Dartmouth has rattled off victories over Merrimack, Bryant and UMass Lowell to earn its first 3-0 start since 2006. It also surpasses the Big Green’s victory total from all of last season, when it went 2-11.
“You’re selling recruits coming in on a vision and you say, ‘Here’s what we want to do, and here’s what we’re looking to do,’” sixth-year coach Brendan Callahan said. “At some point, they want to see that. It’s like anyone. You work hard and you’re putting the effort in, and it’s always good to see that to payoff.
Callahan’s team was exceptionally young last season. Dartmouth was one of only three teams nationally (along with Cleveland State and St. Bonaventure) not to lose a point to graduation, and five of its top six scorers were sophomores.
There was also an element unique to the Big Green. Dartmouth operates on a quarter system, with students spending the summer at the end of their sophomore year on campus while juniors aren’t in class in the fall. It made it a challenging time for the Big Green, who brought in Joe Conner as its new offensive coordinator in the summer of 2018.
That meant a scramble to get the entire roster on the same page. That’s no longer a problem, and Callahan has also found that planning more fall practices on Fridays and weekends allows more players to participate even if they have out-of-town internships filling much of the week.
“You can’t just lay the same template down, because Dartmouth is a different animal,” Callahan said. “Through those first few years [you ask], ‘How do you deal with these different challenges,’ and everybody has them.”
Dartmouth’s early returns also suggest improvement in two important areas. Goalie Daniel Hincks acquitted himself well as a freshman, securing a .534 save percentage. He sits at .623 so far this season.
Meanwhile, an untested and short-handed faceoff unit that dealt with injuries and wound up winning just 30.2 percent of its draws. Dartmouth sits at 54.9 percent this year after the additional of freshman Mitchell Myers (.544), a California product who has attempted all but two of the Big Green’s faceoffs to date.
“You could start to see the pieces coming together, but I think this year the difference has been evening out the possession battle,” Callahan said.
Bucknell’s Yorke Dials Nine
One of the early candidates for performance of the year comes from Bucknell senior attackman Will Yorke, who deposited a school-record nine goals and tied the school record for points (11) in Saturday’s 20-11 rout of Marist. He was named the US Lacrosse Player of the Week.
Yorke had a team-high 34 goals last season and was able to use his size and length to create headaches for the Red Foxes and help Bucknell improve to 5-1 a year after finishing 6-9.
“He’s a lefty, a 6-4 kid who’s got long arms, and when he shoots the lacrosse ball, it’s really hard to figure out where the ball is coming out of stick,” Bucknell coach Frank Fedorjaka said. “I feel like the Marist goalie on that day had a lot of trouble finding out where Will Yorke’s shot was going to go. After the first two goals, Will started testing him and he was shooting from 15 yards, which normally we wouldn’t do, but the goalie could not pick up his shot. He’s a good goalie, but not against Will Yorke on that day.”
There was a hint the Bison could be in for a bounce-back season based on their play last April. After starting 2-8, the Bison rattled off four consecutive victories before dropping a Patriot League quarterfinal to Boston U. Bucknell also enjoys some continuity after returning its starting attack of Yorke, Tommy Sopko and Alston Terry.
The Bison have deftly answered questions on faceoffs and in the cage after losing four-year starters at both spots. Sophomore Nick Crovatto has claimed 55.4 percent of his faceoffs after replacing the graduated Jarett Witzal, while junior Ben Clark holds a .538 save percentage after succeeding Christian Klipstein.
One unexpected-but-welcome development is the offensive production of the defensive midfield. Nick Clarke and Matt Fedorjaka both have seven points, including Fedorjaka’s four-assist game against Marist, and Hunter Newman has a goal and an assist.
“Those three guys have 16 points on the year, which is ridiculous,” Frank Fedorjaka said. “In my first 13 years combined [before last season], I don’t know if I have 17 points from all the d-middies combined … The transition that we’re getting has been really great, and I didn’t see that coming. The shot clock has forced us to push the tempo a little bit more than we liked to in the past, but those guys are doing a great job.”
THE WEEK IN NUMBERS
4-1
At 4-1, Fairfield is off to its best start since winning seven in a row to open the 2012 season and is already within a victory of last season’s victory total. The Stags posted 19-15 victories over Quinnipiac (Saturday) and LIU (Tuesday), with Dylan Beckwith delivering four goals and three assists in both contests for first-year coach Andrew Baxter’s team.
7
Duke freshman Dyson Williams’ seven goals in a 16-15 overtime defeat of Richmond were the most by a Blue Devil since Zack Greer had seven against St. John’s on May 4, 2008.
30
Ohio State faceoff specialist Justin Inacio won 30 faceoffs in Sunday’s 17-16 loss to Cornell, tied for the third-most in Division I history in a single game. The only players to win more are Hobart’s Matthew Pedicine (32 against Siena in 2019) and Yale’s TD Ierlan (31 against Georgetown in the 2019 NCAA tournament).
107
Princeton attackman Michael Sowers completed February with 42 points for the 4-0 Tigers. Among the then-73 Division I teams, only 107 players had more than 42 points in all of 2019.