Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens 2020

[faircornell]

I've seen some posts on social media with goalie's suggesting altered ball colors for added contrast. While I'm not sure that this is the correct thread or circumstance to bring it up, it's an interesting idea.

Deluca is an extremely good goalie. I'm sure he'll bounce back.

As a goalie son, player and dad, it would be nice to have "added contrast" but I'm not so sure anyone other than us tenders is really interested in anything reducing scoring through increased goalie saves %. Unless it's a snow day and the teams agree to play with an orange ball, if only to find it, there's always going to be an issue in some way with backgrounds and ball color.

Well said, MD! I'd not looked at the issue from that perspective before.

[stupefied]

I've seen some posts on social media with goalie's suggesting altered ball colors for added contrast. While I'm not sure that this is the correct thread or circumstance to bring it up, it's an interesting idea.

Deluca is an extremely good goalie. I'm sure he'll bounce back.

As a goalie son, player and dad, it would be nice to have "added contrast" but I'm not so sure anyone other than us tenders is really interested in anything reducing scoring through increased goalie saves %. Unless it's a snow day and the teams agree to play with an orange ball, if only to find it, there's always going to be an issue in some way with backgrounds and ball color.

Well said, MD! I'd not looked at the issue from that perspective before.

If the goalie can see the ball better so can the players who have to catch it. Be good for fans. Im all for it

[MDlaxfan76]

I've seen some posts on social media with goalie's suggesting altered ball colors for added contrast. While I'm not sure that this is the correct thread or circumstance to bring it up, it's an interesting idea.

Deluca is an extremely good goalie. I'm sure he'll bounce back.

As a goalie son, player and dad, it would be nice to have "added contrast" but I'm not so sure anyone other than us tenders is really interested in anything reducing scoring through increased goalie saves %. Unless it's a snow day and the teams agree to play with an orange ball, if only to find it, there's always going to be an issue in some way with backgrounds and ball color.

Well said, MD! I'd not looked at the issue from that perspective before.

If the goalie can see the ball better so can the players who have to catch it. Be good for fans. Im all for it

Well, sure, but do we think guys are actually having trouble catching the ball?
I don't.

Goalies of course face a much bigger challenge than just 'catching' the ball, though that's always my advice to calm tenders down when I'm training them. It's quite effective to 'just catch the ball' and let everything else flow from there.

But again, I don't think there's any serious issue for goalies anyone (other than some goalies) actually wants to solve (other than when there's snow).

[Henpecked]

Nice bounce-back win for the Hens!

A couple things to note. UD scrapped for this win. Make no mistakes about it. Keegan Wilkinson has built a very good program at Marist and it’s not hard to see how these guys curb stomped Army a couple weeks back. Tierney is a killer and Pirreca can rake from anywhere.

For the Hens it was great to see Bryce Reid back to being Bryce Reid. He was superb on the inverts, made great passes and most importantly, put three behind Macgregor.

Charlie Kitchen, Mike Robinson and Tye Kurtz let the game come to them at attack. Only a few forced possessions but overall great, smart effort by the attack unit.

The best move Coach DeLuca made was getting Mark Bieda back in action. Mark is a great passer and was very effective at quarterbacking the offense from X his freshman year when Romognoli was let go. He took a backseat last year with the arrival of Tye Kurtz. DeLuca was smart to insert him in the game at midfield where some of the young guys were struggling. While he only had one goal, he set up countless scoring chances throughout the second half. He’s got a great lacrosse IQ and can really feed the crease. Plus he’s put on some size since freshman year. Great to see him get more playing time.

Defense was good but not great. They seem to be adjusting to the new starting lineup. McCormick struggled early but put on a clearing clinic late that led to his first career goal and an assist on fellow long pole, Owen Grant’s goal(second of the year).

9 days off till the Hopkins St. Patrick’s night game in Newark. I’m so sick of losing to the Jays. Hopefully this is the year? See you a week from Tuesday at the Tub. Can’t wait.

[redfoxalum]

I was very impressed with Coach DeLuca and Delaware on Saturday. Delaware makes far more in-game adjustments than most teams, especially in non conference. Going to a zone after giving up a couple of goals off cuts while in man proved to be very effective until late in the 4th quarter. Shutting off certain middies in man was also an interesting wrinkle. They also found a lot of success on inverts and stuck with it when most teams would be tempted to just let Kitchen operate from X. Even mundane details like how loudly on the broadcast you could hear the bench echo calls or give positive reinforcement to GK DeLuca coming off an uncharacteristically bad game vs. Nova was impressive.

I'll be interested to see their game plan vs. Hopkins, my guess would be they open in zone or go to it quickly if JHU scores a few early, maybe have 2 poles on the wings if faceoffs aren't going well. The CAA should be fun this year with Delaware, UMass, and Hofstra.

[Henpecked]

Been awhile since anyone posted here. Seemed like the offense was just starting to click at Marist that Saturday afternoon, that seems so LONG ago.

I think it is way too premature to begin thinking about 2021. But it will be interesting to see who will be returning and who will be moving on. From a purely numbers position, the Hens are not going to be in a terrible spot next year relative to other programs. This years team was made up of 44 players; 10 freshman, 14 sophs, 8 juniors, 8 seniors and 4 grad students. They have 11 recruits coming in next year. Assuming all of the Grad students are moving on (that is a big assumption) and every senior decides to stay for an extra year, the roster would still be a manageable 51 players.

Now this is where I go out on a slippery slope and start hypothesizing about what this team will look like next year, without any real knowledge.

I don't know for sure, but I don't believe that any of the grad students will extend their time at UD for a sixth year. That means we have seen the last of Thomas Aloe (moving on to Rutgers Dental school) and Jake Hervada (although injured the last two seasons, finished his Hen career with 305 faceoff wins and a solid .496 winning percentage going against some of the best in the country year after year - Alex Woodall, Kyle Gallagher, Noah Rak, Will Fox and Jimmeh Koita). Fellow grad students Stephen Hirschmann and Steven Tortora, who both scored memorable first career goals last year, will also be leaving in all probability.

As far as the 8 seniors on the team, can't say for sure any of them will return. There is a price to pay for grad school and perhaps that is not a viable option for any of these guys. The University will also need to pick up the cost for the existing grant and aid for these students (but will not go against the scholarship count) from what I have read. It would be great if Coach DeLuca could convince Matt DeLuca, Charlie Kitchen, Bryce Reid, Ryan Shaw and Zach Strassner to give it another run. I would not expect Drew Silvera, Cole Baker and Connor Sorg to return based on the limited playing time each saw over the past year. Again, that is not something I know. Just pure conjecture.

So if we make the assumption that everyone from the incoming class decides to move forward at UD, and all of the freshman, sophs, juniors, and 5 seniors return, the Hens roster would be 47 players. Given that number, I am not sure that the senior returning eligibility impacts the Hens that much with regard to locker room size, bus travel and overall roster size. I am sure that their will be the normal attrition as well based on recurring injuries and lack of playing time for returning players. The good news is, this year's freshman and sophomore class were two of the best in recent years for the Hens. That means we will be seeing a lot more of Sophs Tye Kurtz, Owen Grant, Kevin McCormick, Jason Seider, George Ward, Kyle Kivinski, Clay Miller and Jake Govett as well as talented freshmen Michael Robinson, Rich Dion, Harrison Ewing, Jake DeMare and Tate Wasson who all played a ton this past year. There are also some talented players from those recruiting classes who have been injured in the wings.

I am always pretty positive about this team, so I think the Hens will be very talented next year, assuming we are all still around to see it. Stay home, stay healthy. Hopefully, see some of you this fall down in Newark.

[Henpecked]

Two quick things:

1. In DeLuca's Hens Now webcast last night he mentioned that Jake Hervada will be joining Charlie Kitchen and Ryan Shaw back in Newark next year. So that's very good news. He was .500 at FOGO this year and nobody else on the team was close to that. No word on Matt DeLuca, but based on the Coach DeLuca's comments he most likely has a job lined up and will be moving along.

2. Dave Pietramala's replacement better remember that they owe us a game in Newark next year.

Stay safe people. Hopefully be back in Newark for fall ball games.

[McGriff]

Now the M. DeLuca has announced he's not returning, does Coach DeLuca hang his hat on Kilkeary and Ripperger in cage or does he actively pursue a transfer with so many GK in portal? Can one of those two on roster be counted on to start at this point of their careers? Have to believe as dominant as M. DeLuca has been and as many minutes as he's played, there's not much to go off of for these other two maybe than fall ball and pre-season games? What are Hens fans thoughts here? DeLuca leaves a massive hole to fill in cage.

Now that I think about it, isn't there also a fairly highly rated GK recruit committed out of Loyola/MD coming in the fall to Newark? Could he or another true freshman GK be an answer here possibly?

[Henpecked]

Kilreary is a very talented goalie. He’s looked good in the fall against Syracuse in 2018 and in scrimmages versus Navy and Denver. Teammates seem to love the guy. Be nice to see him get a chance his senior year.

Two talented goalies coming in next year. All-MIAA first team from Loyola Blakefield, Kevin Ellington and Tim Beach from Colorado (coached by Trevor Tierney). Both are significantly smaller than the DeLuca. Hopefully, they can adapt to D1 lacrosse after missing their senior years.

[Henpecked]

Nice pick up in the transfer portal. Looks like Rutgers redshirt Frosh Demetrius Stevenson is coming home to Delaware. The 6’ 2” 225 lb middie from Dover DE fills a need with Bryce Reid graduating.

Now get Culver alum Michael Robinson to convince his former teammate and fellow Canadian, Austin Madronic to jump on board. He had a great 1.5 years at Harvard. Be a long shot but you never know.

[MDlaxfan76]

Nice pick up in the transfer portal. Looks like Rutgers redshirt Frosh Demetrius Stevenson is coming home to Delaware. The 6’ 2” 225 lb middie from Dover DE fills a need with Bryce Reid graduating.

Now get Culver alum Michael Robinson to convince his former teammate and fellow Canadian, Austin Madronic to jump on board. He had a great 1.5 years at Harvard. Be a long shot but you never know.

Did he flunk out of Harvard?
Off field scandal?

Missed that news.

[Henpecked]

He is not going anywhere. That was just my lame attempt at a joke since he is in the transfer portal.

[xxxxxxx]

Jake Hervada named Arthur Ashe Award Scholar Sport Winner

https://bluehens.com/news/2020/4/27/men ... inner.aspx

[Henpecked]

Time to turn the page to 2021.

It will be interesting to see if DeLuca can attract any more transfers this offseason. The future looks really good for the Hens who had predominantly freshman and sophs starting this year. The strengths of the team are definitely at attack and defense. The attack of Kitchen, Robinson and Kurtz is the best attack group in the CAA. All three of these guys have the potential to put up 40 goals next year. The starting close defense of Kevin McCormick (soph), Tate Wasson (freshman) and Owen Grant (soph) is maybe the best in the CAA and will hopefully be around for another three years. The SSDMs are really athletic group consisting of Reed Kurtz (fresh), Jason Seiter (soph), Harrison Ewing (Freshman) and Peter St. Geme (Junior). Maryland transfer Wade Oursler missed this season with an injury but is also big and athletic.

The Rutgers transfer Demetrius Stevenson (6' 2" 230lb) fills a real need at offensive midfield. He is a huge guy with a big shot. The existing midfield is made up of converted attackman who are more comfortable inverting and taking a shorty from X (Clay Miller, George Ward, Mark Beida). I would think that the coach would be looking for another offensive midfield if they can find one. Two Freshman coming in might fill that role as well (Garrett Snyder and Jon Osmun).

I would expect the coaches to look for an FOGO to back up Jake Hervada should he return next year. The Hens have really struggled in recent years when Hervada got hurt. Not sure they have an answer on the bench.

I am hoping that the universities get back to business in September. If not, I think a lot of this talk is pointless. We shall see.

[10stone5]

Grant Jr.
New OC at Johns Hopkins