Lucas Niang did not allow a single sack in all 13 games he started his junior season at TCU. But back in 2014, the Darien High School defense ran through and around the 6-7, 238-pound highly recruited right tackle, who the Kansas City Chiefs selected in the third round of this spring’s NFL Draft. The Blue Wave tallied six sacks against New Canaan in the first half of the Class L-Large Final. 

Mark Evanchick was responsible for four of them. 

That game was no outlier. Evanchick’s 66.5 career sacks broke the Connecticut state record, previously held by seven-time Pro Bowl selection and Super Bowl champion Dwight Freeney. 

“He has an incredible combination of speed, strength and leverage that reminds me of JJ Watt,” the Staples High School head football coach told USA Today after Evanchick was named the Gatorade Connecticut Football Player of the Year in 2015. “He is almost impossible to block.” 

An equally difficult task is trying to get Evanchick to expound on his individual accolades. While the former University of Pennsylvania defenseman who was selected ninth overall by Major League Lacrosse’s Philadelphia Barrage is proud of the sack record, he prefers to focus on the “here and now.” 

“I think we talk about it more than he does,” Penn attackman Adam Goldner said about Evanchick’s accomplishments on the football field. “Whenever we’re watching a game, we always pick his brain and ask him what he’s thinking. He’s definitely our football expert, but he really doesn’t talk about his records.” 

MLL’s 20th anniversary season will commence tomorrow at 1 p.m. when the Barrage face the reigning-champion Bayhawks at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Md. A few years ago, it would have been easy to imagine Evanchick stalking quarterbacks on Saturdays in the fall at similar venues. He loves both sports equally and was open to playing either one in college. 

Lacrosse’s earlier recruiting timeline influenced his next step. 

“I didn’t want to leave any offers from great lacrosse schools on the table just to wait and see what football had to offer,” he said. 

Evanchick’s physical style of play he forged on the gridiron screams “Philly” more than “Connecticut prep school” — yet the shutdown defenseman with a stoic demeanor and meticulous attention to detail often defies expectations. 

“He’s not your prototypical 6-3 looking defenseman,” said Barrage associate head coach Jamie Hanford, who also coached Evanchick in lacrosse at Darien when he was the first freshman in the program’s history to start on defense.  

Looks can be deceiving. Although Evanchick, who’s listed at 5-11 and 210 pounds, set the Penn lacrosse squat record his freshman and sophomore years and earned the nickname “Truck,” he possesses the foot and hand speed of a flyweight.

“Some defensemen are big and strong and others have great footwork,” Goldner said. “Mark is a unique combination of both.”

You also can’t appreciate Evanchick’s impact if you only look at the stat sheet. He registered 37 ground balls and 14 caused turnovers in 39 games played, but his primary responsibility is to prevent opposing teams’ top dodging threat from making too much of a dent. That’s a tall task in the Ivy League. Evanchick, a two-time first-team All-Ivy selection, succeeded through equal parts relentlessness and composure. 

Teammates and opponents alike praised his poise. 

“Even though he comes from a football defensive background, he honestly reminds me of an offensive tackle,” Goldner said. “He’s very patient and sits back to protect the goal the way a left tackle would protect the quarterback in the pocket.” 

“I would say he was consistently one of the toughest guys to go against,” said Princeton’s all-time leading scorer Michael Sowers. “He was always well prepared and really strong. He also had deceptively good feet and was patient in times where a lot of people aren’t.”

Sowers added that he thought Evanchick got the best of him in their two previous matchups. Penn claimed seven- and nine-goal wins in those contests. The latter came amidst a 12-game winning streak last season that propelled the Quakers to an Ivy League championship and the No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament. 

Their run came to an end when they lost to Yale 19-18 in overtime in an NCAA quarterfinal. 

This spring, Evanchick and the rest of the senior class had unfinished business. Although they dropped three of their first five games, they also beat Duke and were still ranked No. 19. They were optimistic they could fight through the early setbacks and go on another run like last year. On Wednesday, March 11, they were on Franklin Field finalizing their plans to kick off Ivy League play against Sowers and Princeton when head coach Mike Murphy called the seniors in for a huddle after the 6-0n-6 portion of practice. 

Evanchick sensed something was amiss. 

He was correct. Murphy told them that the Ivy League had canceled spring sports for the remainder of the season. There were more questions than answers. They had a lifting session scheduled afterwards, but the team decided to scrimmage one last time. It felt more like a pickup basketball game. Most players switched positions. Evanchick, though, barely played. He was too crushed by the news. 

“It was a gut punch to hear that everything you had worked for the last four years was over just like that, but there was nothing really we could do about it,” he said. 

Many players stayed on the field or posted up on the metal bleachers for hours after the last goal was scored. When the seniors reconvened at their off-campus house, they discussed their hopes to play together again. 

But while the class has stayed connected virtually, many will go their separate ways in the fall. Kyle Thornton and Kyle Gallagher will head to South Bend and join the Fighting Irish. Goldner, who set the school’s single-season scoring record in 2019 with 56 goals and was drafted in the eighth round by the Barrage, will add a concentration in the Wharton School of Business and play for the Quakers next spring. Evanchick will enter the real world. Although he explored pursuing a fifth year at Penn, he already had a job lined up as a Loan Syndication Analyst with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey in Atlanta. Going back to school would put that position in jeopardy, so Evanchick elected to take the job security given the current uncertain climate. 

He started work earlier this week, albeit remotely.

Evanchick already has strong ties with the other organization he joined this week. As Dan Arestia detailed in The Darien Times, three of the Barrage’s 10 picks in this year’s MLL college draft hail from the town of Darien. Five Darien players in total were selected in the draft.

Evanchick played with Amherst alum and 33rd overall pick Colin Minicus from grade school up until college. They’ll reunite in Annapolis. Chris Madalon, the Barrage’s starting goalie in 2019 who was an All-Star selection, coached Evanchick during his freshman year of high school. 

“It is important to have people who are used to each other when we are playing in a format like this during these unprecedented times,” said Hanford, who lives in Darien and also coaches Evachick’s younger brother on Eclipse Lacrosse Club. “The staff and the team that gels together the most in two practices and as the games go on will be the one that really sees success.”

Hanford sees Evanchick fitting right in with a unit that features 2019 Defensive Player of the Year Liam Byrnes and 11-year veteran LSM P.T. Ricci. On the other side of the ball, the Barrage, who will play their first season since 2008, boast several members from the Atlanta Blaze’s MLL-leading offense from last season. There’s Shayne Jackson — this year’s NLL MVP — Mark Matthews and Tommy Palasek, who broke the Blaze’s single-season scoring record in 2019 and led the league in assists. 

Although Evanchick said he is anxious to get back to 6-on-6 live action that he hasn’t experienced since March, he’s confident the work he put in from ladder drills to wall ball at Darien High School during quarantine has him ready for the rigors of playing at least five games in the upcoming week. 

“I’m excited to be part of a team and go out and compete again, especially to be a part of a team as strong as the Barrage have,” he said. “Hopefully I can contribute and help Coach Ford and the rest of the staff bring home some hardware. I think I’ve done the best job I can to prepare myself for what’s to come.”

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