Season Preview: Men's Lacrosse set to open its 2016 inaugural season
By Ashley Birchmeier
| ONU v Franciscan Game Program (.pdf) |
ADA — The Ohio Northern men's lacrosse team, led by head coach Nat St. Laurent, is set to open its inaugural season in 2016.
This year's roster consists of 35 players for St. Laurent, who comes to Ohio Northern after serving as the assistant coach for four seasons at Washington and Lee (Va.).
"I am excited for this season," said Laurent. "The guys have put in a lot of hard work, they are a great group of guys and continue to work hard everyday."
Here is how the Polar Bears break down in 2016:
At the attack position, Northern will look to freshman Steven Slagle and freshman Anthony Pavone to lead the way in 2016.
"Slagle will be our quarterback this season," said St. Laurent. "He is smart and makes great decisions. Pavone is very athletic and will be one of our key scorers."
Joining them will be freshmen Lucas Blaszyk, Samuel Pearson, Max Weese, and Noah St. Croix.
Freshman Peter Hardt will look to lead the midfielders, being joined by freshmen Drew Eramo and Mitch Groves.
"This group will be our catalyst, they all bring something different to the table," added St. Laurent. "Hardt has a great stick and can shoot well, as for Groves he is a big kid who handles contact well. Eramo can just do it all for us, offense, defense, he is just an all around player."
They will be joined by freshmen Tim Gower, Patrick Alfano, Connor Gordon, Mitchell Frisby, William Peoples, Dylan Palin, Connor Preston, and David Chitkowski.
Leading the Polar Bear defense in 2016 will be freshmen Andrew Fox, Jackson Pfister, and Patrick O'Grady.
"This is probably our deepest position," said St. Laurent. "We will be as good as these men allow us to be this season."
Freshmen Alexander Pizarro, Bryce Bouman, Andrew Markell and Tanner Walrath will look to anchor the defense in goal for 2016.
The Polar Bears open their inaugural season Feb. 27 as they play host to Franciscan at Dial-Roberson Stadium at 1 pm.
"We play a competitive schedule," said St. Laurent, "But the goal is always the same, whether its year 1 or 10, we want to be playing lacrosse in May."
