Yes, Holy Cross has claimed four games in a row entering Saturday’s date with Boston University.
No, the Crusaders are anything but satisfied with their longest winning streak in 31 years. After picking off Brown (on a last-second goal in double overtime), Navy, Lafayette and Colgate over the last month, Holy Cross has bigger things in mind as the regular season approaches its end.
“It’s been a really fun season so far,” coach Peter Burke said. “Hopefully we have a lot left to go.”
The Crusaders (6-5, 3-3 Patriot) have a very team-oriented approach at both ends of the field. Matt Farrell has 32 caused turnovers, a school single-season record, anchors a close defense group that also includes freshman Chris Conlin and junior Sean New, and Jonathan Tesoro (.517 save percentage) has provided credible goalie play.
The offense brought back five starters from a year ago, and the Crusaders lean heavily on a top six led by junior attackman Sean Mullaney (25 goals, 10 assists). All six starters have at least 21 points on the season, and they have accounted for 89.4 percent of the team’s points on the season. They’ve also had the ball a lot thanks to Dan O’Connell, who has won 68 percent of his faceoff attempts.
A noteworthy facet of Holy Cross’ season is Burke’s interim status. He helped steer the Crusaders to a 3-2 finish last year and was given an interim tag for the 2019 season.
Holy Cross is hardly playing out the string during a time of uncertainty. The Crusaders are seeking their first winning season since 1988 and have taken a business-as-usual approach to their work.
“It’s not about us,” said Burke, who has been on the Crusader staff since 2016. “It’s about how the team is doing and how hard we’re working and giving guys everything we have and them giving us the same thing.”
A push into the Patriot League postseason would be a fitting finish for a senior class that’s already checked off a lot of boxes during their careers. Holy Cross made its first conference tournament appearance in 2016 and won its first Patriot League tournament game the following year.
“That’s the expectation — we want to get back there and contend for a Patriot League title,” Burke said. “We’ve had that goal the entire year and we still have a lot of work to do.”
Canisius back in the hunt
Canisius made its first NCAA tournament since 2012 a year ago. Now, the Golden Griffins are in contention for the first back-to-back NCAA bids in program history.
Not bad for a team that graduated 12 seniors who helped lead a late-season surge into the postseason.
“It was just a matter of getting used to playing with each other in game situations,” coach Mark Miyashita said. “It took time to develop. We had some injuries and sickness, as everybody does, but we’ve started to round into form a bit. I think guys have drawn on last year’s experience to help them throughout the year.”
Miyashita is quick to emphasize Canisius (8-5, 4-1 MAAC) has yet to clinch anything yet. But the Golden Griffins can lock up the top seed in the conference tournament with victories over Manhattan and Marist the next two Fridays.
(A victory today would make the Marist-Canisius game a de facto regular-season title game. Marist is the predetermined MAAC tournament host.)
One of the Griffs’ best assets is balance. Mario Caito has team-highs in goals (30) and points (37), but Canisius has four 20-goal scorers and five players with at least 29 points.
“That’s been the philosophy since we got here,” Miyashita said. “We’re going to be a by-committee type of program, and we need full buy-in from every single guy. There might be one guy who has a couple extra goals on some nights, but we need to have as many guys chipping in on as consistent basis as possible.”
CLINCHING TIME
Conference tournaments (besides the ACC) are all two weekends away, but there are plenty of teams that can clinch No. 1 seeds in their respective leagues — with many of them claiming hosting duties if they do so.
America East: Vermont (7-4, 4-1) can seal the top seed and home-field advantage in the conference with a victory over Stony Brook on Saturday.
Atlantic Coast: Virginia (10-3, 3-1) has already clinched the No. 1 seed. The first round and semifinals will be played in Chapel Hill, N.C., but the top remaining seed will play the title game on its own field.
Big Ten: Penn State (10-1, 3-0) wraps up the top seed with a victory over Johns Hopkins on Sunday. The tournament’s predetermined site is Piscataway, N.J.
Colonial: It’ll require some help, but Delaware (10-2, 3-0) has clinching potential this weekend. The Blue Hens must defeat Towson and have UMass fall to Fairfield to secure hosting duties in the CAA.
Ivy: Penn (7-3, 5-0) has already locked up the No. 1 seed for the Ancient Eight tournament in New York. The Quakers will earn an outright title with a defeat of Dartmouth.
Northeast: Mount St. Mary’s (8-5, 4-0), which has won five in a row, clinches the top seed in the NEC with a victory at Hobart.
Patriot: Despite last week’s stumble, Loyola (9-3, 5-1) still has the inside track on the top seed and home-field advantage if it wins out. The Greyhounds can lock it in with a victory at Army plus losses by Boston University (to Holy Cross) and Lehigh (to Bucknell) on Saturday.
NOTABLE NUMBERS
61
Penn State attackman Grant Ament has 61 assists and is now responsible for only the 22nd 60-assist season in Division I history. The Division I record is 77, set by UMBC’s Steve Marohl in 1992 and matched by Albany’s Lyle Thompson in 2014.
95
Virginia junior Dox Aitken has 95 career goals, the most ever for a Cavalier midfielder. Aitken broke the record of Pete Eldredge (1969-72) and Brian Carroll (2007-10), who both scored 94 goals during their Virginia careers.
100
Lehigh junior Conor Gaffney won 100 percent of his faceoffs — 13-for-13 — in Saturday’s defeat of St. Bonaventure. He is the third Division I player to have a perfect day at the X this season with a minimum of 10 attempts, joining Maryland’s Austin Henningsen (15-for-15 on Feb. 9 against Richmond) and Duke’s Jordan Ginder (14-for-14 on March 12 against Utah).