to be back in the playoffs. This team is one of the few teams that is not losing a lot of starters compared to Etown and Scranton. Rumors have it they have some big time transfers coming in this fall.

On the other hand, tomorrow's championship game includes the two finalists from last year's matchup. I think this is the year Etown finishes the job. They've been in the finals year after year having had significant leads but then falling apart going into the final minutes of games. I have Etown winning this. Those boys deserve it.

-Etown 12-4 for the win!

[nevadajoe]

Nevada Joe's All-Freshman Team

A - Myles McCutcheon - Scranton
Tristan Coleman - Elizabethtown
Nick Coffaro - Moravian
Austin Sosnovik - Wilkes

M - Reese Levinson - Elizabethtown
Cullen Lotz - Catholic
Rob McCullough - Susquehanna

D - Connor Cole - Scranton
Owen Peters - Wilkes

LSM - Ian McKinley - Catholic
Cole Smith - Goucher

SSDM - Evan Youndt - Elizabethtown
Mike Rowinski - Susquehanna

FO - Ronan Miller - Scranton

G - Tyler Merchant - Catholic
Jack Smith - Goucher
Joe Barnish - Drew
Liam Kelly - Moravian

[nevadajoe]

Championship Saturday will pit Elizabethtown against Scranton in a rematch of last year's championship game which was a nail-biter won by Scranton 13-12. Elizabethtown won the regular season match-up easily, running out to a 5-0 first quarter lead and winning by a score of 14-5.

Elizabethtown - They are at home and have been very good at home, undefeated in conference play and 7-2 overall, with those two losses coming against Washington College and Swarthmore in the first two games of the year.They are in their 6th straight championship game, meaning every upperclassman on the team has the experience of playing in or being at in the finals. The Blue Jays have a balanced offense, led by Gavin Gismondi, Riley Langen, Colin Kondracki and Alex Kilgour. The offense is always moving and is looking for that next pass. They led the conference with 84 assists in their nine conference games, an average of 9.33 on their conference leading 17.67 goals per game. They have a solid defense, led by Joel Maragoto, Ben Clark and SSDM Connor Stewart, who can change the flow of a game in the midfield. TJ Chapman can dominate a game at face-off and Brayden Franey is an experienced and big-game goalie.

Scranton - The Royals offense is also very balanced and has gotten some big late-year contributions across the entire roster. Matt McAree, Kyle Holmes, Myles McCutcheon, Alex Eglitis and Joe Boyle have all stepped up for the offense. Scranton's defense is probably the best overall in the conference with Colin Pierce, Zach Palinkas, Andrew Lord and Kyle Bennett leading the way. Declan Allen is a solid goalie. Scranton surrendered just 66 goals in its nine conference games, just over 7 per game. John O'Connor has continually improved at faceoff and has been helped by some outstanding wing play.

Elizabethtown will win if they can play good team defense against the balanced Scranton offense, especially focusing on Holmes and McCutcheon. They will need to control the faceoff. They will need to get out to an early lead and then control the pace of the game on offense. They will need to limit their man-down opportunities. They will need an excellent game from their goalie.

Scranton will win if they can be patient on offense and really look for and take high percentage shots. They will need to keep the faceoffs at 50%. They will need to neutralize Gismondi as a shooter and Langen as a feeder on defense. They will need to either take an early lead or keep the game close. Their goalie will need to play at his highest level.

Looking forward to an outstanding and exciting end to this 2024 Landmark season.

[nevadajoe]

A rather interesting final championship game as Scranton took control early in the game, led 7-3 at halftime, shut out the Elizabethtown offense in the third quarter and won the Landmark championship by a score of 17-6. Scranton did exactly what they needed to do, moving the ball and taking high percentage shots on offense, playing excellent team defense to stifle the Elizabethtown offense, keeping the faceoffs over 50% and getting an outstanding game from their goalie, Declan Allen, who had 10 saves. The Royals took advantage of Elizabethtown penalties, scoring 3 goals on 5 man-up opportunities.
Myles McCutcheon could not be stopped on offense, especially dodging from behind the cage. He scored 6 goals on just 8 shot attempts. Joe Boyle had 3 goals and 3 assists. Kyle Holmes had 3 goals. Jason Kozak had 2 goals and 2 assists. The Royals defense was exceptional. Andrew Lord, Colin Pierce and Dom Gubitosi each had 2 caused turnovers. Lord had 4 ground balls and Pierce added 2 of his own. John O'Connor did his job at faceoff, winning 14 of 26 (54%) with 6 ground balls.

For Elizabethtown, Gavin Gismondi and Colin Kondracki had 2 goals each with Gismondi adding an assist. Elizabethtown, who had defeated Scranton 14-5 in their regular season game with Scranton, finishes their season with an 11-7 record.

[Tightyrighty]

Jeez, this E-town coach just can’t get over the hump. I mean you inherit a 3-peat championship team and then go to the finals for 4 straight years and aside from last year, has gotten their doors beaten off. Idk man, not a great look. I understand it’s weird to get mad at a coach for going to the chip game 4/4 times but I mean even blind squirrels get nuts once right?

[Leonard Washington]

Jeez, this E-town coach just can’t get over the hump. I mean you inherit a 3-peat championship team and then go to the finals for 4 straight years and aside from last year, has gotten their doors beaten off. Idk man, not a great look. I understand it’s weird to get mad at a coach for going to the chip game 4/4 times but I mean even blind squirrels get nuts once right?

You're kidding right?

Anyway, great win for Scranton and glad to see they rebounded from the regular season loss against E'town. Big fan of Riley Langen

[Tightyrighty]

Uhh no… going 0/4 with 3 of those losses being 16-8,16-8 and 17-6 when you play competitive games in the regular season deserves criticism. Say what you want but that’s the cold hard truth. And the game that they lost by 1 last year Mcguire called a last second timeout when they scored to what would have been the tying goal in the closing seconds. Just calling it how I see it Leonard. Are you kidding?

[ReturnOfTheWAC]

Uhh no… going 0/4 with 3 of those losses being 16-8,16-8 and 17-6 when you play competitive games in the regular season deserves criticism. Say what you want but that’s the cold hard truth. And the game that they lost by 1 last year Mcguire called a last second timeout when they scored to what would have been the tying goal in the closing seconds. Just calling it how I see it Leonard. Are you kidding?

Don’t agree with this take new coach has done good job

[Bananas4Laxx]

Uhh no… going 0/4 with 3 of those losses being 16-8,16-8 and 17-6 when you play competitive games in the regular season deserves criticism. Say what you want but that’s the cold hard truth. And the game that they lost by 1 last year Mcguire called a last second timeout when they scored to what would have been the tying goal in the closing seconds. Just calling it how I see it Leonard. Are you kidding?

I think this is the accurate take. Has gotten out coached four years in a row. Coach P arguably out coached every team 4 years in a row. In three of those games the Etown team was clearly not ready to play and also out game planned

[Bots Tavern]

Congrats to Scranton on a phenomenal playoff run. In both games, they stayed out of the penalty box, executed on their opponents mistakes, and played great defense. Right when their opponents got a glimpse of gaining momentum, they made a play to stop it. Think their SSDMs really deserve some love.

Scranton coach deserves a ton of credit too. Their offense is objectively gorgeous with the high sweeps coupled with vacating/replacing the crease.

I’d imagine that Colin Pierce will get HMAA, he is phenomenal. Would hope Korpics gets it but unfortunately being in the Landmark, it can be hard to get votes without winning the conference. Same goes for Lorrence, Stewart, Condraki, and Rosato.

Lastly, has the Landmark gotten weaker vs. COVID era? I think the 2021 and 2022 Catholic teams would run circles around the current conference.

[nevadajoe]

Congrats to Scranton on their third Landmark championship.

Looks like they will get either Dickinson or Swarthmore in the first round.

[Laxguy92]

Congrats to Scranton on a phenomenal playoff run. In both games, they stayed out of the penalty box, executed on their opponents mistakes, and played great defense. Right when their opponents got a glimpse of gaining momentum, they made a play to stop it. Think their SSDMs really deserve some love.

Scranton coach deserves a ton of credit too. Their offense is objectively gorgeous with the high sweeps coupled with vacating/replacing the crease.

I’d imagine that Colin Pierce will get HMAA, he is phenomenal. Would hope Korpics gets it but unfortunately being in the Landmark, it can be hard to get votes without winning the conference. Same goes for Lorrence, Stewart, Condraki, and Rosato.

Lastly, has the Landmark gotten weaker vs. COVID era? I think the 2021 and 2022 Catholic teams would run circles around the current conference.

Made an account just to comment and say I’m a landmark 2016 alum who’s been following since 2010. Conference has its ups and downs, but I think the last 2 years the teams have been noticeably worse and less competitive across the entire landscape of talented d3 teams compared to years prior. Not just Catholic, but the Elizabethtown, Scranton, and Moravian were more competitive and talented top to bottom in my opinion. I enjoyed seeing the rise of the Riverhawks again this year, but outside of them, I don't think any other programs (even Scranton despite winning 2 in a row because the rest of the teams are bad and they have 5-6 guys that are actually good) in the landmark conference has been trending in the right direction in terms of talent and being competitive against the top teams in d3.

With that being said, I think those 2021 and 2022 Catholic teams would dominate the current conference but are also probably the best team this conference has seen since the first Goucher Hannan go around.

[Laxguy92]

Congrats to Scranton on a phenomenal playoff run. In both games, they stayed out of the penalty box, executed on their opponents mistakes, and played great defense. Right when their opponents got a glimpse of gaining momentum, they made a play to stop it. Think their SSDMs really deserve some love.

Scranton coach deserves a ton of credit too. Their offense is objectively gorgeous with the high sweeps coupled with vacating/replacing the crease.

I’d imagine that Colin Pierce will get HMAA, he is phenomenal. Would hope Korpics gets it but unfortunately being in the Landmark, it can be hard to get votes without winning the conference. Same goes for Lorrence, Stewart, Condraki, and Rosato.

Lastly, has the Landmark gotten weaker vs. COVID era? I think the 2021 and 2022 Catholic teams would run circles around the current conference.

Made an account just to comment and say I’m a landmark 2016 alum who’s been following since 2010. Conference has its ups and downs, but I think the last 2 years the teams have been noticeably worse and less competitive across the entire landscape of talented d3 teams compared to years prior. Not just Catholic, but the Elizabethtown, Scranton, and Moravian were more competitive and talented top to bottom in my opinion. I enjoyed seeing the rise of the Riverhawks again this year, but outside of them, I don't think any other programs (even Scranton despite winning 2 in a row because the rest of the teams are bad and they have 5-6 guys that are actually good) in the landmark conference has been trending in the right direction in terms of talent and being competitive against the top teams in d3.

With that being said, I think those 2021 and 2022 Catholic teams would dominate the current conference but are also probably the best team this conference has seen since the first Goucher Hannan go around.

Also Colin Pierce is a great player, definitely will be HMAA but I hope he lands on a team. Not saying teams don’t have good players still, just overall the teams look worse to me.