Harvard 2019

[MDlaxfan76]

Harvard announced their freshmen:

https://www.gocrimson.com/sports/mlax/2 ... 0827jsoh5n

[faircornell]

Very powerful line-up! Cheek, Dawson, Hobbes, Loring & Madronic all seem to have the capability to see the Crimson "reload" quickly on offense.

[MDlaxfan76]

Very powerful line-up! Cheek, Dawson, Hobbes, Loring & Madronic all seem to have the capability to see the Crimson "reload" quickly on offense.

My sense is that's quite correct on O (tons of talent, with Anderson and Graff as junior A leaders), but recruiting of defense may have suffered for a couple of years in the '16-'17 timeframe. So I'd think that will continue to be a challenge in the near term, with Butler a senior in '19 as the leader, Tangredi should be strong as a sophomore. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the net. 4 different All-Ivy goalies in a row and the last having played nearly every minute of the past two seasons. They return 2 sophomores and have a freshman coming in. So that'll be all new and untested.

However, if I'm not mistaken, there were more recruits previously announced on LP etc than the list posted. That's because of an egregious incident on campus on a visit as HS seniors early last spring that resulted in a need to quietly find a new destination.

As a result there are 9 entering freshmen, with 15 graduating seniors in '18.

[ctbagataway]

Some things don't change. This thread is as moribund as it was on laxpower.

Anyone catch the ND scrimmage on Saturday? Heard it was fairly competitive, but would love to hear from anyone who was there.

[MDlaxfan76]

Some things don't change. This thread is as moribund as it was on laxpower.

Anyone catch the ND scrimmage on Saturday? Heard it was fairly competitive, but would love to hear from anyone who was there.

Still crickets.
Hope some HU fans eventually find their way onto the site and share a bit about the fall season, roster, coaching, etc.

My son is working in Shanghai, with girlfriend, but they did make it back for a week last month. A couple of his lax buddies made it to a last minute surprise 25th B-day and it was fun catching up them.

One of them, Jake Scott, is now teaching upper school English and coaching at my son's alma mater, Gilman, in a special 2 year teaching fellowship program. Jake's going to be coaching the offense for the varsity team this spring and I suspect he'll be terrific.

While my son had previously been working for the same company's HQ in New Zealand (Crimson Education), he had hooked up with the New Zealand Men's National Lacrosse Team as an assistant coach, initially to work with the goalies but quickly asked to run the defense entirely. When he moved to Shanghai they asked him, nevertheless, to join the team in Israel for the World Games last July, which he had a blast doing.

He's actually picked up a stick in Shanghai's small club lacrosse scene, though he's playing midfield instead of in the net. Having fun once a week, scoring a lot of goals and leading the team in assists. At 6'1", he has a significant size advantage over the mostly Chinese-American players or Chinese who'd played club in college in America. Handful of other non-Chinese expats like him, and even some native Chinese youngsters learning the game. Most importantly, meeting folks outside the work circle. Fun.

[admin]

Joey Graham. he's not Joey Epstein but a talented Landon kid. Started as a sophomore through senior year. Nice player from behind the cage.

[dch92]

Joey Graham Sophomore Year Spring/Summer Lacrosse Highlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaCM4tX88zc

[wahoomurf]

I watched St, Anthony's play Cardinal Hayes in a CHSAA playoff game last night. It was rainy and cold. Greg Campisi the St. A's QB and a Harvard lacrosse commit was phenomenal. Rarely does Long Island produce big time college FB talent. That written,I haven't a clue if he'll try to play FB. But I believe he could. I can guarantee Campisi is going to be a welcome addition to the HU lacrosse team.Trevor Yeboah-Kodie, another Long Island kid and D-1 FB prospect, has decided to play lacrosse only for Bruno. His Mom is chuffed that Trevor chose lacrosse over FB.

[MDlaxfan76]

I watched St, Anthony's play Cardinal Hayes in a CHSAA playoff game last night. It was rainy and cold. Greg Campisi the St. A's QB and a Harvard lacrosse commit was phenomenal. Rarely does Long Island produce big time college FB talent. That written,I haven't a clue if he'll try to play FB. But I believe he could. I can guarantee Campisi is going to be a welcome addition to the HU lacrosse team. However like Trevor Yeboah-Kodie, another Long Island kid and D-1 FB prospect, has decided to play lacrosse only for Bruno. His Mom is chuffed that Trevor chose lacrosse over FB.

Most moms outside of big time FB territory these days would prefer their kids not play football...but thanks to the innovations that are being pioneered at Dartmouth with Buddy Teevens and adopted as well by the Harvard football program and to a major extent the rest of the Ivy League, the number of injuries are indeed dropping in some programs.

I'm not sure it's ultimately going to be enough, but sure hope so as the game has a lot to recommend it.

[LaxDadWest]

Lets revive this thread!

Quick update on Harvard so far:

Scrimmages:
vs Alumni - Win
vs ND - Loss - 15-11
vs Sienna - Win
vs Stony Brook - Win
vs Boston Cannons - Win 18-8

Games:
@UNC - 2/16 - TBD

[LaxDadWest]

Here are Highlights from Boston Cannons scrimmage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEGYTq12Flw

[MDlaxfan76]

Here are Highlights from Boston Cannons scrimmage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEGYTq12Flw

Sweet

Surprised to see that differential with the Cannons, but I assume they had a skeleton crew at best this time of year?

[faircornell]

From the "cheap seats" of the internet, it looks like a conditioning advantage to Harvard might have helped as well.

[LaxDadWest]

From the "cheap seats" of the internet, it looks like a conditioning advantage to Harvard might have helped as well.

Possibly. While my understanding is that a number of accomplished players were there for Cannons I also suspect:

1) PLL has hit the roster pretty hard
2) Cannons weren’t “hyped” for the game.

That said there is a strong collection of o and d talent on the team.

[MDlaxfan76]

From the "cheap seats" of the internet, it looks like a conditioning advantage to Harvard might have helped as well.

Possibly. While my understanding is that a number of accomplished players were there for Cannons I also suspect:

1) PLL has hit the roster pretty hard
2) Cannons weren’t “hyped” for the game.

That said there is a strong collection of o and d talent on the team.

Undoubtedly HU has talent, and certainly one would expect them to have the conditioning edge, certainly at this time of the year. The Cannons' season starts in June, I wouldn't think they are even practicing this time of year, and those who are actually playing may well be playing indoor pro ball, so unavailable. From the highlights, I didn't notice Baptiste at X or Williams at attack or...

I suspect the Cannons just had some Boston-area, maybe an NYC or two, guys show up to play basically a 'pick-up' scrimmage. Sort of whoever can make it. No practices at this point. Good for the Crimson though, as certainly some of those opposing players (at least on the roster) are seriously good in their own right.

[Boxster54]

I think Saturdays game against Carolina will be a good test for both teams. UNC is 2-0 but have not been tested. I expect Harvard to be pumped for their first game of the season and will play hard. This game should provide good feedback to what each team will need to focus on and improve moving forward.

[LaxDadWest]

Agreed. As Crimson fan i am pumped to see what happens. UNC is a tough mountain to climb with their depth. But a good competitive game is highly plausible!

[MDlaxfan76]

From the box score, looks like junior Ryan Graff (5G, 2GB)) and freshman Austin Madronic (3G, 3A) had big days, with junior Kyle Anderson also getting 3 points. The freshman had 5 turnovers, though, and Andersen had 3 TO's, amidst a brutal total of 24 TO's. UNC was also sloppy with 18 TO's. Early season!

6 more TO's and losing the GB battle 34-47, led to a shot differential of 34-42, and even bigger on goal differential of 19-30 and an 11-16 loss.

HU essentially held their own at X, with both teams using just one FOGO, but edge to UNC, 14-17. So, that only contributed to 3 of the 13 GB differential.

On the defensive end of the field, Beau Botkiss had a big day with 5GB's and 2CT's.

I'd be interested in who the HU defensemen and LSM's matched up with for UNC, as I know several of the UNC O players. Their top scorer today was a Gilman kid, son of a friend. They scored 8 goals from their attack and 8 from the midfield, so quite distributed.

Sophomore Kyle Mullins had 14 saves and saw a lot more shots than UNC's Pezzulla who had just 8 saves. Neither good statistically, but my guess would be that Mullins did pretty well on the ball stopping. That said, looks like trouble on clearing, as he had 4 TO's and HU cleared successfully at only 75%.

Super early, but looks like UNC deserves its #14 ranking, and HU is not at that level, which was anticipated.

I believe there's at least one dad on this thread who may be able to illuminate much better. than just what the box score tells us.

[LaxDadWest]

https://youtu.be/6_GbEn6tgsg

[MDlaxfan76]

Agreed. As Crimson fan i am pumped to see what happens. UNC is a tough mountain to climb with their depth. But a good competitive game is highly plausible!

From the write-up, sounds like it was indeed within reach for most of the game, within 1 goal into the 4th Q with Ryan Graff's 5th score, but UNC got the final spurt. Sounds like Mullins saw a lot of shots in the 2nd Q and had very strong Q's in the 2nd and 3rd, but 4th Q went UNC's way. Final 2 goals open net.

GB's and TO's gave UNC many more opportunities, but HU was more efficient with theirs. About right?

From film, looked like defensive approaches need work as there were a lot of easy UNC dodges to strong hand, center of goal, and some others were over commits then failed over the head attempts.

Graff certainly 'owned' his defender, using his body very effectively. Great to see.