BRYN ATHYN, Pa. – The Bryn Athyn College men's lacrosse team will open its 2018 campaign on Wednesday afternoon when the Lions travel to Gwynedd Mercy University for a non-conference match at 4 p.m.
SCOUTING THE LIONS
The Lions return 11 players, including four North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) selections, from the 2017 team that went 8-8 overall and 6-2 in conference play to qualify for the NEAC Tournament for the second straight season.
Bryn Athyn set program records for goals scored in a season (194) and goals per game (12.13).
Leading the list of returnees is All-NEAC first team selection and the team's top scorer Jon Carr. In 2017, Carr recorded the fifth 50+-point season in Bryn Athyn history as putting up 51 points and the third-highest goal total for a single season with 39. He ranked ninth in the conference in goals and 10th in points.
Nolan Frame and Shane McCurdy were named to the second team a season ago. Frame, the leading goal scorer in program history, recorded 34 goals, which was 11th in the league and 42 points. In his first three seasons at Bryn Athyn, Frame has scored 120 goals and tallied 152 points. McCurdy was one of the top faceoff specialists in the NEAC with 161 faceoff victories and won 51.4 percent of his faceoffs. He was second in the conference with 114 ground balls and third in faceoff wins.
Brad DePasquale earned a place on the All-NEAC third team after going 8-8-0 with a 10.36 goals average against, 162 saves, and a 50.9 save percentage.
Andrew Coyle racked up 21 goals and 19 assists, which was third on the team. The Lions also bring back Ricky Tran, Connor Buick, Alex Hyatt, Dillion Fields, and Pat Lynch. Mark Strange returns to the team after missing the 2017 season. In 2016, Strange appeared in 10 matches and had 17 ground balls.
This will be the deepest team in the Lions' six-year history with 15 new players giving Bryn Athyn a program-record 27 players on the squad.
Cameron Leech, a transfer from York (Pa.) College, tops the list of new Lions. Leech played two seasons for the Spartans and had 27 goals and 69 assists in 41 matches. Last season, Leech was a United States Intercollegiate Association All-America honorable mention and an All-Capital Atlantic Conference second-team selection after putting up 17 goals, 48 assists, and 15 ground balls.
Eddie Paredes is a transfer from Onondada Community College, where he played in 19 career matches and had six ground balls and six caused turnovers.
SCOUTING GWYNEDD MERCY
Gwynedd Mercy is 1-1 overall and coming off an 8-1 home loss to Lycoming College on Feb. 24. Jacob Snavely leads the Griffins with four goals, all coming in the season-opening 10-5 win at Drew. Ryan Simpson is adding three goals.
Kohler Setley tallied a team-high four assists.
Joey Giordano is 17-of-22 on faceoffs through two matches. He went 6-of-8 in the loss to Lycoming.
Goaltender Chris Burns stopped 22 of the 35 shots on goal he has faced.
The Griffins have been penalized 13 times in two matches, allowing just one man-up goal so far.
SERIES HISTORY
Wednesday will be the first meeting between the Lions and Griffins.