Men's Lacrosse Opens 2021 Campaign Saturday at Stony Brook
2/12/2021 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
FAIRFIELD, Conn. – When the Sacred Heart University men's lacrosse team faced Stony Brook on March 3, 2020, they couldn't have imagined that they'd only have one more game for nearly a year. The Pioneers are back on the field to face the Seawolves this Saturday in their 2021 season opener.
Head coach Jon Basti, who starts his eighth season with the Pios, put together an aggressive non-conference schedule in 2020 to get his team ready for the Northeast Conference slate. SHU was 1-5 before the pandemic canceled the season.
This year there will be an abbreviated non-conference campaign with matches against Stony Brook and Hofstra (February 20) as well as a non-NEC game versus LIU (March 6). SHU will play it last non-league game on March 17 against Fairfield.
The NEC schedule will feature eight games over nine weeks with a make-up window the last week of April. All matches will be played on Saturdays. A four-team, single-elimination NEC Tournament will take place at the higher seeds on May 6 & 8.
On offense the Pioneers bring back their top six scorers from the abbreviated 2020 season. Senior attacker Ryan Edwards produced 12 goals with classmate Logan Lilieberg chipping in 11 more. Fellow attacker Jack Walsh was the Pioneers' top set-up man with a team-leading eight assists.
Similar to the offensive end of the field, Sacred Heart has a good amount of experience coming back defensively. Senior Conor Sullivan and junior Thomas Houlihan both started six games last year. Sullivan led all field players with 18 ground balls and Houlihan caused a team-best eight turnovers. Junior Donovan Lacey picked up eight ground balls and caused six turnovers.
Two key positions are up for grabs in goalkeeper and face off. Gone is Brooks Dutton played every minute in goal last season and Jake Giaquinto took the majority of the faceoffs. Senior Colton King and junior Peter Callahan are the only Pios who have seen any playing time in goal while sophomore Nicky LaBanca and rookie Alex Pazienza are looking for their first action between the pipes.
Transfer Tristan Dowd played 20 matches in the faceoff position at Stony Brook, including the 2018 contest against SHU in which he won eight faceoffs. Junior Daniel Rodriguez has played in nine matches in the faceoff position.
