When Zach Goodrich chose to play in Major League Lacrosse, he said he liked the idea of competing in front of a home crowd with a rooting interest. There won’t be any fans in the stands Saturday when the Boston Cannons play the New York Lizards in their MLL opener at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, but Goodrich should feel right at home. 

“It was a little weird at first, getting back into the realm of playing lacrosse,” Goodrich said of Thursday’s practice, the first of an abbreviated training camp to prepare for a weeklong quarantined tournament in Annapolis, Md. “By the end, though, everybody was flying around and excited to be back on the field.” 

A second-year short-stick defensive midfielder for the Cannons, Goodrich grew up just across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge less than 20 nautical miles away in Kent Island, Md. He frequently fished the bay waterways with his father, Tim, and brother, Ben. They would put out crab lines and reel in rockfish for dinner. 

“That’s big in our family,” Goodrich says. “Living in Maryland and on the water, we take the opportunity to do that whenever we can.” 

Moreover, Goodrich has spent the last year becoming familiar in the customs of the U.S. Naval Academy, jumping in headfirst as the head coach of the lacrosse team at the Naval Academy Prep School in Rhode Island. He got the job right out of college, the latest entry on a resume that portrays a leader ahead of his time. 

Goodrich, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2019 MLL Draft, was a three-time All-American at Towson and the only three-year captain in team history. 

Tigers coach Shawn Nadelen, who likes to stock up on Maryland public school players who get overlooked because of the density of the state’s private school talent, noticed Goodrich’s ability to galvanize his peers during Kent Island’s run to consecutive 3A/2A state titles in 2014 and 2015 as well as the Rock Lacrosse club’s undefeated summer of 2014. 

Rock Lacrosse coach Brandon Childs, now the head coach at York College, touted Goodrich’s intangible qualities before Nadelen saw them firsthand. Their opinions were only confirmed when Goodrich won 15 of 23 faceoffs, scored five goals and added three assists as Kent Island defeated River Hill 20-7 in the 2015 state championship game at Stevenson University. 

“You just saw his presence on the field and how his teammates responded around him,” Nadelen said. “I’ve never seen teammates react and respond to a player as they did to Zach.” 

Asked to describe Goodrich’s upbringing, Nadelen used the same phrase Goodrich used when asked to describe Towson’s culture: blue-collar. They were the perfect match. Even though Goodrich had considered following his brother to NAPS and Navy, his father, a general contractor on the Eastern Shore, went to Towson and Nadelen had taken an interest in him when there were few other suitors. 

“I’m grateful for the opportunity I had with Towson, and I wouldn’t change that for anything,” Goodrich said. “It made me who I am now.” 

It would be easy to point to Goodrich’s sophomore and senior years as his most formative experiences at Towson. In 2017, the Tigers road the coattails of a transformative senior class that included sensational scorers Ryan Drenner and Joe Seider and Goodrich’s rope-unit mentor Jack Adams, among others, all the way to the NCAA semifinals. In 2019, Goodrich played the part of senior leader, winning the USILA’s McLaughlin Award as the nation’s top midfielder while starring alongside classmates Alex Woodall and Brendan Sunday, both of whom also were selected in the MLL Draft. They led Towson to its first-ever No. 1 national ranking. 

But it was during the Tigers’ downturn in 2018 that Goodrich really discovered his resiliency. Towson started 3-6. Nadelen suspended two players and kicked a third off the team due to an undisclosed incident that occurred during a flight home from Denver. Goodrich was mourning the death of his grandfather and also playing with a herniated disc that pressed against a nerve in his back and sent radiating pain down his leg. 

The injury occurred during the Denver game, one in which he tried to will Towson to a win with four caused turnovers and five ground balls in an 11-10 overtime setback.  

“2018 was extremely challenging for him because the guys we were having issues with were guys he was pretty close with,” Nadelen said. “That’s where I think leadership is tested the most, especially within a collegiate or high school team, when you’re still trying to figure out what being a friend is as opposed to being a teammate.” 

Even with all of the turmoil, the Tigers nearly made it back to the NCAA tournament, falling just short of the CAA championship after winning the last two games of the regular season and upending Delaware in the conference semifinals. 

“We needed that culture shock,” Goodrich said. 

Goodrich had back surgery after the season. It kept him out during fall ball of his senior year. That’s when he got the coaching bug. Towson was breaking in a new defensive coordinator after Dan Cocchi left for Rutgers. Goodrich was the perfect go-between for Steve Grossi. 

“That definitely had a big impact on what I wanted do after college, being able work with Coach Grossi and Coach Nadelen and understanding the ins and outs not just of playing, but all that goes into getting ready for a game,” Goodrich said. 

Nadelen noticed not only Goodrich’s new perspective on the sport, but also “a stronger voice and presence” that he carried with him into the professional ranks. Goodrich was named an MLL All-Star as a rookie last year and was added to the U.S. national team roster for the Spring Premiere in January. 

Boston, which made the MLL playoffs for the first time since 2015, added offensive firepower when it traded for Randy Staats, Bryce Wasserman and Bryan Cole. The Cannons also got the top defenseman available in the 2020 draft class in Syracuse’s Nick Mellen. Mark Cockerton is coming off a 43-goal season and Nick Marrocco might be the best goalie in the league. 

In a seven-team, nine-day sprint to the Steinfeld Trophy, the Cannons are as good a bet as any to go all the way. 

Said Goodrich: “It’s a good opportunity to get lacrosse back in our lives.” 

Because of our US Lacrosse members, US Lacrosse Magazine is able to deliver the best in-depth lacrosse news, features and more to our readers. Join or renew today to help support US Lacrosse and the positive development of our sport. Thank you for your support!