The 2014 Beacons Lacrosse team comes into the upcoming campaign looking to improve on a 6–12 record a year ago. Although the record may not seem all that impressive, some feel as though it was a step in the right direction for the young Beacons squad. According to 4th year Head Coach Tyler Low, the team has improved quite a bit and is ready to take on the rest of the Little East Conference.
“We’re really excited about this team,” Coach Low stated. “We have some really athletic players and a great group of returners who really set the tone. The improvement of our veterans helps a lot as well.”
Coach Low says the team’s veterans will play a key role in their success this upcoming season. That is to be expected; the team graduated only one player from a year ago — goalkeeper Henry Bristol. However, Coach Low feels that they have filled that hole in the net with sophomore Craig Freehill.
With almost the entire former roster coming back, some of the team’s top scorers, including junior mid-fielder Donny Delpha, who led the team in just about every offensive category last season. Delpha, like his coach, likes the Beacons’ chances this season.
Delpha said, “we have a new recruiting class this year that looks pretty good, and although we lost our goaltender, the ones we have now are really stepping up.”
Delpha will be joined by fellow juniors Ryan McGoff, a Co-Captain, and John Powers, both of whom tied for second on the team in scoring last season with 35 points. Seniors Tom Petitti and Co-Captain Dom Fichera, who ranked third and fourth on the team, respectively in points last year, round the Beacons’ top-scorers.
Despite the success the team anticipates having this upcoming season, the Beacons were still picked to finish seventh in the Little East Conference, according to the preseason polls. Coach Low, however, knows that his team will not be rattled by what others think of them.
“There were teams that we beat last year that were picked ahead of us,” Coach Low said, “but the poll holds no bearing. We tell our guys it’s the poll at the end of the season that matters the most.”
Delpha agrees that while the preseason poll does not have much meaning, it does serve as a bit of motivation knowing that the team was picked so low.
“We’ve always been the underdog in this league,” stated Delpha, “but [despite the low ranking] we still enter the season with the same mentality as we did before.”
Both Low and Delpha know that if everyone can step up and play their roles and are, as Delpha puts it, “clicking on all aspects of the field,” this team could be successful. So far, things have started off pretty promising for the Beacons. Coming off a 17–1 thrashing of Johnson State on March 15, the squad now stands at 3–2 as they head down to Florida for two Spring Break games against Florida Southern College on March 18, and SUNY-Geneseo on March 20.