Midseason All-Freshman Team and Five Men's Lacrosse Games to Watch

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Forget Rookie of the Year accolades. At this rate and at this point of the season, these first-year players are legitimate All-American contenders.

We're looking at you Hunter Aquino (Penn State), Brayden Fountain (Army) and Timothy Shannehan (Boston University). All three will loom large in our games to watch this weekend.

There's no such thing, but just for the fun of it, here's one editor's Midseason All-Freshman Team. (Technically the midpoint of the season — which started Feb. 1 and ends Memorial Day, May 26 — is March 30.)

Attack 
Brayden Fountain, Army 
Daylin John-Hill, Jacksonville 
Timothy Shannehan, Boston University

Midfield 
Hunter Aquino, Penn State 
William Goers, Navy 
Nicholas Blalock, Lafayette

Faceoff 
Logan Banek, Siena

LSM 
Jack Mulholland, Dartmouth 
Lucas Fraser, Jacksonville

Defense 
Chase Cellucci, North Carolina 
Quinn Falasca, St. John's 
Robert Plath, Georgetown

Goalie 
Owen Salanger, UMass

Honorable Mention: JJ Aiello, M, Rutgers; Drew Bogardus, A, Hofstra; Owen Bunten, A, High Point; Ben Dutton, A, Saint Joseph's; Denis Fargione, G, Villanova; Ronan Fitzpatrick, A, Towson; Nolan Hudnut, G, Bellarmine; Grayson Manning, G, Denver; Kevin Miller, M, Georgetown; Ezra Moore, A, Bellarmine; Ross Prince, FO, Georgetown; Graham Stevens, G, Harvard; Liam White, M, Ohio State.

Now onto the games.

FIVE TO WATCH

#19 BOSTON UNIVERSITY (6-1) AT #5 ARMY (7-0)

Sat 12 p.m. EST | Watch: ESPN+ | DK: Army -4.5

BU storyline to watch: Shannehan might not have been the very first name to come up in the impact freshman conversation, but there's no questioning his contributions to date. The U.S. Men's U20 Training Team attackman and 2024 USA Lacrosse High School Northeast Player of the Year has averaged more than five points per game (18 goals, 18 assists) as the focal point of the Terriers' rebuilt attack.

Army storyline to watch: This matchup feels eerily similar to last year, when the Black Knights took a 7-0 record and No. 1 national ranking to Boston and fell 14-9. That was the beginning of the end for Army, which also lost to Colgate and then again to BU in the Patriot League tournament in a somewhat shocking turn of events that led to the Black Knights' omission from the NCAA tournament. Army has a bit of an angry streak going for it this year. The Black Knights have outscored their seven opponents 101-32. That includes blowouts of UMass and Yale and most recently a 13-4 dismantling of Lehigh that had some momentum following wins over Villanova and Navy.

#13 HARVARD (5-1) AT #4 PRINCETON (4-2)

Sat 12 p.m. EST | Watch: ESPN+ | DK: Princeton -2.5

Harvard storyline to watch: How the Crimson will position Sam King against Colin Mulshine in a prime matchup. At different times this season King has operated from behind the goal, up top and the wing. Where can Harvard expose Princeton's defense? Miles Botkiss, Logan Ip and Teddy Malone all can score if King gets the clamps. Look for plenty of pick plays as well. Harvard ranks first in Division I in offensive efficiency (39.1 percent), according to Lacrosse Reference.

Princeton storyline to watch: Shot selection. It was not great against Cornell, which was content not to slide and defended the pick game well. The Tigers are at their best when Nate Kabiri starts the party and Coulter Mackesy (2-for-10 against the Big Red) puts the icing on the cake. A lot of teams have tried to pepper Graham Stevens to get to Harvard's freshman goalie early, but he has held his own. The good news for Princeton is it's starting to get more consistent production out of midfielders Tucker Wade and Chad Palumbo, who each potted a pair of goals last week.

#14 RICHMOND (5-3) AT #12 GEORGETOWN (5-2)

Sat 12 p.m. EST | Watch: FLO | DK: Georgetown -1.5

Richmond storyline to watch: The Spiders have to win one of these games, don't they? After upsetting Virginia to vault into the national rankings, they've pushed Cornell and Duke to the brink in a pair of one-goal losses. Richmond scored six fourth-quarter goals and led Duke late in the fourth quarter before the Blue Devils battled back to win in double overtime. Seriously, who's more battle tested than Richmond? The Spiders' non-conference slate has included Maryland, Cornell, Virginia, Duke and now Georgetown. Their defense and exceptional goaltending by Zach Vigue has kept them in every game, and Canadian Lucas Littlejon is enjoying a breakout sophomore season with 18 goals, including hat tricks the last two games. 

Georgetown storyline to watch: The Hoyas have taken care of business against Brown, Albany and High Point. Have they cured their shooting woes? Georgetown is middle of the pack in shooting percentage (29.7%) but look more closely at its offensive performance against its three top opponents (Johns Hopkins, Penn and Notre Dame) and it's sub-20 percent. If Vigue gets hot, there's legitimate concern.

DENVER (4-4) VS #8 DUKE (8-1) 
at Highlander Stadium in Dallas

Sat 8 p.m. EST | Watch: CSN | DK: Duke -4

Denver storyline to watch: It was former Pioneers coach Bill Tierney who professed if you have two goalies, you have none. That was, until Ryan LaPlante and Jamie Faus debunked that theory more than a decade ago at Denver. Still, platooning has its perils. Reigning Big East Goalie of the Year Malcolm Kleban has started five games and freshman Grayson Manning has started three. Both have been yanked early and both have played well in relief (Kleban's 15 saves in a loss to Yale and Manning's 16 saves in a win over Utah). 

Duke storyline to watch: That rope, though. The Blue Devils' short-stick d-middie tandem of Aidan Maguire and Jack Gray is proving to be the best in the country. And then there's a cadre of athletic poles, an embarrassment of riches that was never more apparent than when LSM Cole Krauss came up with ground ball in traffic on the opening faceoff in double overtime and backhand flipped it to Maguire, who took it to the house to score at Richmond.

#7 OHIO STATE (8-1) AT #3 PENN STATE (6-1)

Sun 7 p.m. EST | Watch: BTN | DK: Penn State -2.5

Ohio State storyline to watch: Is Big Tasty the best nickname in college lacrosse? That's not as much the storyline as it is the 6-foot-2, 297-pound goalie who owns the moniker. Caleb Fyock will start opposite Jack Fracyon in a battle between the Big Ten's best goalies not named Logan McNaney. Fyock is seeing the ball extremely well (62.3 percent) and his chirp game has gotten some attention as well. There's a swagger factor to these Buckeyes that's embodied by the sophomore between the pipes.

Penn State storyline to watch: The Nittany Lions rested several injured players against Robert Morris and still won handily. Load management or cause for concern? Regardless, you've got to like their depth. Top two attackmen Matt Traynor and Kyle Lehman have missed the last two games as Liam Matthews, Will Peden and Luke Walstrum have picked up the slack. Meanwhile, Aquino is playing himself into the first-team All-American conversation as Penn State's top scorer (26 points) with feeding ability (15 assists) to complement his howitzer of a shot (11 goals on 28 shots).