Game Time - A look back at week 10 and a preview of Week 11 of the 2025 season

Intro

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Welcome, welcome, welcome to another episode of In the Crease with Danny and Kevin, a coast-to-coast discussion of D2 Men's Lacrosse. I'm your simple co-host, Kevin Stenstrom, and with me as always is the otherworldly co-host, Danny Moran. Oh, Kevin, Kevin, how are you tonight in Northern Virginia, my friend? What's going on? Well, the fact that I'm actually in Northern Virginia is uh is pretty good. But I've had to, you know, you know I usually work from home, but like you, I had to commute the last couple days to a conference locally. So I I kind of feel weird. It's not like I'm home all the time, you know, working. I'm actually away from my desk. But other than that, I'm ready to get into it, Danny. I mean, it is this week, Danny, there were several come from behind wins and some overtime games. Some real, and maybe some of them, even though they're uh from come from behind, they weren't totally nail biters. But if you look at the whole game, how it started and how it ended, kind of crazy. I mean, it's still fli it's still flipping up around all the time in this this league, this division this year.

SPEAKER_04 2:48

Yeah, um, we're at that time of year where we're in conference play, and every game's important in the conference, you know that. And uh these teams are vying for automatic qualifiers, and it's starting to get interesting. You know, a big loss in the Sunshine State conference for uh for St. Leo kind of shakes things up in the Sunshine State a little bit. You know, the ECC's starting to look where we're going. The CACC kind of has a kind of interesting matchups coming up that are coming up that are all in the city.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

This is part of the season where it's it gets crazy. Sunshine State is like that, I think. The RMAC and is like that a two, it's almost like wide open. And it's it's almost not so much for total seeding in some of them, but it's almost like trying to get their confidence to go into the tournament. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 3:41

Yeah, I do.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

If you're the three or four seed, does it really matter that much? But if you just beat the four seed and you made that the three seed, I mean that's what some of these matchups are coming to. It's really kind of interesting.

SPEAKER_04 3:51

Yeah, but you know, and in college lacrosse, it's hard to beat the same team twice. Yeah. You know, especially when you go get into that conference play. It gets interesting, and we're at that part of the season now. There's certain certain teams that are kind of separating themselves from the rest of the crew.

SPEAKER_05 4:09

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 4:09

And then there's teams that are vying for that automatic qualifier that could shake things up. So it's pretty uh interesting going into the next couple of weeks, Kev.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

Yeah, it's it's great. It's great to see. It's fun to follow. And and like we'll get to it later on, kind of talk about the conferences of where they stand today. But and that's kind of what you need to kind of really read the landscape, right? But before we go there, let's go to your top ten roundup. Oh, Kev, another week. Here we go.

SPEAKER_04 4:40

And this is your round. All right, Kev, top ten. Kind of crazy week again. Uh Tampa continues to roll along, my friend. The Spartans beat Lynn in a close contest, 11-6. Tampa stays undefeated, Kev. They just roll along. Number two, Adelphi. Here you go. Lost to number five, Sayn A's, Kev, 9-6. We'll be talking about that game. Uh the Panthers go to 10-1. And they got Assumption next in NET NE 10 uh matchup. Number three, Limestone beat Anderson in a pretty good game, 18-14. And they also beat Emory and Henry this week 22-3. So the Saints, they keep looking good. Uh they go to 12-1, and they face Kataba next in sack play. Number four, Seton Hill. Oof. All over Malone, huh? 29-2. Ah.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

They've been doing that a few times in the GMAC.

SPEAKER_04 5:58

Yeah, they have. Uh St. Ansome, number five, beat number two at Delphi 9-6. The Hawks are 8-0. They're undefeated. And they have AIC up in uh any 10 play next. Flaggler, they beat Uah 17-11 in Peach Belt play, Kev. Yeah. The Flagler Saints are 11-1, Kev. They look pretty good. Number seven, Lenore Bears beat Newberry 17-12. The Bears are 10-2, and they have Tusculum next in sack play. Number 8, Pace beats Southern New Hampshire University 13-8. The Setters are 9-1, and they face a tough and spunky Bentley squad in any 10 play next. Number 9, the Wingate Bulldogs. They beat LMU rather handily, 21-7. The dogs go to 10-2, and they have a big matchup with Anderson in uh in a big sack matchup coming up this week. And number 10, Lewis. Lost to number 12, Meryville. Good game. 14 to 10. And that's your biggest thing. Kevin, just a quick couple of scores to note. Rockhurst beat Quincy 15-7. Malloy holds on to beat Frostburg 7-6. Yeah. And uh the Lions of Malloy are 10-3 and look very good in ECC play right now. Davis and Helkins. Hey, boys. With a W. Second W of the year. They beat Thomas More. Oh, Rollins beat Palm Beach Atlantic 11-10 and double overtime. Double overtime, yeah. That must have been a thriller. And North Greenville with a huge conference win over Belmont Abbey 11-9. And that's just a couple of scores to note.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Yeah, a few more to note that I've got. Florida Tech over Florida Southern 15-11. So there's Florida Southern against going back to struggling a little bit. We'll talk about that in kind of the conference wrap-up. Wilmington, we talked about Wilmington Post last week. They handled Post 18-8. Emory Riddle beat St. Leo in triple overtime, 11-10. Even more amazing. I watched the end of that game, Danny. Emory Riddle was down by two goals in the last minute and scored to get it to overtime. Wow. Crazy game. I didn't see it. Assumption over St. Mike's 9-5. Another strange one, Danny. You talk about flipping the table. St. Mike's scored the first three goals, and then Assumption went on a 9-0 run. Wow. Wow. And that's all she wrote. When I actually turned it on, it was 9-3 by that point. Wow.

Week in Review

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Alright. So now let's move on to the weekend review. Let's start off. I'll start off with a quick one, and this is Davenport Walsh. We talked about this quickly. I don't know if you got to watch. I don't think you got to watch the game. I watched it kind of on the sidelines. I was watching another game, and then I they focused in like the last quarter or so. Davenport wins this one 17 to 16. This was a good game to watch, Danny. Really good game, because Davenport took the early lead. And you're thinking, okay. I I thought Walsh would be closer to them in this game. Walsh not only fought back, they got up to a five-goal lead. They're up 14-9 in the second half. And but Davenport doesn't quit, and they come back and they tie it at 16 with one minute left. Then Davenport wins a face-off, they bring it down, they call timeout. Off of that timeout, Middy with a good dodge goes right to the cage and scores with 23 seconds left to take away with the win. And that allows them to retain second place in the GMAX standings. Okay. That's a big win, man. Yeah, crazy. So some of the players, some of the stats for Walsh, AJ Harrison, seven goals. Parker Stanway, one goal, three assists. James Sternberg, two goals, two assists. Toby Olenek, three goals, and Garrett Kessling, two goals, one assist. For Davenport, a couple players with some big numbers. Luke Fritz, five goals. Luke Eichbauer, three goals. Jaden Ashley and Dylan Fallon both had three goals and two assists apiece. Wow. And then Charlie Fritz, two goals and one assist. It really was a good game, I mean, because it was a it was a game of swings, right? It and momentum. And Davenport had it early, Walsh took it over, and then Davenport just came plodding back in. Pretty cool game. Sounds like it. Sounds like a great game, actually. All right. So did you watch Lander Montevallo? I did not. Oh, okay. I don't mean to steal all the fun here.

SPEAKER_04 11:49

Well, you took nine teams. You took nine games. I got one, two, three, four. There's 17 games here.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

No, I only got a few here. Well, let's talk Maryville Lewis. How about we talk Maryville Lewis? Okay, whatever you want to talk about. I want to talk a game with you. I know you watched Maryville Lewis, right? I did. All right. Maryville pulls it out 14-10. What'd you think of the game? I thought it was a pretty good game.

SPEAKER_04 12:11

Maryville was surprisingly great. You know, I thought they really played well. I mean, I just they were fast. They were furious. They were able to do what they wanted to do on the, you know, just these two teams don't like each other. They know each other very well. And uh Meryville looked very good to me.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

What'd you think? So interesting. First of all, really crappy day.

SPEAKER_03 12:36

Yeah, it was in the Northeast.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

And they even had a lightning delay in the game. Merryville jumps out to a 4-0 lead, and they're they're up 7-2 after one. But this will tell you, I think this, and I and I agree with you, Meryville played really well because Lewis would go on these, they'd start to catch up, right? Mini runs. Mini runs to catch back up. Look at it, it was 7-2 after one. It was 9-8 at half. Right. And then Malachi Good ties it up at 9. So Maryville was up 9-8 at half. And then they come back. Lewis ties it at 9. But get and and so you think, oh my God, here comes the swing, right? Lewis is really fighting back. And it's weird because in between that there was a lightning delay. What I thought was if you didn't look at the score, I thought Maryville was playing better.

unknown 13:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

And then, and what what did Maryville do? They were they were it was tied 9-9, and they went on a few mini runs. They got up by 2-11-9, and it was uh it was 12-10, and then it was 13-10. I'll tell you the other thing I saw though that was kind of strange to me. I'm curious if you saw this. It seems to me that the Saints were happy to be shooting from the outside and not really dodging. Like they worked the ball around, but they wouldn't go north-south. It seems like they'd be just be working the ball around. They took a lot of outside shots. Now, it was working for them for a while. I think that's what maybe helped Lewis catch up because they couldn't get it in. It wasn't until they actually scored to make a 13-10 where I saw them passing the ball on the inside at the end of the game.

SPEAKER_03 14:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

So, but I'll tell you, Meryville, from what I saw, they just held him off. Lewis goes on their runs, they come back, make it close. And look at it was 9-9. Lewis only scores one more. Yeah. And Maryville comes out and and wins.

SPEAKER_04 14:35

Yeah, again, these two teams know each other very well. They, you know, they don't like each other. It's conference wins and conference seatings, and who's going to that, you know, that automatic qualifier. These these conference games mean a lot. And that was a good game. I have to eat crow. I picked Lewis to win that game. Gonna eat a lot of crow. I've been great all year, but this week, this week I kind of didn't do too good.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

It's funny, Danny. I can't even remember who I picked. Did I go with you and say Lewis? I can't even remember.

SPEAKER_04 15:07

Yeah, we both kind of picked Lewis on this.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

No, I think you may have picked Maryville on this. I can't remember. But it's I think we'll get to this later on. We talk some of the conference stuff. I think there's three teams, Rockhurst, Maryville, and Lewis, that I can't tell you who's going to win the game if they play each other.

SPEAKER_04 15:27

Yeah. And I think, you know, this might be these two might meet each other again in conference in conference tournament. Yeah. So Maryville, you know, that was a big win for them. That was a big important win for them. They jump up a couple spots in the top 20. Yeah. Maryville now. Lewis drops back a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

Which you're going to expect. I mean, but they're right close to each other. I'm kind of shocked that they're not neck and neck. There's a team in between them, Bentley, right now, but that's close enough. You know, 11 and 13, right? For so uh on Lewis's side, Luke Schroeder and Malachi Good had three goals. Paul Roskowski had two goals, and Camden Rapids had two assists. Meryville, Justin Simonson had a day, Danny. Four goals and four assists. That's a day, Kev. That's a day. Colin Tobias had three goals, one assist. Chris Anderson had three goals. Jake Greeby and Clayton Sorrett each had one goal and two assists. And then Ben Mickett followed up with one goal and one assist. So a lot of different scores for Meryville. Yeah, a lot of different scores. That's for sure. That was a good game. Yeah. All right, let me catch you cut on Lander Monteval. This is another game, Danny, where it was a it really was a game of swings, and it went from one team to the other. Lander pulls it out 16-13. And I think when we looked at this game and I said it was going to be at Lander, I think I said it was going to be close. You thought Monavalo. This maybe I'm I'm throwing you under the bus right now. I think you said Montavalo was going to win easily. I did, I did. I said they were going to win big. I can't once again, I can't remember. I may have picked Monalo. I think I picked Montevallo too, but I said it was going to be close. It ended up being 16-13. Montevallo jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first six months. I'm watching the game, once again, secondarily, and I'm looking at the score. I'm like, oh my gosh, Danny was totally right on this one. They're running away with this. It looked like Lander defense could not even stop Monavalo. They extend the lead, they get back to the, you know, Lander scores, they extend it to 6-1. But Lander starts to fight back, and it's 6-3 after one. Lander then closes it out and ties it in the second 6-6. Montevallo's up at half, 8-7. So now it gets to be a really close game, right? There was a lot of scrappy play in this game. It was back and forth until the first few minutes in the fourth quarter. Uh, you know, Lander took the first lead um that they had, 11-10, with just a few minutes left in the third. It was 12-11 lander after three, so now it's flipped. And then they just they just took over in the fourth quarter, and they end up winning 16-13 in the game. Here's what is interesting, Danny, the team stance. Montevallo outshot Lander in the first quarter 14 to 7. Doubled them up. After that, though, Lander outshot the Falcons in every quarter. Just total turnaround. So the total shots were 47 to 32. Shots on goal. Uh Lander had 33 to Montevallo's 20. Saves. This is what kept Montevallo in it. Lander, seven saves. Our man, Alex Agorsian, 17. Just plug it away, that kid.

SPEAKER_04 19:05

Even when he loses, he has a lot of saves. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

Yeah. Turnovers. Here's a killer for Montevalo. They had 26 turnovers to Lander's 12. That's huge. That's a big huge. And that was not in the first quarter, I'm telling you right now. Montevallo was just clicking, and then, you know, they they and I wouldn't even see that I noticed like them throwing the ball away a lot as I was watching the game, but they obviously did not control the ball as much as they wanted to. Uh for Montevallo, Matthew Bose, six goals. Great day. Aiden Collery, two goals. John Spans, one goal, two assists, and William Angus, one goal, one assist. For Lander, Zane Dalpey, five goals, one assist. And Michael Matagliano, four goals, one assist.

unknown 19:52

Really?

SPEAKER_01 19:53

And Carter Wilcox had two goals and three assists. So there's some several players, huge numbers. Six, five points apiece. Crazy.

SPEAKER_04 20:03

Yep, yep. And you know what's crazy about the Peach Belt? There's only four teams. So like these games is so important.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

They are because well, first of all, look, if they all get into the tournament, it's all gonna be all four of them, but but we talked about this in the conference preview. These are four teams, and UAH has not had the season probably that they've wanted to so far. Yeah, I don't count UAH UAH necessarily out when they're playing peach belt teams. So I just think that tournament, once again, is gonna be crazy. And who goes who wins that to go up against uh the RMAC? Now, obviously, Flaggler, and we'll get to this. Flagler, I mean, they own their own destiny, they control their destiny. Pretty much, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I mean UAH is only two and eleven this year.

SPEAKER_04 20:52

That's yeah, that's quite the drop off.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:55

And they haven't won a game in conference yet. So I think in this, you know, the Peach Belt, it's Flaggler's to lose. I agree. You know, I agree. And they got a couple of games left, and that's it. And then you got, you know, they're gonna match up with the Armac at the end, and there's gonna be one winner, one qualifier out of those two conferences, and right now it looks like Mesa in the Armac.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

Uh it's what from records, yes.

SPEAKER_04 21:24

But I mean uh Mesa's eight and two, and they're four and oh in conference.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Right. But CUI only lost to him by one goal last time. True, that was a game. And Westminster just lost to him by a couple goals. Now I still I agree with you, on not only on paper, but what they've been able to do in the records, they they're the one to look out for.

SPEAKER_04 21:51

Yeah, Westminster's one and three in conference. C UI's three and two. Yeah. So looks like CUI's got the edge. There. This is going to be interesting when these guys kind of match up towards the end.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 22:05

They only got a couple more games left for these teams.

SPEAKER_01 22:07

Right. So you want to talk about our game of the week, St. Anselm against Adelphi? Sure, we can talk about that. What a game. What'd you think? I thought St. Anselm's defense had a day and add in one special player on defense, and that's our goalie, Finn Granara. He was insane. I mean, I I counted my so two notes on him. Uh, you know, had he had two doorstep saves against Noah Gibson early in the sometime in the first half, and then he stood on his head in the second half around the seven-minute mark. I think it was in the it may have been in the fourth quarter. Three unbelievable stops in a row. But also, if you look if I look at St. A's defense, there was a time where they basically had a defensive stand against a Delphi around the 10-minute mark in the second quarter that had to last at least two minutes, if not three minutes, because you know the uh the Panthers would get the ball back, they'd hit the post, or they'd you know, Fingernara would save it but not hold on to it, and they'd get it reset. And they finally brought it down to where they they did not. They went the full 60 seconds, and it was a turnover on time. I mean, that was I just looked at that, I'm like, wow.

SPEAKER_04 23:41

Yeah. You know what I what I thought about St. A's was that how fundamental they were on defense. They really played a solid defensive game, and they controlled the pace of the game, especially in the beginning. Yep. St. A's was able to control the pace of the game. And this game, and as far as I'm concerned, the difference was Finn Granara. Yeah, I agree. St. A's hustle and and their fundamental defense. They forced Adelphi into a lot of first quarter turnovers. My boy Dylan Renner didn't have his best day, and I bet you he'd be the first one to tell you, because he's very honest with himself. He didn't look that good. He was having trouble stopping low, low shots that day. He threw the ball away a couple of times. I thought Fingranara was outstanding in between the pipes for the Hawks. Well, like I said, I felt like Renner struggled a little bit. Colin Mulby scored the first goal for St. Ace, followed by goals by Matt LeMay and uh Eddie O'Brien, and St. Ace jumped out to a three-goal lead right away. Uh McDermott turned the ball over. Renner threw the ball away, and Adelphi failed to clear. Purdy called timeout in the first quarter.

SPEAKER_01 25:07

The goal wasn't there.

SPEAKER_04 25:09

Well, whoever was, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

Coach Volpe or Coach Cat. So they said on the broadcast that Coach Purdy didn't make it because of pneumonia. Oh, I did not know that. Yeah.

unknown 25:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

I hope he's getting better.

SPEAKER_04 25:25

Yeah, hope he is. Uh, yeah, that's not good news. But uh, yeah, whoever, whoever, I would say Coach Volpe or Coach Cat, probably. Someone. Yeah, they called time out. Hey, man, we need to write this ship. You know what I mean? Um and uh they'll turn the ball over twice more. And it was like, wow, they're just not they're not on all eight, you know, they're not hitting on all eight like they have been in the last couple of games. And and St. A's took advantage of that that first quarter a little bit. Uh, the second quarter, each team was scoreless, Kev, for the first 13 minutes of the quarter.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:06

When Claflin uh saw Matt LeMay, and LeMay buried it, and Saint A's led four zip at half. Just think about that.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

A Delphi shut out at halftime. Did you ever think that? I would never have guessed that.

SPEAKER_04 26:24

No. Uh uh in a hundred years I would say no, you know. Bentley kind of did the same thing, kept him low scoring as well, you know. And um, again, 3-0 after one. Uh each team scoreless for the first 13 minutes in the third quarter. Braden Dunellen finally got the Panthers on the board. Can you believe that? Yeah. Third quarter?

SPEAKER_01 26:46

Like that's how well and at the 923 mark. It wasn't early, it was, you know, it was in the first half of the third quarter, but close to, you know.

SPEAKER_03 26:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:57

So uh Dunellen got them on the board, but they turned the ball over again, and I just felt it was good high energy, some big hits, some great checks started going on. Both teams were settling in. Um, but the play of Finn Granara was amazing. He made multiple doorstop saves, like you mentioned, especially in the fourth quarter. And a Delphi, you know, they're a Delphi, they got their looks. They finally were able to move the ball and get looks and get good shots off. But Finn Granara in goal damn near stopped it all. Yeah. Stopped it all. He he was just amazing. Uh it was four-nothing, then it was uh uh eight to two after three. I mean, what's going on?

SPEAKER_01 27:47

Six to four after three.

SPEAKER_04 27:48

Six to four-three, four, four-two, two and three, nine-six was the final. So for St. A's, Colin Mulvey had a good game, two goals. Matt LeMay, the freshman, he's playing really well, Kevin. Yeah. We've we've talked to his name a lot in the last couple of weeks. Will Andrews added one, Lombardy, Boyle, O'Brien, and Chris Claflin, each with one. Finn Granaro, 13 saves, only saw 21 shots. Yeah. 21 shots. He stopped 13 of them.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

Yeah. Well, and here's the interesting thing, Danny. The other thing I wrote down. The commentator said this. There's only one quarter since they played this game, this season, that the Panthers did not outscore their opponents. And that was the fourth quarter against CUI. What they said that, but I'd have to go back. I think Bentley outscored him too. Uh I'm not so sure of the St. Anselm outscored them three of the four quarters.

SPEAKER_03 28:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:54

I I like the way uh defender Jay Kaplecky played. He was really active on defense. And I what what St. A's was able to do was you know, timely double teams. Guys would roll back, middies would roll back, and the double team would come and cause checks and cause turnovers. Again, I don't think it was a Delphi's best game. And I thought St. A's was phenomenal. And uh for a Delphi, Braden Dunellin had two. McDermott, Lewis, Balco, and Gibson each with one. Our man Dylan Renner had 12 saves. Reese Bauer, he's a dog boy. He is. He is a dog. Five ground balls. Mikey Dernan, three ground balls and two calls turnovers. William Greaves was 18, 8 for 14 at the dot. Who else? Quinn Gannon for St. A's, 9 for 17 at the dots. We were kind of even. Shots 37 to 33 in favor of Adelphi. Uh in favor of St. A's. Shots on goal 21-19 in favor of St. A's. Turnovers. Adelphi had 20. St. A's had 18. Ground balls, kind of even close. Uh Adelphi had 33. St. A's had 20 uh 29. And each team was uh one for one and zero attempts for Adelphi. So Adelphi snaps a 26-game winning streak in that game. Yeah, so uh St. A's is the last of the undefeated teams, I think, in Division II. And uh they're five and oh in conference.

SPEAKER_01 30:32

Tampa's undefeated.

SPEAKER_04 30:33

Oh, Tampa. Tampa's undefeated too. So that's it. There's only two left.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

So smoke is coming on my ears. I had to think really hard for that one. And that's it.

SPEAKER_04 30:45

I was surprised at that game. I because I had a Delphi big. So that's another crow eating game I have to take today.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

Well, we both had a Delphi on that one, I'm sure. And I I don't think I even said it would necessarily be close. I thought that a Delphi, I thought it would be like an A Delph, a Delphi Bentley game. That's what I thought.

SPEAKER_03 31:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

I I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 31:05

I don't know what I thought. I just thought, you know, I thought Sayne struggled against Assumption the you know in the week before. And here's here comes, you know, mighty Adelphi. And uh just threw me for a loop. I think Seine's just played well. I don't think Adelphi played that well.

SPEAKER_01 31:25

And um I think that goes back to Danny. We kind of talked about this with Peach Belt. We talked a little bit about this with the GLVC and Maryville Lewis and and Rockhurst. Assumption. And we talked about them as a as a dark horse kind of when we did their conference preview, and that they could be really good this year. They are good, and I think maybe you know, Assumption played really well. St. A's was able to pull it out. Now just flip it. Now, you know, there are some teams that you can say, well, can beat a Delphi. It's it's closer in the NE 10 than in the past.

SPEAKER_03 32:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:05

Assumption's nine and two, Kev, and they're four and two in conference. I mean, they're playing as good as anybody, if you ask me. Right. I mean, and Gabe St.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

A's, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:16

You know, Gabe St. A's a hell of a game last week.

SPEAKER_01 32:19

It was an overtime game.

SPEAKER_04 32:21

So here we go. I mean, it's it's go time and conference plays. Right.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

It's great. Yeah, it's really starting to heat up. Yep. That brings us, I think, to the games we're gonna watch this next week. I've got one, all the games I'm looking at, Danny, are on Saturday, April 12th.

SPEAKER_04 32:41

Hold on.

SPEAKER_01 32:42

We didn't talk about Georgian Court Chessing Hill.

SPEAKER_04 32:45

We're gonna talk about speeding up here a little bit. Take your foot off the accelerator, kid.

SPEAKER_01 32:52

God, I don't even have on my list, and we already we talked about that. All right.

SPEAKER_04 32:55

We didn't talk about Limestone Anderson. Well, that's because that was last week. Was it? I'm so mixed up. I got so many, I got papers and notes.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

All right, talk about uh talk about Chestnut Hill.

SPEAKER_04 33:13

Yeah, some uh C A C C action. Again, some more, some more crow eating for Danny Boy here. Yeah, not a good week for Danny and picking. I mean, just last week I was ready to go to Vegas with all my money. And this week I'm coming home broke. Hey, this was a pretty good game, the Georgian Court Chestnut Hill. You and I both had Chestnut Hill. We picked and we got beat, Kev. Georgian Court beat Chestnut Hill 10-7. Uh the Lions at Georgian Court go to 8-5, 5-0 in conference. Chestnut Hill is 5-4 overall, and Coach DeCarlo has his team 4-1 in conference. Uh Chestnut Hill got on the board first with a nice unassisted goal from Nick Kilgallen. Will Duddy buried one, and then Sam Slater buried one. Dutty scored again for Chestnut Hill, and it was 4-0 Chestnut Hill quickly before Matt Dorian scored for Georgian Court, 4-1. Georgian Court, uh Chestnut Hill after one. Chestnut Hill looked very good. They looked in charge of the game. You know, I was like, okay. Second quarter, Tyler Burns scored one for the Lions, making it 4-2. But one of our players to watch, Jake Ballerini, uh, the sophomore from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, buried one. He's a good player, tiny, a little small on the small side, quick, great stick works, and makes a lot of good decisions with the ball. He buried one, making it 5-2. Chestnut Hill. Brody Seaburn answers right away for Georgian Court, followed by a nice goal from Doug McKenzie for the Lions. And the comeback was starting, Kev. It was 5-4. Chestnut at the half. Each team traded goals early in the third, and Matt Dorian was able to tie it at six on a man-up goal, and that's how the third ended, nodded at six. So here comes Georgian Court, you know, flying back. Uh in the fourth, Brett Bridges gave the Lions their first lead of the day at the six-minute mark. Kilgallen answered right away, and we were tied again at seven. This is getting to be a good game now. Yeah. Georgian Court scored three more times in the final four minutes. And the difference in that was Albanese at the face-off. He won every face-off in that period. Wow. And it was a good game, evenly matched. I felt the difference in the game was at face-off for Georgian Court. Matt Dorian with three, Doug McKenzie with three, Spear, Bridges, Burns, and Brody Seaborn each with one. Steven Albanese was insane. 15 for 17 at face-off. He was just remarkable. Max Dennington, two ground balls and two calls turnovers. And our man in between the pipes, Vinnie Burkhart, he had a great day. 16 saves. For Chestnut Hill, Mick Kilgallen with three. Will Duddy with two. Jake Ballerini with one. Sam Slater also had one. Carter Getz struggled. 5 for 20 at the dot. Noah Hammond, the defender, had a good day, four ground balls. Evan Fallo, two ground balls and two cause turnovers. And Adam Daly, 14 saves in between the pipes for Chestnut Hill. So Chestnut Hill went out to that early lead, and Georgian Court just kept chipping at that stone. Chipping, chipping, chipping, tied it. They went down again, came back, tied it again, and then scored three more times in the last four minutes of the game. And that's kind of sealed.

SPEAKER_01 37:12

And they come back. Pretty impressive. Yeah, come back. Come back Saturday. Yeah. Okay. So I was remiss. Limestone Anderson was last Wednesday after we recorded. I did not watch the game until Friday when I was waiting to catch a flight home from being in Atlanta. So that's where I'm mixed up. So I didn't take any notes. I did watch the game. What did you think of that game, Danny?

SPEAKER_04 37:43

Um I thought Anderson played pretty good. I again, first quarter woes. Um turnovers kind of shot themselves in the foot in the first quarter. And it could have been a big difference in the game. I think, you know, Coach Mitchell would love to have that first quarter back. Um, that kid Ryan Beneman, he's good, huh? Yeah. He's good. He's scoring like in bunches. He's really hard to stop. I don't know why somebody just don't put a guy right in his jock strap wherever he goes. If he goes to the port-a-party, you go to the port-a-party. If he goes to the corner of the field, you go to the corner of the field.

SPEAKER_01 38:20

I mean, they've got a few other, like like Raiden Badron, they got a few other. Maybe that's it. But, you know, either you you got to pick your poison sometimes, right?

SPEAKER_04 38:28

Which one are you going to go with? I'm going to go with trying to stop Bitterman. I mean, he's the guy. He's very good. Anderson's good, Kev. They're good.

SPEAKER_01 38:36

Here's what I would say for this game, Danny. I thought when Limestone went up 4-0 and then it was like 6-1. Right? I'm thinking, oh, they Limestone has this. You said it was the a lot was the first quarter, right? It was the first quarter. And I'm thinking, wow, Limestone just has total control of this game. I gotta give Anderson a lot of credit in how they fought back to stay in the game most of the rest of this of the of the game, right? Once you got into the second quarter, they started to chip away and they made it close.

SPEAKER_04 39:14

I to me, I mean, first of all, face-off is big, and Anderson's got two guys that can really really do damage at face-off in uh uh Aiden Dixon and AJ Rush. The two of them are very, very good. They're both in the top ten um in face-off percentage, and they do a great job of just getting Anderson possessions. And Anderson's fast. They're very energetic. They go, they're like the Energizer Bunny, man. They just keep going and going. A lot of feet moving, a lot of guys coming in. Um McGarry, Kaczynski, Zach Terry buried biscuits early. Joel Mullen added one. Joel Crusal got the Trojans on the board at the 542 mark. Grant Rogers and O'Ney scored for Limestone. Then Ryan Bitterman scored on a beautiful assist from Diego Lopez. It was 6'3. Limestone Saints have to one. Felt like they were in control. Yep. You know, just a couple of turnovers in the beginning of the game for Anderson. And giving Limestone extra possessions is never a good thing, Kev. They just take advantage of it. They're such a good team, and they're so deep, and their IQ is so high, then you can't make mistakes against this team. And, you know, I think Anderson made a few early mistakes, but then they settled down. Second quarter, uh Lamarro put the Saints up 7-3. And that's when Anderson began, they began to put their foot on the gas a little bit. They started to bring up the energy a little bit. Bitterman scored twice more. Braden Bushnell brought it to within one. Each team traded one goal. Then Anderson defense held limestone to two goals on only six shots attempted in the second quarter. Pretty, pretty outstanding. It was eight, seven limestone at half. Third quarter, each team traded one goal before Raiden Badron scored on a man up. And we had our first tie at nine in the third quarter. I was like, oh boy. Yeah. We're in a game now, and I like the Anderson's energy, but Limestone matched it, Kev. They were able to match everything that Anderson put out there. Boom, they would come back and get that extra score, that second score. And Anderson would answer, and Limestone would come back and get that other score.

SPEAKER_01 41:40

Right, right. It's almost like you climb to that top ladder and you think you're there, and then you slip, right? So they were tied 9-9, and then Limestone scores two to go up 11-9. And then they climb back, Anderson climbs back up to tie it to 11. And then Limestone went on that run, a six-goal run. Yeah. It was 14-11 after three Limestone.

SPEAKER_04 42:06

And and and then in the fourth, I mean, they outscored, they outscored Anderson 4-3 in the fourth. Just really good matchup between Zach Foes. Limestone is very deep, Kev. A lot of players. They just keep fresh legs. Chinese army, man. Fresh legs, fresh legs. For Anderson, Ryan Bitterman. That kid can play, man. Four goals. Raiden Badron with four. Cole Sparks, Hazel Hurst, Bushnore, Crasal, Calabries, and PJ Finchak each added one. David Bradley had three ground balls in the cost turnover. Dylan Witt, five ground balls and three cause turnovers. Aiden Dixon, six for eighteen at the dot, and AJ Rush, 13 for 17 at the dot.

SPEAKER_01 42:55

Yeah, they had 29 face-off wins to limestone six.

SPEAKER_04 43:01

Yeah. And uh Chase Robertson, two ground balls and a cause turnover. For Limestone, Carter Kaczynski. I keep telling you about this kid. Yeah. And this is another thing about Limestone. Each week it's somebody else. It's Zach Terry one week. It's McGarry one week. It's Kaczynski one week. It's you know, it's just it's fun to watch Limestone play. They're a very good team to watch. Carter Kaczynski with four, Zach Terry with three, Mike McGarry with two, Austin Lamero with two, Caden and Nagy, who had like a million goals last week, held to two. Blake Marikel with one, Joel Mullen, John Sheffley with one, Grant Rogers with one, David Bradley with one. They threw a bunch of guys at the dot, and it didn't work. They were throwing everybody out. Hey, you got a stick? Go out there and take a face off. Uh they were combined four guys Stanton, Keegan, Cox, and Donahue were combined six. For 35 at the X. They did not do very well. Anderson outshot them 58 to 50. Um turnovers. Anderson had 24. Limestone had 20 clears. Anderson was 17 for 21. Limestone was a perfect 24 for 24. Ground balls, Anderson won that war 47 to 39. And on the extra man opportunities, Limestone was one for three. And Anderson was two for five. So Anderson's a very, very good team, Kev. They've been kind of silently, you know, they lost to North Greenville, and everybody's forgot about them.

SPEAKER_01 44:38

Exactly right. I forgot about them in a lot of ways. Me too. Until they, you know, then they beat Lenore Ryan, and you're like, geez, man.

SPEAKER_04 44:45

There's one eye open. There's one eye open. Okay, we're watching them now. And now they face they face Wingate this week, Anderson. And that's gonna be that's gonna be more work. Anyone who's ever taken a kid to a morning travel game knows how important that travel cup of coffee is. When it's that coffee, if you know, don't forget how early it is.

Games to Watch this week

SPEAKER_01 46:26

Let's just go to that in our games to watch this week. Now that I can say that, I think we got through all the games. I messed up. I obviously didn't have my notes right. I guess I'm not I'm not batting the thousand today, but let's talk about that game. Wingate against Anderson. Look at I think Wingate needs this more than Anderson in a lot of ways. Wingate needs this game. This is a playoff game for the Bulldogs. Yeah, yeah. And but like you said, Anderson played limestone really tough. Go one step further. Where is one spot Wingate has struggled against good teams with face-offs? At face-off. At face-off, yeah. And so you have got to think that once again, they are not gonna get above maybe 30% if that at the X. And so what are they gonna do to keep the score down from Anderson? Well, they're just gonna have to play good offense. They're gonna have to bury biscuits early and often. Right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 47:33

It's gonna be a game. I mean, I think these two teams match up pretty well outside for the face-off. Outside of face-off, I think these teams match up. I think offensively, both not I think Wingate's very good offensively. I think their biggest problem and their struggle this year has been slow starts, slow first quarters, and and face-off woes. They struggle against teams with good face-off guys. Yep.

unknown 47:58

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 47:59

You know, they don't stink, but they struggle. You know, they look for the 50-50 balls on the wings. So they're Wingate's gonna need good wing play. I think uh Anderson's gonna need to be really sharp on offense because Wingate's defense is very good. They've they're holding teams to to low scores. I think the only team that scored, there's only a couple of teams that scored double digits on them all year.

SPEAKER_01 48:25

Yeah. Well, and it's tough for me to compare Wingate to Limestone's defense. Uh I think Limestone's defense is really good. We'll have to see, like, that Wingate's defense, it's the same thing we said uh when they played Lenore Ryan, right? Wingate's defense is going to have to step up, and they weren't there in that first quarter against Newberry.

SPEAKER_04 48:46

No, I mean they they it was eight to two after one against Newberry for Wingate. So they can't afford a slow start, and they have to play have have good wing play. I think it's gonna be a pretty good game. It's at Anderson, right? If I'm not mistaken. Is it at Wingate? I think. Hang on. I thought it was at Anderson. So anyway, I think that's gonna be it's gonna be a barn burner. And it's, you know, sack implications, and you know, for both teams, it's a real wingate. It's at wingate. All right. Advantage wingate in this game.

SPEAKER_01 49:28

At home. You know what, Danny? I I would have so beginning the season, I would have said wing gate. Advantage wingate. To me, it's a pick'em game. I put their face off, what they can do with face off, how they played against Limestone, I think it's a pick'em. I I can't pick it. I I I'm maybe I'm chickening out, but I can't pick this one.

SPEAKER_04 49:51

You know, in limestone's defense, how long can they keep up that energy? You know, before they have a little lull, you know what I'm saying? And teams are able to play well against them. Right. You know what I mean? Like what you you're keeping that energy up. You know, like teams are coming at you with their best. You know, they put their time in and and study and and film, practice, doing scout, you know, whatever they're doing, and and you know, just limestone just looks so good to me. I just like the way they move the ball. I like the way they move off ball when they're not, when they don't have the ball in their stick, what they're doing. Multiple scores, you know, and but for Anderson, they got some pretty good scores too, you know. And exactly. And I like Wingate's defense all year. I think Wingate's defense has really helped them or kept them where they are. You know, as as prolific as their offense is, they're fourth in the nation scoring Wingate at 17, 18 goals a game. But Anderson's number one in the country at 21 goals a game. But Wingate's defense is fifth in the country to holding teams low, you know. So here we got these little matchups in within the matchups.

SPEAKER_01 51:11

It's gonna be a very, very good game. That's why I can't, I I really can't pick it. And like I said, I think that we we've talked about already Wingate struggling at the X against a good team like this, and their face-off duo is strong. So it'll be a it'll be a great game.

SPEAKER_04 51:26

It's a big game for the Bulldogs, and I they know it's a big game. They know that they haven't played their best. Hey, when you think about it though, the Bulldogs are four goals away from being undefeated. Four goals. It's kind of wow, wow. You know, when you think about it. One goal lost to Newberry, three goal lost to LR. And that L R game, I mean 6v6, they were even. They gave up three extra man up goals, and they lost by three Wingate in that game against LR. So I think this is gonna be a really, really good game. I'm gonna give the slight, slight advantage to Wingate being at home.

SPEAKER_01 52:09

Alright, sounds good. Few other games I've got on Saturday. So I've got post-Bridgeport, and that's because they're not even at the top of their conference, but it's a critical game for both of them to get into their conference tournament. That's why I've got that on the list. Another one I'm looking at, Danny, is Emmanuel Mount Olive. Mount Olive is five and six overall, but four and two in conference. Emmanuel is eight and four overall. And three and two in conference. This is a big step for Emmanuel. If they can if they can beat Mount Olive, they move into third in their conference. Wow. It's interesting the Conference Carolinas this year. Yeah. Yeah. One other big game. I got two other games. Westminster CUI. This is a rematch. Concordia won the first round on their home turf. Westminster's coming off a loss to CMU. Can they even the series against Concordia at home? I think that could be a good game. What do you like? I'm gonna say I'm gonna say Concordia takes it. I'm gonna I'm gonna agree with you.

SPEAKER_04 53:33

I think that game against uh Mesa a couple of weeks ago gave them a lot of confidence.

SPEAKER_01 53:39

And they beat Westminster one now once. So it really depends, like, okay, they're going on the road all the way to Salt Lake. Let's see what they can do. The last game I've got on my list, Danny, is Montevallo Flagler. Before we get to our game of the week, Monte Valo Flagler. This is a critical peach belt matchup. I actually thought it was going to be in a bigger game, but the Falcons had a surprising loss to Lander, right? But Flagler controls its destiny, so they do not want to lose to the Falcons in this game. And Montevallo is a very, very good team and are gonna want to look to bounce back and Montevallo's nine and four.

SPEAKER_04 54:19

Where's this game? Montevallo. Hmm. Could be a trap game for Flagler. Could be.

SPEAKER_01 54:26

You know, I mean, they're in Peach Bell play. They've got, you know, they just played UAH, they've got uh Montevallo, and they got to follow up with Landor. I mean, it's the end of the season for them.

SPEAKER_04 54:34

So you know, as good as Flagler is, and they're good, and you know that I've loved them all year. All year I love them, they're not the greatest at face-off either, like Wingate. They struggle at face-off, they look for to get wing play, and they get it. Yeah. Now Flagler's in the top six in the country. And I'm looking at some of these other teams and I'm saying, okay, as good as Flagler is, can they be competitive with a limestone? Can they be competitive with a Tampa? Can they be competitive with a Wingate, an Anderson, you know, a Pace, and a Delphi? Are they that good? Are they really in that true top ten? So I I have a question about that a little bit. Yeah. Because I feel I would love to see them with a top 10 matchup, a top 10.

unknown 55:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 55:31

You know, because Flagler really hasn't played a true team. They played Tampa. Yeah, they played Tampa.

SPEAKER_01 55:37

Lost, which Tampa's beaten everyone. So yeah. Yeah, okay. You can't really take that away from them, right?

SPEAKER_04 55:45

Tampa's on their way to a national championship. Somebody's got to knock that team off. I don't see. I think the only team that can right now that I see Limestone is Limestone.

SPEAKER_01 55:55

Steven Hill would be interesting too.

Game of the Week

SPEAKER_01 56:44

And that is Georgian Court against Wilmington. Battle of the CACC. Both undefeated in their conference. Wilmington stands at 4-0. Georgian Court is at 5-0 in conference. Wilmington has to fake Chestnut Hill after this game. So this is the matchup. Wilmington's going to want this because Georgian Court's already beat Chestin Hill. So they need this, they need to run the table to be the top seed. If Georgian Court wins this, they're the top seed.

SPEAKER_04 57:23

Yeah. You know, uh, Georgian Court eight and five, Wilmington six and three, but like you said, both of them undefeated in conference. Georgian Court five and oh after beating Chestnut Hill. And um Wilmington's at four and oh. Oof, I don't know. Tough one. Where's this game? Georgian court. You know, I don't know. I have yet to see Wilmington play this year. So I can't really pick, you know, I I don't have a pulse on them, you know.

SPEAKER_01 57:57

I think this is another I'm I'm checking it out again on this one. Same thing with Wingate Anderson, but I I have seen a little bit of Georgian Court, seen a little bit of Wilmington, but not enough on either one, really, to get a gauge. And I think this is going to be a pick'em game.

SPEAKER_04 58:13

Yeah, I'd have to agree with you. What impressed me about Georgian Court was their fortitude in the last game. I mean, they were down. Yeah. And they were st and they were struggling, and and then they just, but they just kept chipping. They didn't get they didn't get panicked. You know, they just kept playing their game, playing their game.

SPEAKER_01 58:30

And that's what you want near the end of the season, right? You want that kind of fortitude.

SPEAKER_04 58:34

Yeah, playing their game, just running their offense, running their defense. And hey, if we do this, this, and this, good things will happen. And Georgian Court was able to mount that comeback and beat a good Chestnut Hill game, a team who ran, you know, ran out in front pretty quick. Yeah. So, you know, I like what Mickey Hover does there, but you know what? It seems like in tournament time he always comes up a little bit short.

SPEAKER_01 58:58

So it's a big game for Georgian Court, really. It is, it is. And like we like I said, Wilmington's gonna want this to try to capture that top seat as well.

SPEAKER_04 59:08

And Wilmington's gonna be on the road. They're gonna be on the road. It's always a little bit difficult when you got to take that bus. Yeah. You know, Delaware up to Jersey.

SPEAKER_01 59:16

It's not too far.

Conference breakdown

SPEAKER_01 59:18

Okay, before we get to the player spotlight, let's kind of run through these conferences a little bit. We just talked a little bit about the CACC and who's on top. Chestnut Hill is in third place. You already talked about them and where they stand. Post, Holy Family, and Bridgeport are all fighting for the last two positions. And that's why that Bridgeport postgame was so important. I think Bridgeport is going to need to beat to beat Post to stay in the hunt. Holy Family has a good shot, and Post does too. Bridgeport is going to need to beat Post. Holy Family's eight and five, Kev.

SPEAKER_04 59:55

They're above 500. They're two and three in conference. They're gonna have they're gonna need a little help. They're gonna have to play better in the tournament. Again, like again, I have not yet to see Wilmington play this year. Again, they're sitting at 6-3 and undefeated. You know, again, and then I can never count out that Chestnut Hill team when it comes to tournament time.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:17

Well, that's the problem, right? I I told you already, I don't care where it stands. I'm not picking against Chestnut in the conference tournament. I could be wrong. I just I I can't do it. And look how close. I mean, they almost you would think based on their standing of how they've done this year, Georgian Court did win that game, but you wouldn't have noticed, you wouldn't have thought Chestnut Hill would have been up by so much to begin with. So I can't count them out. Okay, how about Conference Carolinas? North Greenville is in the driver's seat at 5-0 in the conference.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:49

They beat both Belmont Abbey and Mount Olive. Yeah, yeah. And they just have Barton and Lees McRae left. Belmont Abbey sits at 4-1, and it looks like to me that they're the only ones, yeah, in conference that they're about the only ones and give North Greenville a run for their money in the tournament.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:07

Yeah, but you know, again, when tournament time comes, everything's amped up a little bit more, a little bit tighter on the sticks, hands a little tighter on the sticks, you know. So, you know, you get that those nervous, you know, easy, you know, bad turnovers that in the beginning of the game in tournament time. You kids are so tight. But to see to see North Greenville, what's their team's name again? Now you got me. I can't. The Timberwolves? No, that's Northville. No. I'm sorry, guys. I can't. You were the Saints for so long. So North Greenville. The Trailblazers. The Trailblazers.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:50

Trailblazers.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:52

It's gonna be a bigger one. He begins with a T. It's gonna be tough for me to remember that. I don't know why. But you know, to see North Greenville in there, you know, last couple of years they've had, you know, some little ebbs and flows in there, but they look good this year. Caden Castle's putting up big points, the former Wingate kid.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:08

Yeah. So they're a solid, solid team. You know, they struggled. Same thing. They got out of the gates a little bit slow, but they've been coming on. And in conference play, they they've run the board so far, and they've only got Barton and Lees McCrae, so I see them winning both those games.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:28

Yeah, I do too. I do too. That's that's that's a cool uh conference there going on right now. It is North Greenville sitting at one, Belmont Abbey sitting at two. Mount Oliver's in three at at four and two. Four and two. Then Emmanuel's right there. Maybe a young Harris, maybe. Maybe.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:53

Maybe.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:54

All right. Alright, so let's move to the ECC. Malloy. Malloy. They have to face Mercy in a couple weeks, though. Yeah, so they're Mercy and Malloy are both undefeated in conference, and they play each other last game of the season on April 25th, of the regular season. Frostburg just lost to Malloy, right? Yep. By one. And they finished their season by playing Mercy and Roberts Wesley. And Roberts Wesleyan is in fourth place at 2-1 in conference, and they still have Malloy, Deuville, and Frostburg, like we talked about. So I don't know. You know, DeUville needs to win out to have a chance of getting into the tournament against UDC and Roberts Wesleyan. Yep. It's possible. It is. It's possible.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:48

Not probable, though. So Malloy's at 10, they're 10-3. They're 2-0 in conference. Mercy's 6-3. But 3-0 in conference, and those two play each other in a couple weeks. Yeah. Malloy just beat Frostburg. Frostburg's at 500, 6-6, but they're 3-1 in conference. They could make some noise in in the conference tournament, you know, if they can put it together. And Roberts Wesley and sitting at 5-5 and 2-1 in conference. So them and Frostburg are like neck and neck. Yep. So I like the ECC. I think it's Malloy's to lose, to be honest with you. I just, you know, I don't know if they're the the long seasons catching up with Malloy. You know what I mean? They start out so good, you start out really great, that high energy. And then you win the season, those legs start to get a little heavier and a little heavier.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:40

It'll be intriguing to see the Mercy Malloy game, but I don't think that's going to tell you who who's going to win. I think that'll be a close game. And so if Mercy wins or Malloy wins, that doesn't mean that like we talked about, it's tough to beat a team twice in one season. I think that will be a great game, actually. Yeah. I agree. I agree. All right, let's quickly go to the GMAC. GMAC. Look at it's Seton Hill. Seton Hill, Seton Hill. Davenport, Walsh, Lake Erie, and Wheeling all have good chances to get in the tournament. Northwood, Danny, in their first year could get in if they beat Davis and Elkinson Davenport, which would be really cool. And it's very probable and possible. It's possible. Now Davenport just beat Walsh. So like I don't know. It's it's really interesting. But Northwood could do it. And what I would say is, even with all that, it's Seaton Hill. Oh yeah, it's Seaton Hill. No one's beaten them. No one's beaten them. Well, we just talked about that. And I I think I mentioned this last podcast. The thing I worry about Seaton Hill is not the games they have to play in the GMAC.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:54

The favorable schedule towards the end of the season.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:57

Right. I does that get them sharpened. For the NCAA tournament.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:02

I think Navotny's a good enough coach to keep them right where they need to be. I think their players know where they are and know what needs to be done and will take care of business. Seton Hills, uh 10 and 1, 5 and 0 in conference. Um Davenport and Northwood are both at 4-6, Kev. But Davenport holds the edge in conference with four with only one loss while uh Northwood has three losses already. Um Malone at 5-8. Like it's crazy that some of the teams are brand new, you know, getting four, five, six wins in a you know. Yeah, well, Malone has had winning seasons before. I know it's crazy. So Lake Erie is sitting at four and six, they're at four and two. They got a good chance as any. Mm-hmm. You know, as you know, with Lake Erie, the storm. So again, this is Seton Hill's conference now without Mercy Hurst there. Yep. You know, and those other teams are like, thank God Mercy Hurst is gone because now we got a shot. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:06

They're gonna have to up their games in the next coming years to really have that shot. I mean, and and Seton Hill is stacked this year.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:11

Let's yeah. I'd like to keep my eye on Lake Erie in that in that yeah, you know what I mean? I think they could maybe be sneaky and you never know. Get a one of two tournament wins and and maybe make a little run at the GMAC.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:27

It could. All right, how about the GLVC? Merryville stands top it right now at 2-0, but they still have Quincy Rockhurst, who they beat in overtime, and you Indy. Rockhurst is at 1-0, and they've got Quincy, William, Jewell, Maryville, and Lewis left. I don't know, Danny. I think we talked about this earlier really quickly. I think it's wide open between Meryville, Rockhurst, and Lewis.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:54

Yeah, it's those three. And I think Maryville's holding that edge a little bit right now with that win over Lewis. Gives them a lot of confidence. You know, and if they get that one seed, they're gonna be hosting a game at home, you know, in conference. Or I don't know where their tournament is, if they do the tournament at one spot, or the higher seed holds the games. I don't know how they do it. But you know, Maryville with that big win over Lewis, they're in the driver's seat in the GLVC right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:24

Yeah. Yeah. All right, let's move to the NE10.

unknown 1:08:29

St.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:30

A's just went on top at 5-0. Pace is also undefeated in the conference right now in 4-0. And Pace and St. A's play on the last week of the season. Place still Pace still has to play at Delphi before that. So I don't know. You know, and it and I it what I looking at the standings to me, surprisingly, Southern New Hampshire at one and three may be in best position to take the sixth spot if you look at where what who they've got left.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:05

Yeah, it's very possible. Pace's got an interesting schedule coming up, so they're gonna have to play St. A's and a Delphi. Uh St. A's right now is in the driver's seat in the N. Isn't that crazy? We weren't we wouldn't say that ten days ago. Nope. Nope. You know, but I wouldn't count a Delphi out.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:28

I would definitely, I was gonna say the same thing, Danny. I mean, so when you're a wounded animal, you're dangerous.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:36

It's true. True. So it's we'll have to see what Pace does in the next couple of weeks. Assumptions right there. Say A's holds holds the key to the car right now. Bentley's got a shot. And who else? You're saying Southern New Hampshire?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:54

Yeah, that's who I think, based on who they've got left in the in the I'd have to agree with you.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:00

So again, Saint A's in the driver's seat at Delphi's right there with Pace and Assumption right there as well. So the N is uh it's coming down to like that. Should be a really good tournament, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:13

Yeah. Yeah. So we talked about Peach Belt and Armac already. Anything you want to add about those? I mean, and we talked about Flag are kind of they're in the driver's seat there too. They control their destiny. Armac is somewhat a little bit more wide open, I think, but Colorado Mesa, like you said, you know, they they're 4-0, so they're the they're the ones that you gotta beat. You gotta knock them off.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:40

Yep. I don't know. Flagler looks good to me, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:44

I just think they're on a roll. Yeah. I'll I can't wait for that the Peach Belt Armac final. Yeah, that's gonna be a good one.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:53

Yeah, it's it's new. It's new to Division II, new to the NCAA. Brings a new, whole, new, kind of interesting twist to it, huh?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:01

Yeah. Okay, we got two more to go through really quickly. Sack, limestone. Only tough game they've got left is against Wingate. Yeah. I think LR is has the easiest road left because they've got Tusculum, Coker, and Kataba. They should end up 8-2 in the conference. Anderson has to play both Wingate and Newberry and then follow up with Mars Hill. So they've got a tough road, too. Like we said, we talked about this already. Wingate is in a playoff game right now against Anderson. They've got to beat Anderson and Limestone to climb to the top of the heat. Yeah, that's a tall order, my friend. And the way I look at it, Danny, Kataba probably has the best chance of making and getting the sixth seat.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:46

Yeah, I agree with that. So we got to, you know, limestones, they're in the driver's seat. They do face Wingate. Wingate is talented. They have a lot of good offensive players and a great defense. That could be a good competitive game, the limestone. But Wingate's got to get past Anderson. Anderson's ranked first. Anderson's ranked tenth this week. And the Bulldogs are ranked ninth. So Wingate's got a big, big game. This is the biggest game of Wingate's season this week coming up.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:19

Totally agree.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:20

Against Anderson. It's gonna really mean a lot. But then again, once we get into tournament time, all these teams have been beating up each other in the sack. There's five teams in the sack in the top 20, and what, four of them are in the top ten? Yeah. Pretty crazy. Yeah. Sack's pretty good, man. That's a good conference. Yeah, it's very good. To get through that conference, you need to be tough. You need to be good. You need to be strong. You need to be a lot of things, man, to get through this conference. And limestone's in the driver's seat. Again, big game for Wingate Anderson. Anderson has to face uh Wingate has to face Limestone, which could be a good competitive game. So I think I think one the team the sack. Got a good chance of going to the natty.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:11

Yeah, right now, I I'd agree with that. They have to take out Tampa. I think it's gonna counter Tampa and someone else in the semifinals. You know, the finals in the South, but the semifinals. And speaking of that, Sunshine State, Tampa's at 4-0. Emory Riddle is at 4-1 because they just beat uh St. Leo. But they still have to play Tampa and Rollins. Then you've got four teams, Danny, tied at 2-2. St. Leo, Lynn, Florida Tech, and Rollins. Yeah, but St. Leo has the head-to-head matchups against those guys. Well, they haven't played Rollins or Florida Tech yet. So they they've beat Lynn and they've got two of the other ones still left that are two and two. Yeah, Florida, yeah. Rollins are struggling this year, huh? They're just not I think I really think it's the injuries that took him out. I think it's the injuries that took them out. Uh they've got St. Leo, Florida Tech, and Emory Riddle. That's they out of all now six of them go to the tournament. I really think you know that's the ones that are gonna go. Florida Southern could get in if they beat both Lynn and Tampa, and uh Lynn loses two of the three. I don't see Lynn uh losing two or the three. They play Florida Tech, Florida Southern, and uh Palm Beach Atlantic. I see them winning probably two of the three.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:35

Yeah, you know, Emory Riddle with the big win over St. Leo this week puts them in that second spot. So Tampa's undefeated both in regular season and in conference play. Emory Riddle sits at eight and four at four and two in conference. Leo sits at it.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:51

I thought they were four and one in conference. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:53

What why does mine stay four and two? I don't know. You could let me check. I'm looking at inside lacrosse. So anyway. St. Leo sits at eight and four. Lynn is at seven four. And I guess Florida Tech, you know? I don't know, right now. So I mean it's Tampa's, they're in the driver's seat. Emory Riddle and St. Leo are probably gonna play each other again. Lynn has been playing pretty good.

unknown 1:15:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:23

They've been sponsoring. They've been playing very well. Yeah. And Florida Tech, I mean, they're a big athletic team, Florida Tech. And they could be, you know, they could surprise somebody.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:35

So I I just want to point this out. I I went on Emory Riddle's website, Inside Lacrosse is wrong. They're four and one, probably because they played Palm Beach Atlantic twice. Okay, gotcha. They lost once to them, but that was an out-of-conference game early in the season.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:54

So Emery Riddle's four and one and St. Leo's what? Two and one, two and two.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:59

Two and two. So St. Leo, Lynn, Florida Tech, and Rollins are all two and two. And they each each one plays at least two of those, almost two of those teams every time. So kind of crazy. It is gonna be well, look, let's look at it. It's really gonna come down to who's gonna get that spot to play Tampa in the final.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:20

That's the way I look at it. I still like St. Leo, though.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:24

Even though with the loss to Emory Riddle, I still like them. Yeah, they have a very good shot. They have a good shot. Tell you what, wouldn't shock me if Lynn keeps on coming back. No, that wouldn't shock me either.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:39

It wouldn't shock me either. That would be a good one. Sunshine State, you know, that that's a good conference. These teams are pretty good and they beat each other up. Yeah, they're another one of those conferences that beat each other up. Yeah. And the one, you know, the guys coming out of that conference are gonna be sharpened and seasoned. Yeah. So I like the Sunshine State. They're excellent conference, especially this year. Tampa, Emery Riddle, St. Leo, Lynn. Even, you know, Palm Beach Atlantic kind of started to put it together a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:10

Yeah, they've had some. Yeah, no, they're they're a solid team. They are a solid team.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:15

And and Florida Southern put that really, really, really hard schedule together, and it came to bite them in the ass. Yeah. They're sitting at three and nine or one and five in concerts. Uh con uh in conference. So interesting. We're coming up to the interesting part of the season, you know, where some of these games in conference mean a lot. Exactly.

Player's Spotlight

SPEAKER_04 1:17:37

Exactly. Now it's on the playoffs off the lights.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:44

Once again, Danny, time for the player spotlight. My favorite part, Kev. My favorite part. I know it. I'm excited to have this player on because his career is mirroring the traject the trajectory of his team. That was tough to say for me. Each year, he has built on his stats, just like his team is doing. Freshman year, 19 points, sophomore year, 37 points, junior year 55. And he has already surpassed that mark his senior year with 66 points so far. What does that all mean? He's the all-time points leader for his team at 177 and climbing. And counting. And counting. We're not even done yet. So let's welcome him in. Luke Hildebrandt, attackman slash MIDI, depending where they want to put him on the field for the Manual Lions. Hey, Luke. What's up, Luke?

SPEAKER_00 1:19:45

Oh, doing good. I don't play MIDI at all no more. So if you're attacked I'm too slow for all that.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:50

I can tell by the numbers you're at attack. I can tell by the numbers you're at attack. Hey, Luke Gildebrand.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:56

Roster still has you listed as both, so I had to I had to point that out.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:00

The senior from Didsbury, Alberta, Canada, Didsbury High School. Dude, you are just bawling out this year. What is like the net just like a big open like basket for you right now? You seeing it pretty good?

SPEAKER_00 1:20:17

Well, points keep on dropping. I wish you'd take more credit for it, but you know, I got that midfield line or other attack been making me look good. So I'm no fancy dodger or nothing. I just get to put the ball in the back of the net. So always say I'm a good scorer, not the best player, but it's working for me right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:32

Interesting. What does that feel like to be the all-time points leader at a manual?

SPEAKER_00 1:20:38

Uh it's pretty good and it's satisfying this year, just our program's growing more and more each year, slowly and surely. Like we've kind of banned through the ringer in the years before that, but right now it's timing and looking good. So it's good to out with the old.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:52

Yeah, we'll get to that in a second. But as Danny pointed out, you're all the way from Didsbury, which I had to look up, I have to freely admit. I mean, it is in the middle of farm country, it seems like, but not too far from Calgary or beautiful band. How did you get all the way down to Franklin Springs, Georgia?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:12

Well, the funny story of that is COVID hit, and I wasn't gonna look at College Across, I didn't think I was smart enough for all that, but COVID hit and it was kind of a why not? Had nothing but free time, so put out a highlight reel, and I got some emails back from some other teams. But Emmanuel sent me the most money my way and kind of went for it. I had no clue I was getting in for, though. Never looked up the campus, didn't look at any events.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:33

So went in blind, didn't even take a visit, just said here I come.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:38

Yes, pure financials, you know, money made sense.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:41

No, I can I can understand that being a father of three boys who went to college. I can completely understand the financial part of that. Did you play like box lacrosse up in Canada? Did you do a lot of that?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:55

Yeah, I've played box lacrosse my whole life, actually. So once I hit juniors, I played junior A for three years. And my last two years now I played for our local team. Just getting tired of driving up to the cities. I'm a small town farm boy, so it's a long drive either way. But this last summer our team went to founders, so the national cup for junior B tier one. So it's been a good run, good way to finish out. And now we're looking at playing some senior ball in the next couple couple years and maybe look at the NLL if things go my way.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:24

Wow, that's great. And you're and you're graduating this year?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:28

God willing. We'll find out there. Where's the one?

SPEAKER_04 1:22:32

He's got a big smile on his face, mom and dad. He's like, God willing, with a big smile. What's your major?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:39

Uh, agriculture, actually. So we've got a good egg program out here. It's diversified agriculture, bachelor of science. So basically, uh, you know, hang out with cows all day, work with some chickens. It's pretty hands-on work, but it's stuff I've done growing up my whole life, so it's pretty easy.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:52

So, did you grow up on a farm? Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:54

Yes, sir. We used to run cattle, but mostly just your grains now. So work it, sit in a combine all day, get fat and slow.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:01

Wow, that's so cool, man. That's that's why you switch from MIDI to attack, huh? Just because of uh that that's your excuse. Yeah, that's a good one. I like it. No, I love it. I I actually I told you, I had to look it up and I could tell it was farm country. I mean, Didsbury, the town, everything around it. There's the town from the satellite, and then it's just farmland, as far as you can see. It's it's it's pretty cool, actually. So let's talk about Emmanuel's year this year. You guys sit at eight and four, three and two in conference. What has that been like considering you talked about beginning where you guys were last year? You went one and fifteen last season. You have you're tied, as I looked at it, for the most wins ever since 2014. What's that been like?

SPEAKER_00 1:23:52

It's unreal for us. Like the turnaround's just crazy. We had Coach O and we got a new assistant coach come in. And, you know, for all our seniors that have been uh through the ringer for the last couple of years, being one and fifteen, you know, last two years, things like that. We kind of we always knew we had some raw talent here, just wasn't being used. So it's just really, I guess, good to see that we weren't just crazy the whole time. So our coaches were developing well, like we can see it on the scoreboards and big games that we're losing before.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:19

We're competing with other teams, so yeah, big, big, big, big difference, you know, and I think a big part of it is is you and what you're be able what you're doing on the offensive side of the ball. But the defense is doing their job this year, holding other teams to lower scores. What do you attribute that to?

SPEAKER_00 1:24:39

Uh, Coach O's a great D coordinator. He puts in his he puts his heart and soul to it all the time. Like he's breaking down film all the time, his scouting reports are thorough. We got a young defense with a lot of Canadian guys on it, so they're just hard and they work, they're just gritty kids, so they want to win, and we're all buying in. So we're kind of playing to kill. We say that before every game, you know, we're not just going out to play a game, it's war for us right now.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:01

Oh, that's great, man. That's great to see to get that turnaround feeling, you know. Because you being on one side of the corn, and now, you know, you're above 500, man, you know, and yeah, and still going.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:13

So you talked about Coach Olson. Also, Coach Penna, I think, is the assistant, right? Is he on the offensive side more?

SPEAKER_00 1:25:20

Yeah, that's our O coordinator. So he's doing a job for us.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:23

How have they really transformed things there? We talked to Coach Olsen, we had him on the podcast, he said a few things. I'd like to get it from your perspective of what has really changed that has that has transformed this team in in really in a year. I mean, he was there last year, but he got there in January. He was trying to learn names, probably the first month you were playing games.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:45

Oh, yeah. It's just from last year, he's kind of his goal was to uh, I guess, change the culture. Obviously, he wanted to win more games and have a better season for him and just for like make recruiting easier, all those other things. So trying to grow the program. But our main focus last year was just building a culture and getting the guys to buy in, you know, who didn't want to be here because they could leave, get some new recruits coming in. But then this year, having a full fall ball with an O coordinator and a D coach just really changed the whole program for us. Like, we've got a lot of very talented players. If you look at the rest of our roster, I think we got two midis above 40-50 points. Our other attackmen all have 40-50 points. So just all around the ball is being shared really well offensively for our guys, and that just came down to it's the exact same offense we had last year, just the same, just a coach that could actually pour in some time to us and teach us some concepts, you know, actually coach us more than Coach Oak could do. He's kind of stretched thin as last year.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:37

Right. Right, right, right, right. So, what's he doing differently since you're saying the offense is the same? There must be something different there. There's got to be a little twist there because there's a big difference in what's going on.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:50

No, for sure. I think it all came down to our team having that fall just to kind of learn our systems more confidently and really knock out what we need to do fundamentally.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:58

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:59

Like he led the team in turnovers and just getting possessions. So a big part of our offense, too, is Coach O got the defense able to get us the ball. Our clearing percentage has gone up, so we get more chances to shoot the ball, and then just having a coach that believes us and just yells at us to score those goals and takes those shots, just kind of build up our confidence overall.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:15

So excellent, excellent. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:18

Yeah, the one of the things that he pointed out was when he got there, he said that he asked the team what they wanted to keep and what they wanted to change. And he said the resounding answer was keep nothing, change everything. Is that an accurate uh uh perspective?

SPEAKER_00 1:27:37

Um, that's pretty spot on. Like in terms of culture, I think we didn't really have any culture. I'll say the best thing our team had before is you know, going through the ringer like we have, like the guys have stayed and kept on playing through it. Like we're close like a family, like we're ready to look for each other every game.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:51

Like you gotta kind of like to be resilient. You have gotta be resilient to to go through that, and then see that this year has got to be. Totally rewarding for you guys. I was just gonna I was thinking the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:04

No, it feels good. It really is just affirming like got the same team, we lost some seniors, but that's about it. Just a couple new freshmen came in, but we still only got like 22, 25 guys, and we're tearing it up.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:15

That's amazing, man. That's amazing. It like the whole culture seems to have changed since Olson's got there.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:22

Oh, for sure. He's he's just built into it. He really had his focus on it. We have uh we have speakers that come in and really focus on team building and just getting our leadership right. Like I'm a captain on the team, just helping teach us how to lead better and make our team ready to buy in and go up and play.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:37

Yeah, Danny and I talk about this all the time. You know, uh we love it when we see a team like Emmanuel come from the basement, and like you said, you may not win every game when you go up against the big boys, but you put a scare in them, and you're not you're a totally different team. It's so refreshing instead of I mean, you know, it's talking about the same top five, ten teams. It's great when you get in a team like Emmanuel coming in. So let's talk about that. You have two games left, two big games, right? Mount Olive and Belmont Abbey. How is the team feeling and how are you preparing?

SPEAKER_00 1:29:14

Uh, right now, you know, we're taking it one game at a time, so Belmont's not even on our minds yet. We know it's coming up, but we're preparing for Mount Olive this week. And for us, you know, it's all or nothing. Like we got really nothing to lose as a team. These guys, like we went one and 15 like you guys said last year. So, you know, if you're losing to us, it kind of rattles teams a little bit more than you think. People come up to play us and they go, it's a free game, it's just a manual. Look at their starters and stat pad a little bit, get some points.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:40

Right, right. It ain't that way anymore. It is not that way anymore. I mean, you look at all and you're like you just said it, you're kind of playing with house money right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:51

Nothing to lose.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:53

I love it.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:54

I love it. You know, I gotta say something. I was just thinking, you know, I'm listening as he speak, and yeah, you know, the things that you've gone through. You know, you got to Emmanuel, and honest to God, to be honest with you, many times in the last couple of years, we do our conference previews before the season starts. And we get into Conference Carolinas and we're always like, oh man, Emmanuel needs help, you know, they need help, they need a couple of players, you know, and and then this year, you know, Kevin and I just like, man, Emmanuel, look at them. They're putting up numbers, they're putting up W's, you know, and we we speak off air, you know, and we like, hey, did you see this? Did you see that? And you've been there through the really bad parts, and now you're seeing the fruits of the labor. I give you your props for staying, because a lot of kids would enter that portal and get the heck out of there, especially if you can ball, you know what I mean? If you can put up points and ball, but you stayed there, so I want to give you a congratulations because I think that says a whole lot about your character.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:01

No, for sure. We love the program. Like the guys got uh what seven seniors graduating this year, so we've been through it all together. But it all comes down to Coach said it, you know, we're either stupid or we're crazy, but you know, our team loves each other and we keep on playing.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:14

So you know what? Those aren't bad traits all the time, either one of those. You know, you get a few life a lot. Did you recruit your brother to Emmanuel as well?

SPEAKER_00 1:31:24

Yes, sir. He did come along with me. So he played lacrosse growing up at box as well, and he's like, you know what, might as well. And we're kind of desperate for players, and at that point we couldn't really say no to anybody. So he's been a real solid D mid for us, and he's playing well.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:38

That's awesome. That that's awesome. Was it was it like, oh geez, my brother was he in the same boat? I I just had to think about like, do you think about college? I know you had to go through the COVID experience, it was a little bit different. Or did he just like, well, shoot, my brother's there, I might as well go too. How is that like? Do you enjoy having your brother on the team with you?

SPEAKER_00 1:31:56

Oh, it's been awesome. Like throughout high school, like I left, you had a couple years of high school to wrap up and weren't too close. And now he's come here. He's probably my best friend on the team. Like, I love the kid to pieces. And ironically, my cousin Caden Flood on the team, like, I got more family here as well, so it just keeps on growing that way.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:10

So you're creating the pipeline, huh?

SPEAKER_00 1:32:13

Oh, but I got the Alberta pipeline locked down right now. I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:17

There you go. Coach O is loving it. So you got two more games, and then it's graduation, and then and then what? Then what for Luke Hildebrand?

SPEAKER_00 1:32:28

Uh well, having a good season's definitely come with some perks for looking in the future for lacrosse. So out the gate is gonna play for the senior B minors. And they're a real solid team, they make it to the President's Cup almost every year. And that's my time to uh you know, chase my NLL dream. But this uh our spring break trip, a team in Australia reached out to me and offered let me go live there, all expenses paid for the next year. So I'm going to Australia.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:51

Oh, awesome! Oh, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:53

Yeah, it's gonna be great.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:54

So have you ever been there before?

SPEAKER_00 1:32:56

That'll be my first time.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:58

Where are you going? What side? What side are you going?

SPEAKER_00 1:33:01

South Australia. I'll be living in Adelaide.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:03

Okay. It's beautiful country. A lot of it isn't beautiful. It's uh it's uh pretty dangerous if you go in the middle of the country, but right along the coast there.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:13

You know, staying in the city from those bugs.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:17

Oh, that's great stuff, man. I I love that. That's uh that's great. So what do you think, Kev?

SPEAKER_01 1:33:23

I well after that, I mean, we have an international player going even more international. He's ready for the firing round.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:32

All right, ladies and gentlemen, from all the in-the-crease listeners tonight. We have Luke Hildebrand, the senior attackman from Emmanuel, just balling out number one in the country for points, uh, third in the country in goals. He's got 46 goals, 20 assists, 60, 66 points, 15 ground balls, and nine cause turnovers. Very cool. I like the ground balls and the cause turnovers. We appreciate you taking the time from study hall. I think mom and dad would know, like to know that you're in study hall. Gonna come down with a couple of questions. Just give us your best answer as quick as you can. You ready?

SPEAKER_00 1:34:12

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:13

All right, number one, mom's best meal.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:16

Gotta be your homemade lasagna. Change your life.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:19

Oh, that sounds good right about now, Kev. What do you think?

SPEAKER_00 1:34:24

I'm I'm in for it. I love lasagna.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:26

Yeah. Number two, Xbox or PlayStation?

SPEAKER_00 1:34:30

I got a PS5 right now, and that's what I'm sticking with.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:33

All right. Number three, ESPN or Netflix?

SPEAKER_00 1:34:39

Netflix for sure. Big show guy. I'd rather play sports than watch them.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:43

Yeah, okay. All right. That's interesting. You're a binge watcher, you like to watch your binge watch stuff. Is that what you do?

SPEAKER_00 1:34:49

Yeah, I'll binge watch them, or you got your tri-tre, your rom-coms, the office, all that.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:53

All right, cool, cool. I think I know the answer to this next one. Number four, runs or lifts.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:59

Oh, I'd rather lift any day of the week.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:01

I knew you were gonna say that. I knew you were gonna say that. Morning bird or night owl?

SPEAKER_00 1:35:07

Night owl, sure, but whatever I gotta be, I'll do.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:10

Okay, night owl. What's your go-to midnight snack?

SPEAKER_00 1:35:14

Nice dawns run, that quarter pounder with cheese is always good to you.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:18

Oh, god, that's disgusting.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:20

Oh, you're lying to yourself and you know it's something.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:23

I've had a couple in my day. What music right now is on your playlist?

SPEAKER_00 1:35:29

Uh, a lot of rock right now, actually.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:31

So what bands?

SPEAKER_00 1:35:34

What creed and nickelback or tried and true uh Alberta voice, I gotta love some nickelback.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:40

Wow, I think you're the first person I ever heard say out loud that they like nickelback.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:45

No, everyone likes nickelback, they just don't know it yet. No work.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:48

That's great. Do you have any superstitions or pregame rituals?

SPEAKER_00 1:35:55

Um, right now I make our uh O coach tape my stick because I stole his shaft and he tapes it up for weird, so he tapes all my sticks for me. And then uh we got a breakfast spot. I get a breakfast before every game and energy drink.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:07

So okay, there we go. Tell us one thing about you that not very many people know.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:16

That's a hard one. I'm kind of an open book on this campus with the teams.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:20

I'm trying to think what's um you know, something crazy like you took tap dance when you were like four or something.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:30

Well, no, we can get a little weird with that. I can uh probably neuter any kind of animal you can think of. That's uh that's the weird fun fact right there, hey. Something different for you. Yeah. That's great, man. I'm cracking up over here.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:43

I'm that I'm glad we're on Zoom. That's all I'm gonna say, Danny.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:47

Dude, I am cracking up at this. This is excellent. Give us one thing on your bucket list.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:55

Uh, I'm gonna catch a shark in Australia and maybe uh you know, hunt some kangaroo or something crazy. That's good.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:01

There you go. Well, you know what? My next question kind of leads to that. What's your favorite hobby outside of sports?

SPEAKER_00 1:37:08

Oh, I'm a big fly fisher, you know, nice and easy, stand in the creek all day.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:12

Do you make your own lures and stuff like that?

SPEAKER_00 1:37:15

I'm not that diardy. I'll spend the three bucks and uh go buy one.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:19

I gotcha, I gotcha. Okay, what's your favorite sport outside of lacrosse?

SPEAKER_00 1:37:26

Uh I play a lot of basketball growing up, so all right.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:30

I'm liking you even more and more. Ankle socks or no-show socks?

SPEAKER_00 1:37:38

Got the ankle socks, you know. No show's a little fruity for some of those people there. I'm not that kind of guy.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:45

All right. Okay. Fruity, fruity was the answer. Uh, who's the funniest kid on the team?

SPEAKER_00 1:37:54

We got some characters. Uh Dave. Call him Davey Jones, Manitoba kid. He's always got something weird to say to you, and you're gonna not know how to feel of it, but you'll be laughing.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:05

Okay. All right, who's the one kid on the team that you would never let date your sister?

SPEAKER_00 1:38:11

Oh, that's gotta be our uh goalie, Nick Tylon.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:18

Yeah, goalies are weird. They're they're they're kind of crazy, definitely. What's your favorite class at school right now? Or over the four years, what's been your favorite class?

SPEAKER_00 1:38:32

Uh we did uh veterinary science, that's one of the more interesting classes. That's where uh, like I said, neutering all the weird kind of animals, doing vet clinic things like that. So do some weird things down in the dirty springs.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:43

Okay. And who who's been the best professor there? Who's the best professor that you've had?

SPEAKER_00 1:38:48

Uh his name's Wayne Randall, one of our egg teachers. Just a stand out guy, you know, actually likes the kids and is here to make us get better.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:55

Alright. Does he come to the lax games?

SPEAKER_00 1:38:58

Uh, the lax field and the uh egg department are side by side, so he watches from a distance, but he's a popular sports.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:05

Alright. Who's the one person that's helped you most in your lacrosse journey?

SPEAKER_00 1:39:13

Um, throw that would probably just be like my family. They've just been so supportive in everything I've done. Like they give me the opportunity to keep playing, even if we didn't really always have money for it. So I kind of dedicate all those things to them. They have bought me nets and more balls than I could lose out in the field.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:28

So that's a great answer. I love that answer. And the last but not least, give us your best impression of Coach Olson.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:39

Um, you got one saying we'll do, you know, we'll have a great day up at the field. And he'll look at us and say, you know what? I'm pleased but not satisfied every single time. That's his one saying.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:48

Just pleased but not satisfied. Pleased but not satisfied. Well, Luke Hildebrand, you did a great job in the firing round. Dude, you are just bawling out this year. We appreciate you taking the time to come on in the crease podcast with us. And uh, I wish you nothing but continued success, young man. You were an excellent guest tonight. We hope you hope you enjoyed yourself.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:09

Awesome. I appreciate it. Thank you for having me on here.

Shout Outs

SPEAKER_01 1:40:12

Luke Kildebrandt was a lot of fun having on the on the show, wasn't he? Stud. He's a stud. He's ready to graduate.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:19

You could see it in him, you know what I mean? Like he's like got a couple more weeks.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:24

You know, he had the swagger when he was on with us.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:26

Yeah, he's got a couple more weeks to graduate, and he's gonna go back and be a farm boy, Kev, all the way up in Canada. Pretty cool, huh? No, he's he's going out to Australia for a year. Oh, that's right. That's right, that's right. Australia, I forgot about that.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:39

I guess he's gonna try to maybe he's gonna be in Adelaide. I wonder how many I'd have to go look at uh how much farmland's in Adelaide. Yeah. He's a good kid.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:49

I loved having him on. He's been bawling out this year, just really, really doing great things for Emmanuel. Probably the best year Emmanuel's had since you and I have been doing this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:59

Definitely that. And I found it really exciting to hear from him and hear the excitement in his voice about those players who are seniors that had to just stick with it, you know, stick with the team, stick with their brotherhood. All they had was them because they weren't winning games.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:19

Yeah, and there's only 20-something on the squad, so yeah. They knew they were up against a gauntlet every week, and they just stuck together and you know, a lot of kids would have left, man. Yeah. I I would say like 75% of the kids probably would have said, I'm not staying here.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:36

But you know, he's staying yeah, and now what Coach Olsen's doing, it's becoming its own recruiting material. Yeah, he's really changed the culture, like Luke said, and um for the better.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:47

And look, that looks like the future's brighter, Emmanuel.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:51

Yeah, I agree. I agree. Let's move on to shout-outs. Do you have any this week, Dave? I have a couple shout-outs. I have like four of them. Okay, I've got like three. So you want to start it off? All right.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:04

Big shout out to Nick Greeb, the goalie for Felician. 592 career saves, a new program record. Congratulations, Nick.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:17

Okay, I've got one. Shout out to Liam Taylor from Malloy. In the 7-6 win against Frostburg, he had six round balls and four caused turnovers. Wow, what a game. What a game.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:36

A couple of wingate shout-outs, Kev. First wingate shout-out. Attackman Kyle Spence. Just passed the hundred career point mark for wingate. He sits at like number one or number two and assists in the country. He has been balling out. So Kyle Spence attack at Wingate, 100 career points. Good for you, Kyle.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:02

Yeah. All right. I've got one. Shout out to Connor Nock of Quincy. He's racked up 150 ground balls in his career, breaking the school record. That's amazing. Congratulations. 150 ground balls.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:21

Congratulations. Um this next one is near and dear to my heart, Kev. Because it's my son. My son, Joe, the midi at Wingate, passed 100 career points. Son, proud of you. Keep grinding, keep working. Appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:41

It's a good number for a midfielder. Yeah, I like it. I like it. All right. This one's a little bit long. Stick with me here. This is a shout out to all our fan mail that we've gotten this past week through Buzzsprout. First of all, we got one again from the first time D2 Dad saying we were bang on with the four-goal win between Limestone and Anderson. Oh, you pat yourself on the back.

SPEAKER_04 1:44:04

You you look at you. I knew that was gonna come.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:07

And then you got a shout out from Shelby Wolf wishing you a happy birthday through uh fan mail. Oh, thanks, Shelby. And then I have to do this whole quote. This is from a washed up D3 across player from Cleveland, Ohio, who wrote to us. A washed up D3 player. Listen to this. That's how he signed it off. Danny and Kevin, as being a former D3 guy, about one year removed, you guys are doing awesome work and is and is always a highlight of my Thursday listening to you guys while I'm working. You guys have really opened my eyes on just how talented D2 can be and all the great aspects about it. It makes me wonder where I'd be if I took my D2 looks a bit more serious back in high school or took a graduate to try to get some graduate school paid. I'm sure there's a kid or parent out there that you guys directly influence in going the D2 route. Keep up the great work, and D2 is 100% real. I signed a washed up D3 lacrosse player. That's great.

SPEAKER_04 1:45:08

D2 is definitely real. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:11

It's just awesome. And I just a reminder, especially to first time D2 dad, we can read fan mail on Buzz Sprout, but we cannot respond. I don't get any kind of email, I don't get a full phone number for text. So if you would like to hear back from us and get some answers on what you asked about, please go back into Buzz Sprout, give us some fan mail, leave us your email address, and we will contact you.

SPEAKER_04 1:45:40

Yes, excellent.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:41

I have one more shout out, one more. I'm waiting, I'm sorry, that was a long one. That was a long one.

SPEAKER_04 1:45:45

That's all right. This is gonna be kind of long, too. This one goes out to All American defenseman from Wingate, Peyton Farley, who just picked up his hundredth career cause turnover. But more importantly, Peyton this week, this is from his mom, okay? I cannot thank everyone enough for all the support and prayers for Peyton and his cousin Ryan, who was battling leukemia. Peyton did amazing in the prep days leading up to it and helped his cousin with a stem cell transplant. The transplant coordinator said in her 40 plus years that this was the best stem cell collection she's ever seen. Peyton was able to produce 25 million stem cells for Ryan. Ryan has already received the stem cells and is starting a 30-day journey to build a new and healthy blood system and immunity system identical to Peyton. Peyton's heart is with his family and his team at all times. Peyton watched every second of the game on Saturday because he was prepping.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:57

He sacrificed a game and sacrificed his body for this and what he did. It's an amazing story.

SPEAKER_04 1:47:04

Peyton watched every second of the game on Saturday, standing right in front of the TV. I'm sure. I know he's happy to be back with his teammates and cannot wait to get out there and do his part against Anderson next week. Love this Wingate team. Love this, love the Bulldogs. Peyton, that's a remarkable thing, young man. Just to know you on a personal level and you know your folks and what they're like, it doesn't surprise me one bit. I mean, your mom and dad did quite the job in raising you, young man. And I just think that's an amazing story. To to give up a game with your brothers and your teams to give stem cell uh, you know, for your cousin Ryan who's battling leukemia. I just think that's an amazing story. So good for you, Peyton. Congratulations, kid, and just an amazing story.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:52

Good job. Yeah. Great way to end the shout-outs, Danny. And I'll just admit it right now. If people don't look at how long this one is, this is going to be a long episode. We had a lot to get out, but it was a good one. But with that, Danny, that's a wrap. That's a wrap, Kev.