D-I Men's Lacrosse Notes: Stony Brook's Early Returns, Iona's 1st Win

Anthony Gilardi admits there were moments in January when he asked himself just what he was thinking when he put together Stony Brook’s lacrosse schedule.

A trip to Rutgers right away. A visit to North Carolina six days later. A quick turnaround two days after against a rested Queens team. And all with the Seawolves being young and new while coming off an injury-plagued 4-10 season.

“I think there’s two ways to go about it,” Gilardi said. “You can line up a lot of 50/50 games or games you may have more talent. I think for us, we went the other way and said, ‘We need to see where we’re at early in the season,’ because we have to build into CAA play. We know our way to the NCAA tournament is to win the CAA conference tournament.”

Gilardi must feel a little bit better after Saturday’s 9-8 victory at Rutgers, armed with the knowledge Stony Brook shrugged off allowing the first four goals and scrapped its way back for its first victory over a ranked opponent since 2021.

Some of it is probably relief. And some of it is a sense the Seawolves could tap into their potential as a largely untested group delves deeper into the season.

“It was just, ‘How do we respond against a Big Ten team on the road?’ It’s our first time traveling; we had three home scrimmages this year,’” Gilardi said. “All those unknowns were keeping me up at night for sure. Then offensively and defensively, we’ve rolled so many guys for four and five years that all graduated. It was, ‘OK, who is going to step up?’ and I think that was the exciting part.”

Stony Brook started two freshmen and two sophomores on offense but received significant help from two transfers who immediately earned starting roles. Carson Boyle had three goals in his first game since arriving from Vermont, while lefty attackman Ray O’Brien, who had 214 points in four seasons at Division III Hampden-Sydney and earned a nod as a captain last fall, scored twice.

There was also a bounceback outing for senior goalie Jamison MacLachlan, who made the CAA all-tournament team in 2023 but struggled last year and played sparingly in the second half of the season. He made 13 saves and allowed four goals in the final 55 minutes.

None of it means the Seawolves have everything figured out. Their top four scorers departed, and the 23 players who logged time against Rutgers combined for 34 starts with Stony Brook last season (with defenseman Carson Forney’s 13 and attackman Justin Bonacci’s nine accounting for more than half of them).

Still, the early payoff was a welcome hint that a process predicated on effort, accountability and toughness is working.

“This team is going to have ups and downs,” Gilardi said. “When you play five freshmen on offense, there’s going to be waves of really good play and head-scratching moments. As long as we continue to stick to the plan and continue to progress, rep by rep, game by game, then we’re playing some better lacrosse by the end of the season and that’s the focus.”

A LONG TIME COMING

It was during a program first for Iona when attackman Jimmy Kennedy looked around the huddle and started thinking about another one.

“He said, ‘Lock in, boys, we have a game in two years,’” coach Chad Surman recalled earlier this week.

That came and went earlier this month when the Gaels fell to Hofstra in their opener. A more satisfying milestone was achieved Sunday when Iona earned a 13-9 triumph at Hampton for its first-ever victory.

It was a long time coming … and yet also happened in a flash from Surman’s perspective.

“It’s one of those things where it seems like it will never get here and all of the sudden it is,” Surman said. “You hope you’re as prepared as you can be, and you trust the guys will make the plays when the time is in front of them, and they certainly did on Sunday. It was great to see it all come together.”

Surman wasn’t looking for a new job when Iona announced it was starting a program in 2022. He’d just left a head coaching stint at Mercer to become an assistant at Manhattan, but a friend familiar with Iona urged him to look at the New Rochelle, N.Y., school.

He liked the proximity to New York City, the campus setup and the academic offerings. Just as importantly, he saw an athletic department that enjoyed success in many sports — men’s basketball most famously, but well beyond that.

Iona hired Surman in October 2022, and the next spring — with no players, no games, no competitive routine but plenty of groundwork to lay — was a bit awkward. By the fall of 2023, he had a 17-man freshman class on campus. All of them stayed, and Iona signed another 21 freshmen who are part of this year’s team. The Gaels also picked up a couple transfers.

The result is what is to be expected from a startup program. Iona is young, an issue that will only be fixed with time. But it does have some early standouts. Attackman Cullen Lawry was named the Metro Atlantic’s rookie of the week after scoring four goals against Navy on Saturday and then delivering five goals and an assist against Hampton a day later. He has 11 of the Gaels’ 24 goals to date.

There’s also defenseman Gary Shivell, who has become a key part of creating cohesion at that end of the field and is the Gaels’ top cover guy.

Both are true freshmen, which means they’re positioned to amass plenty of experience early in their careers. Days like Sunday will be highlights, but this entire season should assist Iona in getting the program where Surman thinks it could head before long.

“We knew building this thing, it was going to be a long process just to get to this point,” Surman said. “Even moving forward, I jumped on board at Iona knowing this could be a program that competes consistently for MAAC championships, consistently competes to be a top 25 type of team. I know we’re not there yet, but I think we’re on our way. We just have to stay at it, and it’s going to take time, but I think we have the right guys on board to do it.”

Reunion at Ridley

High-profile transfers used to be minimal enough in college lacrosse that it truly stood out when a star encountered his former team. One example that instantly springs to mind: Connor Catanzaro spending his freshman year at Maryland in 2014, transferring to Denver and then facing the Terrapins on Memorial Day 2015 as the Pioneers won their first national title.

Through a variety of factors — the portal, COVID-era bonus years of eligibility, the Ivy League’s eight-semester rule coupled with its decision to have limited competition in 2021 — that sort of matchup is a bit more common.

Still, based on the combination of proximity and position, Luke Staudt’s return to Loyola stands out.

The goalie started the last two seasons for the Greyhounds and posted a .536 save percentage in 35 career games. Staudt redshirted as a freshman in 2021, so he had a year of eligibility to use as a graduate student. He chose Johns Hopkins, which had an opening after Chayse Ierlan reunited with his former Cornell coach Peter Milliman and played a grad year.

Staudt has an 8.67 goals-against average and a .519 save percentage while playing every minute so far for the 3-0 Blue Jays. And now he and Hopkins will make the 2.7-mile trek from Homewood Field to Ridley Athletic Complex to face Loyola (0-2) on Saturday.

He isn’t the only starting goalie having a reunion with former teammates early this season; North Carolina’s Michael Gianforcaro had to leave Princeton because of the Ivy League’s rules and will face the Tigers on March 2.

But Staudt’s return does add a wrinkle to the Baltimore rivalry. He should at least have a decent idea what awaits him — both from the opponents he practiced against during his Loyola career to the sightlines from the crease.

NUMBERS OF NOTE

7 • Assists for St. John’s attackman Adrian Nowak in the Red Storm’s 15-14 defeat of NJIT, matching the most in a single game since the program was reinstated in 2005. Kieran McArdle had seven-assist games in March 2013 against Rutgers and Robert Morris. The school record is eight, set by Brian Bugge against Siena in 1991.

10 • Points for Marquette senior attackman Nolan Rappis in Saturday’s 16-6 rout of Detroit Mercy to set a new school record. The Delafield, Wis., native had five goals and five assists --- both career highs --- to surpass the eight-point days enjoyed by Tyler Melnyk (2014 at Rutgers) and Bobby O’Grady (2022 at St. John’s).

38 • Years since Ohio State limited three consecutive opponents to four goals or less, something the Buckeyes have done with triumphs over Detroit Mercy (14-4), Cleveland State (14-4) and Bellarmine (16-4). The last time Ohio State did it was in April 1987 when it defeated Lake Forest (17-4), Wooster (16-4) and Michigan (11-4).

1,014 • Days between victories for UMass Lowell, which snapped a 25-game skid with a 14-9 victory over Merrimack in its season opener. Riley Lawhorn scored five goals for the River Hawks, who won for the first time since April 30, 2022.