Game Time - A look back at week 8 and a preview of Week 9 of the 2025 season

Intro

SPEAKER_03 1:36

Welcome, welcome, welcome to another episode of In the Crease with Danny and Kevin, a coast-to-coast discussion of D2 Men's The Cross. I'm your co-host, Kevin Stenzerman. With me, as always, is my gator-loving co-host, Danny Moran. Oh, yes, you caught me off guard.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

I would have had some gator music for sure. Yeah, my gators, they did pretty good in the pr in the uh Yeah, they won a close one in the last one.

SPEAKER_03 2:02

Who are they playing next, do you know?

SPEAKER_02 2:04

I have no idea. I have too many games, too many teams in my head.

SPEAKER_03 2:10

I know. Basketball tournament, mad March Madness going on, and we've got our own madness in.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

Love my hoops. Love my hoops, man. I'm a big hoop fan. That was my first love. My first love was basketball. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_03 2:23

I know.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Carry the basketball everywhere I went when I was a kid. Anyway, thank you for that nice introduction, Mr. Stenstrom. And how's everything going tonight in Northern Virginia? It's going just dandy.

SPEAKER_03 2:36

Danny, that's all I can say.

SPEAKER_02 2:39

That's what I want to hear, because you know it's springtime out there. Need a little springtime music. I hear you. Yeah. It was a beautiful day in New York today, like in the mid-60s.

SPEAKER_03 2:55

Yeah, we have that too. We had that too.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

I need some warmth on these bones. Gotta make it down south again.

SPEAKER_03 3:03

I know, Danny. Well, it's funny. This is about the time of year, right? In March, where the weather teases you and then it slams you right back in the face. Yeah, I know. Probably worse up in New York than down here in Virginia.

SPEAKER_02 3:16

It could be pretty crappy in April up here. You know, I've seen it snow in the end of April.

SPEAKER_03 3:21

Usually in April here, it's turned enough. You know, you're not going to get bad weather usually in April here.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Well, I have my fingers crossed that we've kind of hopefully have turned the corner here in New York. It looks like we may have, hopefully. Weather looks good for the next couple of days, anyway. So I need some warmth on these old bones, Kev.

SPEAKER_03 3:40

Yeah, I hear you. I hear you. But let's get into it. Let's get into this past week and everything. This week, Danny. There were some close games. I'd say one huge statement win. Great crowds at a bunch of the games, and I was at one of them. And I think we keep on seeing that landscape still changing.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Yeah, it's been another week of some upsets and some teams looking good and teams with some like shocking losses. It was just one of those weeks in Division II, Kevin. I think we're gonna see more of that before the season's over.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

When we did our top 20, we said it was gonna, it was difficult, very difficult. I think this is proving it out. There are some games I see that with the winners versus the losers that I'm very surprised at.

SPEAKER_02 4:31

Yeah, it's been surprising along the board, you know. It's been a lot of fun. I mean, a lot of work to do this year on the podcast. A lot of more homework. There's so much more going on.

SPEAKER_03 4:45

We're we're doing a lot of backstrokes too, as we as we don't look back at what we said in the top 20. That's all I'm going with right now, but let's get to your top 10.

Top 10 Round up

SPEAKER_02 4:54

All right, Kev, week eight, and this is your right, Kev, here we go. Number one, Tampa beat Florida Tech 16-8. The Spartans are undefeated at 10-0, and they face Rollins next, Kev. Uh number two, a Delphi beat. Number 11, Bentley, 12-7 in a tight one. We'll talk about that one a little bit. Uh the Panthers go to 9-0, and they face Southern New Hampshire next, Kev. Uh number three, Limestone beat Tusculum rather handily, 25-8. The Saints go to 9-1, and they got two big games coming up. They have Newberry and Anderson, two tough teams in the sack. So Limestone's got a couple of toughies coming up. Number four, Pace. Here's one of those games, Kev. Lost to number seven, Seaton Hill, 16 to 5.

SPEAKER_03 6:01

We'll get into that one. Surprising.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

The Setters go to six and one, and they face St. Mike's next. And here we go with another one. Number five, Wingate, lost to number 20, Newberry, 14-13, and a bizarre ending at the end of that game, Kev. We'll touch on that one maybe a little bit tonight as well. Uh, number six, St. A's beat Franklin Pierce. Uh uh St. Anslums goes to 5-0, and they face Assumption next. Number seven, Seton Hill. Beat number four Pace, 16-5. We'll talk about that game tonight. Number eight, Flagler beat number 14, Malloy 7-6, and a great, great matchup, Cap. Number 9, LR beat LMU 20-8. Uh, the Bears a 6-2, and they face Emery and Henry next. Number 10, Lewis in the top 10 this week, have beat UAH 20-5. The Flyers a nine and one, and they got a big one next. They face Steaton Hill. And that's your couple of quick scores to note. Southern New Hampshire beat St. Mike's last week. Yeah. 9-8. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:37

Did not expect that one.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

Nope, did not expect that one. Post all over, Holy Family, 17-8. I wasn't expecting that, actually. And here was a big one that I did not expect. North Greenville over Lander, 14-10. Yep. Uh Lynn, their scrappy little team, the Knights, man.

SPEAKER_03 7:59

They are looking good this year.

SPEAKER_02 8:00

They beat Rollins 14-7. How about this one? Rockhurst beat U Indy.

SPEAKER_03 8:08

I watched the end of that game, Danny. That was a battle. Good game.

SPEAKER_02 8:13

UIndy drops to three and six. Wow. Yeah, I know. And Northwood gets another win. They beat Malone 12-8.

SPEAKER_03 8:24

So that brings Northwood to 3-5 in their first season, Danny.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

Not a bad way to start your your uh your program off, right?

SPEAKER_03 8:37

That's exactly right. And the other game I had that surprised me was Lees McCrae crushed Chawan 21 to 10.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

Yeah, I saw that too. I was like, wow.

Week in Review

SPEAKER_03 8:52

Now let's get into some games from last week, Danny, and our weekend review. We talked about this one last week, and it it came out. The game happened the same day the pot our last podcast dropped. Oh, the other thing I'll point out is you go on your top ten based on the week prior. So like Lewis now just dropped on bet now. You said they were number 10, they were number 10 last week. They won. Some other losses brought them up to number eight this week. So when we talk about this week, that's why you'll say you'll hear some different rankings, but you do it based on the previous week, which is fine because that was based on the week when they were playing.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

Well, Kev, I'm gonna say something that I think that our listeners are smart enough to realize that.

SPEAKER_03 9:41

I get confused, so I'm just trying to keep myself straight, okay?

SPEAKER_02 9:44

I I think they got it. There are a bunch of smart cookies out there.

SPEAKER_03 9:49

When I when I say uh later on in the podcast that Lewis uh number eight, I'm not gonna say, hey, what Danny said he was number 10.

SPEAKER_02 9:55

So I just want to, you know, you know, just we can go over the new top 20 before we go before we say goodnight tonight. We can do that.

SPEAKER_03 10:03

We can do that.

SPEAKER_02 10:04

Bring bring everybody abreast of the uh keep keeping everyone abreast. Maybe we'll name the whole top 20. How's that? We'll do that.

SPEAKER_03 10:11

That sounds good. Okay, let's not forget that. Make a note. All right. First game, it happened last Thursday. This is St. Leo against Colorado Mesa. Colorado Mesa, pretty dominant in this game, wins 21 to 14. It was all CMU, basically. Danny, I thought I started, I watched this whole game, and before the game started, I had this premonition that Colorado Mesa was going to win. Look at how they got to Florida. They got beat pretty easily against Florida Southern. They lost in the last few seconds against Florida Tech. They did not want to go home without a win. No, they came, they came prepared to play, that's for sure. They were hungry. And look at St. Leo was pretty consistent. They scored four goals each in their first three quarters, which doesn't look too bad. But when when the Mavs went on a trio of 4-0 runs, that just kind of separated them.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

Yeah. You know, Kev, I watched the game. I've watched St. Leo at least five or six times this year. Um, they're a very good team. That wasn't their night. They did not play well, St. Leo, the Lions. I think Mr. Wheeler had a tough day in between the pipes. You know, sometimes you get those days where it's just, you know, you're shooting them up and they just ain't falling. You know what I mean? Yeah, but I mean, Colorado, I'm not taking anything. No, I'm not taking anything away from Mesa, but I have to admit, Mr. Wheeler did have a tough day. He's much better.

SPEAKER_03 11:44

Well, and I would say you'd see the score. The score is what surprised me. I'm not so much surprised that Colorado Mesa won, but that they won by seven.

unknown 11:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:53

And they they went on those runs and there was no answer. And there's a few games like that this week that that happened.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

They were causing turnovers, they were getting ground balls. It was just not, it was not St. Leo's night, man. They just did not play well. And they've been playing very well, Kev. You know, they they've been at a a top 15 level, if you ask me, yeah, pretty much all year. So, I mean, Mesa came to play. You're right. They lost two. I'm sure they didn't want to go home with that with you know 0-3 in Florida, man.

SPEAKER_03 12:24

No, no, they came out hungry and it showed. And I and and St. Leo looked a little flat.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

Yeah, they did. They did. I think St. Leo will bounce back.

SPEAKER_03 12:35

Yeah. Now I'm really interested to see Colorado Mesa back home going into the Armac, their first home game coming up. We'll talk about that later. That's one of the games I've got on the list. Yeah. Just crazy. Road Warriors. All right. Yeah, 100%. You talked about this one in your top 10 roundup. And this happened Friday night under the lights. Flagler against Malloy.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

Kevin, that was one hell of a quality lacrosse game. This game had everything you could want in a lacrosse game. I mean, it might not have been a bunch of crazy goals, but it was a tight match. They were evenly matched. They both played outstanding defense. I felt that both goalies were outstanding. Flagler pulls it out in overtime, seven to six.

SPEAKER_03 13:37

Yeah. This is the way I saw the game. First of all, I love watching these games under the lights. Once again, great crowd for these night games. The Saints owned the first half, right? They scored the only goal in the first quarter, and then they extended that lead four to one at half. Their defense was relentless against Malloy. They didn't really allow them to get any good shots on goal in that first half. But Coach Dunn in that second half, he starts to let he made some good adjustments, and their team started to fight and claw back. And they flipped the score in the third quarter. They score three to Flagglers one. So now they're only down by one, five-four going into the fourth. I I'll tell you the other thing that I thought was very I was very impressed by the Malloy goalie, Christian Michaels.

SPEAKER_02 14:29

Yeah, he was good.

SPEAKER_03 14:30

I mean on the stats, it said 11 saves. But I'm telling you, it would not have gone overtime if he didn't play the way he did. I mean, both, like you said, both goalies played really well, but he really impressed me with some of his saves.

SPEAKER_02 14:43

Yeah, he had two big saves in the in the first quarter, like two stops, the rebound. The guy went back and he made the other stop again. I was like, wow, that was a pretty great play. Yeah, it was it, it was a tight, well-played, great matchup, a little bit of everything in that game, some good checks, some nice shots, some good offense. Just, you know, two well-coached teams, Kev, playing playing a night game in Florida. It was like, couldn't get much better than that. Again, like you said, it was 4-1 and a half. Hickham and Jake Taylor both scored three goals in the third, brought it to within one. Like you said, 5-4 after three. I felt that Malloy showed grit and determination and kept chipping.

SPEAKER_03 15:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:24

And was able to get shots off. And eventually they tied it up.

SPEAKER_03 15:30

Yeah, and guess who scored? Jake and Noah Taylor each scored to tie it up. They were down 6-4, and those two boys, who we've had on the podcast, both scored. I thought that was pretty cool to see.

SPEAKER_02 15:42

Yeah. And then, you know, like again, just Malloy showed that grit, that determination, because it's not easy to go to Flagler. Big crowd.

SPEAKER_04 15:49

No.

SPEAKER_02 15:50

You know, warm weather night, a lot of people there under the lights. Not an easy place to go and play when you're on the road. And I felt Malloy was just really, really good. And I felt Flagler was just a teeny weeny bit better that night.

SPEAKER_03 16:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

Trace McDonald with the winner. With two minutes left in the game.

SPEAKER_03 16:11

What's even funnier about that is there was no goals for like five minutes until Trace McDonald buried that one.

SPEAKER_02 16:18

Yeah, it was a good game, man. It was like it went back and forth. There was some great checks going on, good double teams. Guy would go to rollback, a double team would come, knock the ball out, heading the other way. They get to the other way, make a save, going the other way now. It was like it was exciting. It was a good game. I mean, I love watching good lacrosse, and I love offense, you know that. I love to watch guys just rip it down the field and transition and get that ball moving and whack, whack, whack. You know, this one was a little bit more slowed down in the pace a little bit, where both teams were working their offense and working the two-man, trying to get picks, trying to get men open, and just really well-matched game. One of the better games that I've seen probably all year.

SPEAKER_03 17:02

Yeah, it was definitely a chess match. It was definitely a chess match. Really, really good. If you look at some of the stats, individual stats, Trace McDonald, two goals, one assist. Ben Nyberg and Tyler Douglas both had two goals apiece. Garrett Moore had two assists. Ty sickenback, three ground balls, three cost turnovers. He was all over the place for Flagland.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

Matt Matriga struggled though at five for 14 at the dot. Yeah. And uh for Malloy, Brian Green with two, Jake Taylor with two, Noah Taylor with one, our boy Luke Hickham with one, Braden Pazienza. He is very good face-off guy. Yeah. He's very good. He gets a lot of possessions from Malloy. He was 11 for 16 at the dot. Uh Rocco Hogan, four ground balls. And like we said earlier, Christian Michaels, the goalie, the keeper between the pipes. He had himself a game even though he lost.

SPEAKER_04 17:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

He was really good between the pipes. Um, shots. Malloy outshot them 31 to 24, Kev. Especially in the in the fourth quarter, they were able to get shots off. They just couldn't bury him, you know. Uh turnovers 22 to 16 in Malloy had 22. Uh clears Malloy 17 for 19, 21 for 22 at the clear for Flagler, kind of even there. 29 ground balls for the Lions, 18 for the Flagler Saints. And both teams, big goose eggs on the uh extra man. So great game. One of the better games I've seen all year. Really good game. And Flagler's legit, guys. Flagler's legit. My my boys and girls out there listening. I'm telling you, man, I think they're gonna win their conference. I just don't see anybody else playing on their level.

SPEAKER_03 18:51

I've watched Montevallo. I've watched Lander. I have not watched UAH. But y you look at their where they where they stand. I I think you're right. I I think Montevallo's probably the closest. Lander I've seen have had trouble not doing playing four very good quarters.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

Yeah, they fluctuate. They play well and then not so well.

SPEAKER_03 19:18

Maryville's put up I mean, Maryville. Montevallo has put up uh played some very good games, beating you, Indy. We're gonna get into the game against Maryville. They lose in overtime to Maryville. I mean, they've played some tough, yeah. Flagler seems to always, though, in that tough competition, end up on top.

SPEAKER_02 19:35

This year. This year. This year, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:38

Which is impressive. You've got to be impressed with that.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

Yeah. They're good on defense. They're well coached. They just, you know, they're big. They got some size, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:47

They're just well balanced.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

They're athletic, they're fast. They just a pretty good squad. They're going to be legit. They're going to be tough, I think, once tournament time starts. I really I predict them. I predicted a long time ago that Flagler was going to win the beach belt this year. And I think they're going to go to the NCAA tournament. And I'll tell you right now. Yeah, and and I think they're going to they're going to be a tough out once they get to the NCAA's. It's not going to be easy to roll over Flagler.

SPEAKER_03 20:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

It's not going to be easy.

SPEAKER_03 20:18

I mean, part of it is building confidence, and they keep building it every week.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

Right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:22

So let's go to the next game. This is Monavalo against Maryville. Did you get to watch this game? I did not. Okay, so I'll go through it. This Danny, dead even matchup. Meryville pulls it off in overtime, 12-11. But this will tell you the matchup. Just by the scores by quarter. First quarter, 2-1, Maryville has a lead. Second quarter, 3-3. Third quarter, 3-3. Fourth quarter, 3-4, Montevallo. I mean, even by quarter. Sometimes even though it ends up in overtime, there's a there's a little bit of a difference. That's how close it was. Maryville then returns serve in overtime and pulls it out and wins. This was a game of mini runs with the lead never being more than two. Montevallo, here's the other other thing. Montevallo scored the first goal and never led again until the fourth with 7.55 left. Wow. 11 and uh when it was they were up 1110. So they had the score, and if they could have held, now that's a lot of time, 755 left. So you know that someone's gonna score. It literally, Danny, uh was that close. Meryville to Gwynn at overtime passes from X to topside right, and then buries a low shot. I mean, it was a a worm burner fast five hole for the win. 1211.

unknown 21:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

Wow, sounds like a great game.

SPEAKER_03 22:01

It was really, really good. The stats were pretty darn close. Shots. Uh well, this is interesting. Shots. Maryville had a lot more. 55 to Montevallo's 31. Shots on goal. 31 for Maryville, 17 for Montevallo. Wow. But now check this out. Saves. Six for Maryville. 19 for our boy, Alex Agorshin. You tell me he didn't keep them in the game?

SPEAKER_02 22:33

He's been keeping them in the game for three years.

SPEAKER_03 22:36

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

He's he's really good.

SPEAKER_03 22:40

Yeah. Yeah. It was he was really good that day. I mean, there were sh there were You can't stop everything. And sometimes it's not your fault. It was really, really good game. Meryville, as far as individual, Justin Simonson had three goals, two assists. Clayton Sorrett and Clove would Colin Tobias each had three goals apiece. Ben Mickett had one goal and one assist. And he had the overtime winner, Ben Mickett. John Trollton, three ground balls, five cause turnovers.

SPEAKER_02 23:11

That's a day. That's a day.

SPEAKER_03 23:13

Monavala, Matthew Bose, three goals, one assist. John Spans, two goals, one assist. Aiden Collery, one goal, two assists. Michael Hawkins, two goals. Aaron Tichinoff, two assists. And Kristen, Christopher Humphrey, two ground balls and two cause turnovers. So that's how close it was. I mean, multiple scores on both sides, some good defense. Just came down to the end.

SPEAKER_02 23:37

And that game got Montevallo into the top 20 this week. Yeah. And Merryville's a good team, man. They're ranked like what, number 10, 11, something like that.

SPEAKER_03 23:47

Yeah, very good. So they're ranked. They're ranked 11 right now. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 23:51

So there you go. You know, big win from Montevallo. They're tough squad, no doubt. Alex Agorshian is a beast between the pipes. It's tough to bury one behind that kid. And uh sounds like a good game. I might want to go back and re-watch that game.

SPEAKER_03 24:06

Yeah, it was a very, very good game. In fact, I really didn't watch the first half was with one eye as I was concentrating on another game, the the the Pace Seton Hill game.

SPEAKER_02 24:19

Right.

SPEAKER_03 24:20

And then I watched the second half, the full second half, and I was it was it was a really good matchup. Why don't we go to the game you watched? I was uh doing a lot of errands. I was kind of watching on my phone, didn't really get to see a lot of it, saw parts of it, listened to the whole game. A Delphi versus Bentley.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

Yeah, I didn't go. I wanted to go.

SPEAKER_03 24:43

Yeah, but I wonder if you were there.

SPEAKER_02 24:45

Dude, it was 33 degrees Sunday morning. I was like, I'm not going to the gate today. It warmed up a little bit by the time game time came. But if it was, you know, 47 to 50, I would have gone. But when I woke up Sunday morning, it was like 33 degrees. I was like, I'm not going. I'm not, I've been freezing my butt off all week at work. Hey, pretty good game, you know, pretty, pretty decent game. Bentley hung in there for a while. Uh, I think they used uh really good face-off play and a kind of a patient, slow-it-down type offense, trying to keep that Adelphi offense off you know the field, and it worked. I mean, they they it was two to one Bentley after the first quarter. Kev, I was in shock.

SPEAKER_04 25:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:37

I was in shock. I mean, Adelphi was getting shots off, but they couldn't they couldn't do anything. Um whatchamacallit? Uh, what was that guy? The rate Ryan Bordier was in the pipes for Bentley for the first time. I think he got his first start. He had 12 saves and he had out of 24 shots on goal. Kid was amazing. He had four of his saves in the first quarter. Wow. Yeah. Like he was really, really good. And I was like, am I watching this? Is this for real? Is it two to one, Bentley? And I was watching this game. It was like I was in shock. And then Vinny McDermott, the Massapequa high school kid from uh the hopster transfer, little guy, but he can move and he can shoot, and he likes to shoot. He's one of those kids who never saw a shot he didn't like. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 26:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:31

You don't get no many dishes, but he likes to shoot. He started, he's kind of sparked like a five-goal run by a Delphi. And that was kind of it. You know, there was like a couple of goal lead. It was uh six to four at half a Delphi. A Delphi. Bentley's hanging in there. Uh Adelphi outscored them three to one in the third and three to two in the fourth. I just never felt like a Delphi was going to lose this game, if you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_03 27:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:02

But Bentley, Bentley was, I liked their game plan to slow it down, use the clock. They were able to get shots off. And, you know, it's not easy when Dylan Renner's between the pipes there either. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 27:17

Right. As I was listening to it, I I had that same feeling that it never felt like it was out of a Delphi's grasp, like they were gonna win it. It's almost like a death by a thousand cuts. Now, it wasn't like that bad of a score, but it just Bentley had a good, like you said, you watched it, Bentley had a good game plan. They just could not get enough goals. They they were getting shots off, they just couldn't get them past Renner.

SPEAKER_04 27:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

And you know what? Adelphi's defense is pretty pretty solid too. They started causing some turnovers towards the end of the game.

SPEAKER_03 27:55

And well, Reese Fowler had like two goals himself.

SPEAKER_02 27:58

He was that kid's all-American easily. Yeah, easily. If he's not a first-team All-American, I don't know what is. Didn't he have like a pass behind his back for an assist? I don't know about that. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 28:14

Maybe that was another game I saw that he didn't have.

SPEAKER_02 28:16

Five ground balls, three cause turnovers. He was like a beast out there. He's tough. So for Delphi, the final score was 12-7. Vinny McDermott with four, like I said. Braden Dunellan had a six-point game, three goals and three assists. Kid's good, man. Yeah. I like watching him. He's fun. He's a fun guy to watch. He's the kind of guy you want on your team, you know. Kyle Lewis uh with two. Noah Gibson. Have you seen the size of this kid? Yes. Have you seen the size of this kid? He's like a diesel trim. Yeah. I mean, he is tremendous. Don't ask him to dodge.

SPEAKER_03 28:54

He is like a Sequoia tree trunk.

SPEAKER_02 28:57

Don't ask him to dodge, though. He's not doing much dodging. But he's a big boy and he's not afraid. He's a big lefty. He's not afraid to let it go either. No. No, he isn't. So uh let's see, what else? Noah Gibson with two, Mikey Dernham with one. William Greaves, five for twelve at the dot, and he split time with Mike Hendrickson, who was four for nine at the dot for Bentley. Will Adams had two. Nathan Alviti with one. Hunter Smith, Brady Glass had one each. Dalton McKinnon, pretty good. 13 for 22 at the dot. Let's see, Ryan Bordier, 12 saves. Like again, saw 24 shots on goal and saved 12 of them. Alex Parton, three ground balls in a cause turnover. Let's go over the team stats. Adelphi outshot Bentley 42 to 43 to 32. The turnovers, uh, Bentley had 20. Adelphi had 17. Bentley had troubles clearing the ball kept. 15 for 21 on the clears. 19 for 23 for a Delphi. Uh Adelphi won the ground ball war 33 to 20. Um, and on extra man, Bentley was able to capitalize one out of two and uh zero out of two for uh Adelphi. So Adelphi looks very good. I think they're gonna be tough. I don't know if anybody in the NE 10, maybe St. A's. Maybe. I don't know, because if Pace plays the way they played against Seton Hill, they're not gonna beat Adelphi.

SPEAKER_03 30:30

I'll tell you though, I'd love to see Seton Hill against Adelphi. So would I. So would I. We'll get to that game. Before we get to that game, that game of the week, let me go over the game I went to, and that was the battle of the HBCU's UDC at their field against Virginia State. Virginia State. We you know, it's funny. I talk about acronyms, the battle of the acronyms from CUI and CMU. Well, this is UDC VSU, so it's the same sort of thing. Virginia State pulls it out 16 to 8. We called this the battle of the HBCUs, and a battle it was. It's the second year in a row, and it did not disappoint. Even if you look at that final score, you could tell both teams, Danny, wanted this game. They know what this game means. I mean, they even got in a little bit of a fight in the fourth quarter because get out of here.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

No, really?

SPEAKER_03 31:28

A little pushing and shoving. It wasn't like that one we saw at Newberry. It was, and both, and the refs took care of right away, both guys, unsportsmanlike, un uh, you know, un not releasable batteries, they clean it up really quickly. And the other good thing was all the other players pull their players back.

SPEAKER_02 31:47

Okay, you know, like you're not going out there.

SPEAKER_03 31:50

You're not doing this. Let's let's let's pull back and do it. But the other thing, packed crowd, standing room only, much like if you look at the flagler field, it's what they do is this is a brand new field this year at UDC. It's tucked behind their sports complex, really tight, so you're right there with the action. Just like if you if you see it like in the um, I think even Flaglers is a little bit bigger, but it is great, and it was packed. Virginia State fans, they travel well. UDC had their their stands full. There were people along the sides. It was electric. It was so great to see. I'll tell you the other thing though. Getting into the game, the Firebirds D was very impressive in the first quarter. And really throughout the game, the real difference was Virginia State just had too much offensive firepower. You know, and the and interestingly, uh the problem that UDC struggled with throughout the game was clears. And I didn't get the team stats, but uh they that was probably one of the things they really need to work on, along with some of their offensive sets. But the real difference was Virginia State's uh firepower, and we'll get to their their stats. But the other thing I'd say on on defense for UDC, their goalie, and I'll I'll get to him, he made a couple of doorstep saves to end the first quarter, which ended two-two. UDC scored the first two goals, Virginia State comes back. It's then so it's two to two after after one, it's six-three at half. UDC's trying to hang in there. Third quarter was the big difference. It was all Virginia State. They went on a 6-1 run, which basically seals the deal. I have to give UDC team credit. They came back in the fourth, they were down, so they're down 12-4. Right going into the fourth.

SPEAKER_02 33:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:51

And they played them even. They did not give up. They came back and played the Trojans even. I thought they were gonna pull it out and get four goals to three, but then the but then the Trojans scored near the end. It was it was just a it was really a great game. Look, and I will tell you, this the game wasn't, in my opinion, wasn't elite caliber college lacrosse. But what I saw was two teams that have drastically improved from where they were last year. And all they need to do is build on talent and depth. And it it was just it was still a great battle and fun to watch. I got to talk to both coaches afterward after the game, uh, both uh Coach Merritt and Coach Church, both extremely positive of where they are heading. Those two are like two gentlemen, and they are the right guys for the job. Every time I speak with them, I get that. They just they're and I saw the game last year, and this year was even more competitive, better play. I just think they're gonna it's gonna be longer for them than say a flagler to get there, but they are moving in the right direction.

SPEAKER_02 35:01

Yeah, well, you know, Virginia State, a lot of freshmen and sophomores on that Virginia State team, you know.

SPEAKER_03 35:08

Every offensive player I'm gonna talk about, I didn't need to say they're all sophomores.

SPEAKER_02 35:14

Yeah, yeah. They're freshmen and goalie. I mean, they're they're young Virginia State. Yeah, you know, and I just think what Coach Church has done already is amazing. I mean, I saw them play twice and I was blown away. I spoke about them early in the season. Yeah, I was blown away about how much they had had improved. I was like, wow. You know, again, you're right. Still not, you know, they're not in the top 20 level yet. You know, they're not there in depth and all of that stuff.

SPEAKER_03 35:41

And these and the coaches know that.

SPEAKER_02 35:43

Oh, yeah, 100%. And Coach Merritt, he's been there a long time. You know, nothing new to him. But now he can put his stamp on the program now. You know what I mean? So it's gonna be.

SPEAKER_03 36:00

So there's just some individual stats. Dylan Donlinson for UDC and Max Hansbury both had two goals. Alan Fuentes, one goal, one assist. Israel, I'm gonna screw up his last name. Emoji Emoji, is how I'm gonna say it. I asked Coach how to say it. I haven't got anything back. 15 saves for UDC. He had 16 goals against. He faced a lot of shots. He's only a freshman.

SPEAKER_02 36:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:26

Wow. So he's only gonna prove. Now, Virginia State. Donovan Elmore, four goals. This kid has a wicked left rip, Danny. You do not want to let him get to his left, you know, his left. Debray Kirkland, four goals. Elijah Bryant, three goals. Andre Bigum, two goals, five assists.

SPEAKER_02 36:50

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 36:51

He's their he's their middy, number 15, who's got a good shot himself, but he was dishing. And Kalali Laughlin had one goal, one assist. He was quiet for them, but you watch him, he's creative.

SPEAKER_02 37:05

Yeah, he's kind of like the guy who makes the motor run a little bit. He's got he when he touches the ball, good things usually happen. He either dishes or gets it to the right guy.

SPEAKER_04 37:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:17

He's he's the guy on that team. I like I like Virginia State and what Coach Church has done. I really do. I think it's gonna be you know just getting better and better each time, you know. And I I think it's great that the HBCUs, you know, play each other, and we have that in division two, man.

SPEAKER_03 37:34

And no other division, and this is a pet peeve. So you know, I listen to a lot of lacrosse podcasts. Quint Kessinich has one called Quint. I'm I've stopped, kind of stopped listening to it. Quint Quintessential Podcast. He had Chaz Woodson on the head coach for Hampton, and one of his first comments was You're the only HBCU and NCAA, isn't that right? Luckily, Chaz Woodson corrected him, and then I sent Quint a little email about you need to check out these other schools. That's move forward one more. Mitch Pelke, who we've talked about on this podcast, he has a YouTube channel. Right, he went to Hampton and he did a thing on the on the on the team when they were gonna play against Mercy here, it's gonna try to get their first win ever. I said, Hey, great show. This is just before this weekend. I said, There are two other HBCUs that play in the NCA and they play against each other. Now it's probably too late getting it to them, but like I said, you need to broadcast that as well. Because this is historic, and it's just and it's and I'll leave it at that. That's where my pet peeve is, is that once again, D2 is not shown the love, and these teams are balling out.

SPEAKER_02 38:58

Right. And Hampton hasn't won a game in like ever.

SPEAKER_03 39:01

Ever.

SPEAKER_02 39:03

Yeah, they're they're not good. And and they're in Division I, you know, they're playing Delaware. They're playing teams like that. It's it's almost not it's not fair.

SPEAKER_03 39:15

So anyway, let's but that was nothing again. I I've got only good things to say about that game.

SPEAKER_02 39:21

We love those guys, we love those squads. You know, we had both coaches on, and they were great, they were fantastic. Yeah, you know, I have gentlemen. And and and good, and you know, and they're fans of the podcast.

SPEAKER_03 39:32

Exactly. In fact, Coach Church is like, hey, can we come on at the end of the year? My boys want to talk about what they've done. Hey, you know what? That's a good idea. I love it. Yeah, it's a good idea. We'll do that. Yeah. Okay. Let's get to our game of the week. Seton Hill against Pace. Here's my note, Danny, right in my in my notes after the score. 16-5. What?

SPEAKER_02 40:01

You know?

SPEAKER_03 40:03

What?

SPEAKER_02 40:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:05

And I watched that whole game. I'll tell you the main thing, you know. Uh Seton Hill, impressive, just impressive on both D and offense. When you score 16, which okay, they do a lot, but you hold a team like Pace to five, and then you look in the second half, and they went on a 10-2 run, culminating in a seven-goal run to end the game, seven goals straight. I mean, they just poured it on.

SPEAKER_02 40:38

Oh, yeah, man. If you remember last week when we said that this would be the game of the week, I said, hey, Pace, you guys better bring your A game. Remember I said that?

SPEAKER_03 40:48

Yeah. Yeah. And we both we both were not said it was a pick-em game for us. I did not think I was not surprised that Seton Hill won. I'm very surprised at the score.

SPEAKER_02 41:00

Yeah, I I had it at a pickup game, but I knew that Pace had to bring their A game to win that game. And you know what? I thought, you know, they're good enough to win that game. Seton Hill beat them down. They dominated that game. They dominated, dominated almost every aspect of the game, Kev.

SPEAKER_04 41:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:19

They were faster to the ball. They were just out in transition like, whoo. I love that. I love when teams get out in transition like that. They they they caught pace defense with their pants down a few times in that game. Yeah. And then Seton Hill, I mean, you know, Seton Hill defensively, they were making pace work for every inch of field. They were pressing out damn near at half.

SPEAKER_03 41:45

100% agree with that. They had to work, whereas sometimes Griffins seemed to get some easy ones in transition.

SPEAKER_02 41:52

You know, like again, that defense, they were just pressing out and just making pace work for inches. You know, they weren't giving them like spots to go to. They were on sticks and on hands and on bodies and just beat them down, Kev. It was just a beatdown. There's no more, I don't know what else more I could say.

SPEAKER_03 42:12

I mean, I could I I think you said it really well, and I'll add to this. A couple scores I saw Dan Xavier score, it almost appeared like he had to start from one end of the field, wrap around X, and come around and finally get loose enough to score. I mean, it was not something where there was, like you said, they just made them very tough for them to get in the spots where Pace wanted to shoot.

SPEAKER_02 42:39

Xavier is used to getting what he wants. You know, he's big enough and strong enough, got a good shot, and go both hands. You know, he can shoot from outside, he can take it to the inside. That Seton Hill defense, they were all over him. They made it really hard for him.

SPEAKER_03 42:55

I mean, he got shots off, but some of those shots he took, ill-advised. But that's but that's what I'm saying. I mean, even the shots, some of the goals he had, I mean, he worked so hard. I mean, you're talking at least 30 seconds of a dodge for him. And here is what the telling team stat that I had, Danny, for this was shots on goal. 25 for Seton Hill, only 14 on goal for pace.

SPEAKER_02 43:20

Yeah. Their defense, I'm telling you, Seton Hill was just getting sticks on sticks and forcing balls wide and you know, blocking shots, you know, deflecting shots. It was just, uh, I mean, Seton Hill just they they beat him down. I was surprised at that score as well. Not surprised that Seton Hill won, but I was surprised at that score. But I mean, Seton Hill scored the first four goals.

SPEAKER_03 43:44

It was a yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:46

I was like, oh man, you know.

SPEAKER_03 43:50

And then they did it again. They had like four, there were they had several goals in a row. One time there was four goals in little over a minute. I mean.

unknown 43:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:59

Come on. I think the play of the game, though, for me, was the pull-to-pull assist score.

SPEAKER_03 44:07

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:08

That was awesome. Charlie Hudson picks up the ground ball, goes flying down the field. The other pole, the LSM, was on the other side of the field, threw it to him, the kid turned him around and whipped it and scored. So I don't know if I've ever seen a pole assist to a pole on transition D D. It was a first, I think, for me. It was great. I was like, wow. You know, that's when things are going your way. You know what I mean? Yeah. Exactly. When polls are scoring and assisting to each other. So I mean, uh, you know, Seton Hill was at, like I said, they were getting out in transition. They'd make the save or make a stop or make a block or cause a turnover and just get out in transition. Just I again, they caught pace with their pants down a few times in the in that in that game. I would love to see a rematch of that game. Yeah. But you know what? For the game of the week, I thought it was a good one. Nate Herbster with five goals for Seton Hill, Connor Sostant with three, Wade Brunell, the sheriff. Three goals, six assists, nine-point day. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Braden Lockier with two. Uh Riley Coleman and two.

SPEAKER_03 45:22

Yeah, two goals and two assists.

SPEAKER_02 45:24

So that's yeah, Riley Coleman and uh Alex Callahan each with one. Charlie Hudson, two ground balls and the assist. Uh Mark Strunk, 13 for 22 with the dot. Will Cody, nine saves for Cill. And for Pace, Danny Xabia, the All-American, uh, had two goals. Matt Baldino with one, Declan Landers with one, Preston Kral with one. Chris Butler, three ground balls and three calls turnovers for pace. He had a day.

SPEAKER_04 45:50

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 45:51

Uh uh Jack Kern, nine saves, 43 shots to 35 in favor of Seaton Hill. 20 turnovers for pace, 16 for Seaton Hill. 22 for 25 on the clears for the Setters. Damn near perfect 27 for 28 for Seton Hill. Uh ground balls, Seton Hill won that ward, 32 to 29. And on the extra man, uh Seton Hill was one for five, and pace was uh zero for four. So pace drops to six and one, I think, now, Kev.

SPEAKER_03 46:26

Yep, and Seaton Hill's up to eight and one.

SPEAKER_02 46:29

Yeah, they're they're looking very, very good. Anyone who's ever taken a kid to a morning travel game knows how important that travel cup of coffee is. When it's deep from that coffee hits your nose, you'll forget how early it is and think you're at home.com is to a better way to cut.com. A better way to train.

Games to Watch this Week

SPEAKER_03 48:00

Time to head on to the games to watch this week.

SPEAKER_02 48:06

You said you got a lot. You said you have a lot this week.

SPEAKER_03 48:09

I've I've got a lot. I I don't have a lot to specifically talk about. I got there's a whole slew of them next Wednesday that I thought were kind of interesting matchups, but let's go starting with Friday, 20, March 28th. This is kind of an RMAC thing, and I want to discuss two of them. First of all, it's Adam State against Dominican. Adam State, we haven't talked about much. We had Coach Austin on earlier in the season, right? Adam State lost to Dominican their first game, but they scored 13 goals against Dominican, and that was at Dominican. Now they have them at home. Can Coach Austin's team take a run at them? I think Dominican wins this game, but if Coach Austin makes it close, he's building like where he thought he was going to, and that's what I want to see. The other one, same day, is Colorado Mesa against Concordia Irvine. CMU took care of business the first time around at Concordia. But just like last year, it seems to me that Concordia is starting to make some strides. They just beat Westminster at home 10-5. Can they make this one close?

SPEAKER_02 49:19

It's a big one for Colorado, Mesa. They need to win that game.

SPEAKER_03 49:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:23

They need to win that game.

SPEAKER_03 49:25

Now, and it's their first home game.

SPEAKER_02 49:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:27

So I think they'll be up for it. I think they pull it out.

SPEAKER_02 49:31

I agree. I I think Mesa pulls it out, but they need to win that one.

SPEAKER_03 49:36

Yeah. Okay, where else are you looking?

SPEAKER_02 49:39

Well, I think um I like the Georgian court Chestnut Hill matchup.

SPEAKER_03 49:46

Yeah, I don't I didn't have that on my list, but that is what I saw, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:50

CACC matchup, you know. Uh again, I think these teams are gonna be vibing for uh spots in in their conference tournament.

SPEAKER_03 50:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:00

And uh I think this is gonna be a a a big game for both teams, actually.

SPEAKER_03 50:06

In my opinion, I almost feel like it's a bigger game for Chestnut Hill. They seem to have struggled this year. Georgian Court has held serve basically how they have done in past seasons, right? They're basically about where they were. Now they're starting to get into that CACC play, and I I I just think it's a big Chestnut Hill is gonna want this game. I think they're both gonna want it. I just think it may be a bigger game in some respects for Chestnut Hill for them to get their confidence back.

SPEAKER_02 50:37

So that's one I'm looking forward to watching. Uh, we haven't really discussed either team at all this year.

unknown 50:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:44

Too much, you know what I mean? Too much. We did in the beginning of the season.

SPEAKER_03 50:47

Very, very good pick.

SPEAKER_02 50:48

So I I think that's gonna be a really good game.

SPEAKER_03 50:51

Uh what other ones do you have?

SPEAKER_02 50:53

Well, since Newberry just shocked Wingate. I had this one too, yeah. They're playing limestone this week, so I like it.

SPEAKER_03 51:03

Number three against number thirteen, can they repeat what they did against Wingate?

SPEAKER_02 51:08

I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 51:08

Limestone stuff. I know. I know. And if you look at that, we were gonna talk, we didn't really talk about the Wingate game, but let's let's look at that for a quick second. Newberry won that game in the first quarter.

SPEAKER_02 51:22

Yeah, that was a first quarter game. Complete diff defensive meltdown by Wingate in that first quarter.

SPEAKER_03 51:28

And then Wingate just clawed back in, and they never ever held the lead, but they made it tied a lot of times. And so if Limestone holds Newberry in that first quarter, I I think they win it. Yeah. I I just can't see Newberry go staying toe-to-toe with limestone all four quarters. You never know, man. You know, Newberry played a heck Newberry played a great game against Wingate. So let's go back to this limestone Newberry. Newberry is going to have to play. You talked about Pace having to play their A game, and they played their A game against Wingate. They're gonna need the same thing against Limestone.

SPEAKER_02 52:14

Where is the game?

SPEAKER_03 52:15

Is it Limestone?

SPEAKER_02 52:17

Yeah, I don't know, man. Yeah. Limestone's tough at home. They're not gonna lose at home, they're gonna beat Newberry.

SPEAKER_03 52:22

Okay. The the other one that I had on my list, and I got uh a bunch for next Wednesday, is Belmont Abbey, Mount Olive. Because, you know, we haven't talked much about these teams. Mount Olive's playing pretty well. Belmont Abbey is now playing better than they were. I think it's good, I just think it's gonna be a close game. And it's a Conference Carolina matchup, so that's why I had it on the list.

SPEAKER_02 52:50

Yeah, it's uh I don't know. I think Belmont Abbey's a much better team than Mount Olive this year. I mean Mount Olive. Mount Olive is just I don't know. They're just not being able, uh I don't know. Belmont Abbey, I think, is a better team. Where's that game? Belmont Abbey. Yeah, I like Belmont in that game. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 53:11

What else have any other games?

SPEAKER_02 53:13

The only other game maybe worth looking at is when Anderson plays limestone. Like I said, limestone has two. I had that.

SPEAKER_03 53:22

That's one of my one on Wednesday. Yeah, Anderson Limestone I had listed also. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:26

They're both ranked. Anderson and Newberry are both ranked. They're both in the sack, so it has a lot of implications. Seedings, national seedings, lots of stuff going on. So if Anderson or Newberry can pull off an upset, it's gonna be a little crazy in the sack, I think.

SPEAKER_03 53:44

Yeah, I I agree.

SPEAKER_02 53:46

And they're you know what? Anderson's capable, I think.

SPEAKER_03 53:51

I think they well, it's at Anderson, so that will help as well. I think they're capable. Yeah, I think I think they may have a shot. Here's some other ones, though, Danny. I also had, and that's on Wednesday. Here's some other ones for Wednesday, and these are interesting because a lot of them well are all conference matchups.

SPEAKER_02 54:11

Yeah, they're all in conference matchups.

SPEAKER_03 54:12

Caldwell Felician. We haven't talked about much. Both teams not doing great, but I think they match up. That would just be a team, uh, a game to watch for those two. Lynn, Emory Riddle.

SPEAKER_02 54:24

That's that might be a decent game.

SPEAKER_03 54:26

Lynn is much better this year than they've been in the past, and Emory Riddle's come on strong. You said Anderson Limestone, Kataba Wingate. I say this because look at this is at Kataaba. Wingate cannot Wingate has got to play four quarters against Katawba.

SPEAKER_02 54:44

Wingate hasn't played a four-quarter game against anybody decent this year. Yeah. They've always they've been starting out slow in every game. I mean, they can't afford to start out slow against Catawba.

SPEAKER_03 54:55

The other game, other game I had, and then I had this written down before I saw St. Michael's lost to Southern New Hampshire, but St. Michael's St. A's could be I thought it could be a good game. I want to see St. Michael's against Assumption even more.

SPEAKER_02 55:12

Yeah, that's probably a better game.

SPEAKER_03 55:14

Yeah, but you know, so those are kind of just some other ones I was thinking about.

SPEAKER_02 55:18

Yeah, no, it's it's conference play now, so a lot of these games do, like the chestnut Georgian court.

SPEAKER_04 55:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:26

You know, that that's that game, one of those teams could be an automatic qualifier right there.

SPEAKER_03 55:32

Yep. They gotta play Wilmington, though. Yeah, you're right. So yeah, it's good. One of those teams could be. Yeah, so exactly right. It's not I think in the CACC versus maybe some of the others, there is no clear-cut AQ in that one for. You know what?

SPEAKER_02 55:50

Maybe maybe next week we should talk about some of the conferences and where these teams are and what could be. Yeah. And start to put that together a little bit because it's gonna be here pretty quick. And we're halfway through almost. Can you believe it? We're almost halfway through the week.

SPEAKER_03 56:06

We are halfway through the full season. This is week nine. We and you if you talk all the way to the championship, that's that's halfway through. We're actually more than halfway through on just the regular season, which is crazy to think.

SPEAKER_02 56:19

Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_03 56:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:21

So before we go tonight, Kev, can I read the game?

SPEAKER_03 56:25

We gotta get into our game of the week.

SPEAKER_02 56:27

Oh, yeah. Forgot

Game of the Week

SPEAKER_02 56:28

about the game of the week. Howdy, folks, and this is the game of the week brought to you by the two.

SPEAKER_01 56:37

Bringing you the game that we believe is the best game of all those to watch this week with the bottom.

SPEAKER_03 57:12

I think this could be a good one. Although one of these teams we just talked about, can they do the same thing? This is Lewis at number eight against Seton Hill, now at number four, almost swapped, right? When they played pace, pace was number four and they were seven. Now Lewis is eight, they're four. Lewis has been sitting quietly at nine and one. But besides Limestone, who they lost to, they did beat Newberry early. Early.

SPEAKER_02 57:59

And Lewis, just like Pace, better bring their A game. Yeah. Because Seton Hill is deep, fast, strong, well coached, know what to do. But you know what? Lewis, like you said, quietly nine and one. So this should be a great game of the week to watch.

SPEAKER_03 58:17

Well, two other things. We know Seton Hill's firing all cylinders. It's at Lewis, though. It's at Lewis, and we know Coach Peruzzi. Yeah, it's great. Love him. He knows he's battling up. And he's it's not like he's the higher ranked team. And he's stolen games. Stolen's the wrong word. They've won those games, but it's been a surprise. If they win this one, it'll be a it'll be another big surprise.

SPEAKER_02 58:46

You know, again, Lewis beat Newberry early. And Newberry's a formidable team, absolutely, but they got him early. You know what I mean? Would Lewis be able to beat Newberry today? I don't know. Because Lewis, outside of limestone, really hasn't played anybody, Kev. You really haven't. So now you know that that iron sharpens iron as the season goes on. Is Lewis gonna be ready for a Seaton Hill? Because they just came off a great game off a pace. You know, number four team in the country, and put a spanking on them. That's gotta open up Coach Peruzzi's and the flyers' eyes. Like we'll see. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:27

They just put a spanking on number four team.

SPEAKER_04 59:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:29

So I think Coach Peruzzi will have his flyers ready. I like Seton Hill in that game.

SPEAKER_03 59:36

I do too. I do too.

D2 News

SPEAKER_03 59:38

All right. Before we move on to the player spotlight, we do have a little D2 news I want to go over. Although it's really more adjacent and tangential than it is straight D2 news. Danny, there's a new lacrosse documentary being released this summer, July 3rd, to be exact. It will be kind of tough for those of us who live down in the United States, except for if you live in western New York. But if you're up in Canada near Toronto, you may have a better shot. It's called the Northmen Way, which charts the rise of the Orangeville Northmen lacrosse organization. That's Box La Crosse. How is this related to D2? Well, come to find out, the Northmen have sent many players to D2, Leez McRae, Post, Walsh, Tampa, Newberry, just to name a few. How did I find out about this? Well, we were DMed by Bill Fitzpatrick, who coincidentally coached with John Grant Jr. last year in Texas. He he gave us a heads up. I watched the trailer. It looks really, really cool. I mean really cool. So Sir First Screen will be in Orangeville at the town opera house on July 3rd through the 6th. Box office details will be announced shortly. Details on the website. If you go to www.bumpyroadproductions.com, you'll can find the Northman way. After that, they've got you know, they've got teasers out with TSN, which is kind of the sports network up in Toronto. They have future plans for film festivals, community events, and potentially then I'll come down here. If you get a chance, I would check it out. I would just go and just watch the trailer. It's that much fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:27

Sounds interesting.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:30

Two players, two two brothers started the Bumpy Roads productions. One studied film at Cornell. Jake and the his brother Zach Taylor. Is it Taylor? Zach Thompson. Jake Thompson and Zach Taylor played. He he Zach studied film at R.I.T. where he played lacrosse.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:57

Okay. So really interesting. So it's let me see if I got this right. You got two guys that played lacrosse, started their own production company, and put this documentary on the Northwood Way, which is a Canadian.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:11

Northman Northman.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:17

Canadian box team. Yep. I guess that has history to it, because I've never heard of them. I don't know much about Canadian box a lot.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:26

It's black and white film they've got on this thing. Oh wow. It's it's pretty damn cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:31

And there have been players over the years that played for the Northmen that have gone to Division II. Exactly. Interesting stuff there. That's cool.

Player's Spotlight

SPEAKER_02 1:02:41

Now it's time for the player's spotlight.com. And now it's our player spotlight.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:46

As the song goes, Danny, time for the player spotlight. My favorite part, Kev. My favorite part. I know, I know. We this week are staying in the Peach Belt, but we're moving from defense to offense. And tonight we have a prolific scorer that is joining us. You could probably say he is the go-to guy on his team. Get this, Danny. 2024 Peach Belt Offensive Player of the Year. 2024 All-American Honorable Mention. 2024 D2 All South Regent. And this season, he's racked up 19 goals and 24 assists, number one on his team in all categories.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:36

Yeah, man. He's a baller.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:38

Yeah. So let's welcome him in. Trace McDonald, attackman for the Flagler Saints. All right.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:46

Trace, what's up, kid? How are you? Welcome to the show. I'm doing great. How are you guys? Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:52

Oh, our pleasure, man. Thank you for uh taking time out of study hall.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:56

Of course.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:58

Hey, so we kind of talked about this a little bit before we started on uh recording. You're a Florida boy. Did you always want to stay in state for your college career?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:09

Um, not really. I just kind of take what was given to me. So like Flagler just so happened to be the perfect spot. It was able to, you know, parents were able to come see every game. Uh stay in Florida don't have to be in the freezing cold right now. Like it's 75 degrees, perfect sunny out. So I mean it definitely worked out for the best.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:29

Right, right. Okay, so then why Flagler over Sunshine State teams?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:36

If you if you want me to be completely honest, I didn't really get looked at by any teams.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:40

They are not, they are really kicking themselves now.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:44

I didn't get looked at really at all. Well, it it COVID did not help at all. It was like my recruiting was when COVID happened, so all the they just kept all their juniors and seniors, and they were all fifth and sixth years, and luckily they're all starting to fade out. But yeah. I didn't really get looked at by any of those teams. I mean, Tampa, I emailed when Whipple was there, didn't work out, and then that was really it.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:07

Yeah. So was that your junior year, COVID, or was it? Yeah, that was my junior year. Yeah. Yeah. We were talking to Alex Gorgeon last week about that. Same thing. It's very tough. Yeah. That's your main year for highlight film and being able to go out and see schools and everything else. Does not definitely unlucky.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:26

There was no tournaments. What club team did you play for?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:30

Uh Florida Crabs. Stayed loyal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:33

Okay. So then how did Coach Duncan find you and bring you on?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:41

It's a great story, actually. Um, I played in the Nike national tournament in Maryland, and my one of my buddies, the goalie, uh, Wade Lamont, was already committed to Flagler. And I haven't had met Coach Duncan yet, and Wade was one of my good buddies. And Duncan so happened to be at the tournament, and Wade was like, You gotta check this guy out. And he watched one game, came up to me, and was like, When do you want to visit? And did the visit just like that? Perfect.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:06

Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome when it works out like that. It usually doesn't, it very, very rarely does it work out like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:13

He recruited four of my high school teammates, so there were four of us. So he recruited three of my other guys, so it was it was a pretty easy decision when it came down to who was here.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:22

Are you all still there?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:24

No, that now there's only two of us.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:26

Well, that's still good. You almost have like an immediate uh brotherhood that you're yeah, immediately.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:32

It's perfect. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:35

Coach Duncan is just he we had him on the show when we first started the podcast, and he came on and he was in his backyard. You could hear the crickets. I'm like, it's winter here, it was summer there, you know. I'm like, it's got crickets. I was like so envious of him, but he was such a really good guy, and here he comes on this podcast. He doesn't know these two knuckleheads. We are these guys, you know what I mean? We had just really started out, and he was dynamite. He hung out with us for like a half hour, he talked about so much stuff, and I was really impressed, really impressed with him. And you know, taking a club team to Division II in Florida, and he was in the Peach Belt, which we thought was kind of cool because Kevin and I really liked the Peach Belt Conference. It was a new conference, and you know, D2 is just growing and growing.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:23

100%.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:24

And I said to Kevin, you know, after doing a little bit of research, I said, You watch the Flaggless Saints in three or four years. They're gonna be a squad because of Coach Duncan, what he can do, how he coaches. Tell us about Coach Duncan.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:38

I mean, Coach Duncan's the man. This is the first year where we've had, I mean, the first four years of all recruiting. So the first my first freshman year and sophomore year were kind of hard due to the you know club guys being there and not being totally bought in. But yeah, yeah, now we have a full roster of 52, 54 guys who are totally bought in, and we're here to commit to Duncan and commit to this team. So, I mean, he's the man, he's definitely different. Um, you can tell he cares about his players. Like, there's definitely a care level. He tells me he loves me every day. I love the man. He's he's honestly the one of the best coaches I've ever been, coached by that's great.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:19

That's great. That is awesome. Yeah, doesn't surprise me at all. I love when I'm watching your games. I always try to see when they're looking at the sidelines, see what Coach Duncan, his animation, oh yeah, he's doing with his arms. He's always flailing his arms about his own.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:32

Oh, yeah, he gets fired up, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:35

But that's what you want in your coach, you know. You want your coach engagement.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:39

He cares about us. He cares about us for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:42

Trace, I'm telling you right away. I I knew I knew it wasn't gonna be long before the Flagler Saints were gonna be able to put a good product on the field.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:50

So did I. That's why I came here. I knew we could accomplish some history.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:54

Now, but but did you think you'd be in the top six?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:57

Oh, I this this is my mentality. I think we're one. I've always thought we're one. I love every I just I want to be the best, I want our team to be the best, I want the best for for everyone.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:08

So the other thing we've talked about before we've talked about with Coach Duncan, is the fact that your out of conference really focuses and can focus because of where you're at. Sunshine state teams. Yep. And I always think Danny and I talked about that really, I think helps your team because they're an automatically established a lot of good teams in that conference. What do you think of playing that competition?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:36

I mean, I think it's great. It only sets us up for I mean, the Peach Belt Conference, and that's what we want. We want to be playing our best ball, come conference time. And if we're playing, I mean, top 15, top 20 teams at week in and week out, it's gonna be easy money come conference time. So Coach Duncan does a great job giving us a hard schedule in the season, allowing us to face adversity. And uh Sunshine State Conference is definitely strong enough to where it's a battle every week. So I mean, I love it. And it gives us it gives us a bid if we if we don't end up uh winning our conference. We just we have a strong enough schedule.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:13

So oh oh let me tell you something. You're winning your conference. Yeah, you're winning your conference. You're gonna get a bid. That's our main goal. You guys, I as I see it right now. I think you're gonna win your conference. You go out to the RMAC, I think you're gonna win that. Yep. Just by the way you're playing now. You know what I like? Your size. Not you, but your squad. Yeah, yeah. Squad's got nice size, a lot of athletes out there. Coach has them right where he wants them. Yeah, you guys are ticking like a perfectly aligned clock right now.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:48

Yeah, and let's let's talk about so let's talk about some really add to that. Look at you, you have faced some adversity in years past, haven't won some of those. This year, you've had three one goal games, two went to overtime that you have pulled off. Your team has pulled off. What does that say about your team now this year?

SPEAKER_00 1:12:15

It means that we have a bunch of dogs, is what it means, but it's it's a it's a player, it's a player-led team. It's a player-led team. Everyone's bought in, everyone cares for each other. It's it's really a brotherhood that I couldn't ask for. I mean, there's probably I think 20, 20 or 18 seniors, like, and they all care so much about this team. And they when they came in as freshmen, they won one game their freshman year. They would have never thought, they would have never thought this. So, like, just seeing them get their flowers, receive their flowers is awesome. And I'm doing it for them. I'm doing it for everyone on this team, but especially these seniors, they deserve the world. They didn't have a field when they committed to here to Flagler. So it's great.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:54

Yeah, so that's funny. Danny said that we've had that we've had the your coach on twice. The second time, he had to be once again. We're freezing up here. He's out on your new field prior to practice talking to us. And that was like he was just like, I think he was just like taking the knife and then twisting it a little to get us. It was great.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:14

Instead of crickets, instead of crickets, it was all the love bugs behind you know, yeah, all the love bugs.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:20

But I mean, let's look at that. You guys are 10 and 1 now heading into peach belt play. And if you look at your past seasons, last two, heading into peach belt play, you were four and six in 24 and 2 and 8 in 2023. How so how is the team feeling as you head into Peach Belt play?

SPEAKER_00 1:13:39

We're just trying to keep it rolling, you know, put our heads down, go to work. We haven't accomplished any of the goals we want to accomplish yet. So we it's all it means nothing to us. I mean, it does mean something, but at the end of the day, we haven't accomplished what we want to accomplish, which which is winning the peach belt conference.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:56

Well, what you're doing now is those steps to get to where you want to be. 100%. And and you're not stepping, you're going two at a time, guy. You know, you the team is really, really peaking. Now you got Alabama Hunts, but you got you got Peach Belt coming up.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:11

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:12

I I I don't know. The way I see it, Kev, the way I see it, Trace.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:16

I know. We see it too, and we can't wait, we can't wait to compete.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:20

But you can't have that attitude. Your attitude's got to be like, no, no, no. You know, this is the championship game, and then this is the championship game. Then this is the championship game here.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:30

Every game we play, week in and week out, it's the biggest game of the week. So we we'll treat it like that, we'll prepare it like that, and uh we'll get it done.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:38

Montevallo's had some good games this year, so I think that maybe Oh, yeah, they look great.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:43

They play uh Meryville, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:14:45

Yeah, just lost by one. I mean, so but I'll but I'll tell you I think the the You know, some people can look at those three one goal games and say, well, so see, Flagler's not dominant. But the other side is you end up winning all those. So that I I coached, I texted Coach Foote on this and I said, look, it that is a that is a mark of a champion team when they don't want to run like that, and they're down on the on it every time, and they come back and win it. I mean, you've had some amazing fun games to watch this year.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:25

Thank you. I mean, we we've been on Montevallo's side. We've last year, I think we lost like three or four one goal games, and they hurt because we knew we could have got it done. So I know I know Montevallo's gonna be hungry. So I'm excited. I'm excited for conference. It's gonna be fun. It's always competitive in our conferences. It's there's a lot of great teams, so oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:43

And and like like Kevin said, Coach really put together a great out of conference, and that Malloy game was really exciting game. You know, as a a lacrosse, a lover of lacrosse, I love to see just good teams play each other. And uh somebody's posted, what was that, like a defensive game? And I was like, you know what? It was two teams that match up well, yeah, and they're coached well. Coach, Coach Dunn over at Malloy. He's he's a legend, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:14

Great coach, great coach.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:15

He's a legend. Do your homework on him, man. He's got multiple national championships under his belt, and dozens and dozens of all Americans in his career.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:26

100%.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:27

Just watching you guys play. Good lacrosse. You know, you're not making mistakes. You guys are you know, you're making the right reads, you're making the right moves, you you know, the two-man that's working, hitting the passes. Everything just seems to be working. I mean, what could be any better right now than to be a flagless thing?

SPEAKER_00 1:16:49

Nothing.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:50

There you go.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:52

Well, I don't think there's anything else to we think end there, but not really end there, Danny, because Trace has had all the answers so far.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:00

It's pretty good, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:01

Is he ready for the firing round?

SPEAKER_02 1:17:04

I don't know. We'll see. Here we go. Let's see. All right, ladies and gentlemen, tonight with us, we have Trace McDonald, former St. Thomas Aquinas, Fort Lauderdale High School kid at Flagler, just balling out, leading his team in points, and just you have been an amazing player to watch. I've watched you for the last couple of years, and uh it's really good to have you on. And now here we go. A couple of quick questions. Let's see what you got. Um, question number one mom's best meal.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:36

Everyone.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:38

You're a suck-up, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:40

No, she's a best.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:40

You're a suck up.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:42

She's the best. Mom, mom and dad both click very well. But if I had to choose one, probably Shepherd's Pie.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:48

All right, there we go. All right, question number two Xbox or PlayStation?

SPEAKER_00 1:17:56

Alright, this is a tough question for me. So I grew up, I grew up playing Xbox, and then as I got older, switched to the PlayStation. So I kind of have a love for both.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:07

Okay. What game what game you currently got on your uh your microphone?

SPEAKER_00 1:18:12

Uh the old the old KC Powell lax and um got that going and uh NHL.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:18

Okay, cool. Um early bird or night owl.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:23

Consider myself an early bird. I'm usually wide awake. Once I'm up, I'm up.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:28

What's your go-to breakfast meal?

SPEAKER_00 1:18:30

Peanut butter and jelly.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:32

Uh-oh. A little little protein and a little sugar. Yeah. There we go. Some carbs on their bread.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:38

Next one, runs or lifts?

SPEAKER_00 1:18:41

Runs, 100%.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:42

Runs? Wow. Not too many people say runs.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:46

Gotta be conditioned.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:47

Yeah. All right, good for you.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:49

If you lift weights, that's what the defense does. You know, they're there to bully you. But if you run, you can run right past them and they can't hurt you.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:56

So there you go. You're right, Trace. I agree. Okay, next question. ESPN or Netflix?

SPEAKER_00 1:19:05

I go ESPN.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:07

More of a sports center type of guy, but ESPN works.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:10

Okay, all right, cool. Uh favorite sport outside of lacrosse?

SPEAKER_00 1:19:16

Outside of lacrosse, probably football.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:18

Okay, who's your favorite team?

SPEAKER_00 1:19:20

NFL New England. I love you, Trace. I love you. Yeah. It's where the family's from. They kind of put it in my blood, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:28

Okay. All right. I grew up in Massachusetts. I couldn't convince my boys to follow the Patriots. They fell against me.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:35

I mean, I don't know how they couldn't. I mean, I think I had the best childhood ever growing up being a Patriots fan.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:40

Yeah, I was a child in the 70s and they weren't good then.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:42

Yeah. I mean, we'll see what happens over the next couple years. I might be right there with you.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:48

So nah, they'll come back. I promise you. What's your favorite college football team?

SPEAKER_00 1:19:55

If you see probably the University of Miami.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:58

Oh, hurricanes. All right. I'm a gator guy.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:02

A lot of legends. I I like the gators too. Gainesville. I go to Gainesville's only an hour and a half away, so I go over there a lot. I have a couple buddies who play on the team too.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:10

Oh, that's great. That's awesome. Uh what music is on your hype pregame list?

SPEAKER_00 1:20:17

I'm a I'm a chill guy. I would say um I got Joy to the World, if you guys have ever heard of that.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:25

Three dog night? Joy to the world?

SPEAKER_00 1:20:27

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:28

Yeah, I think we've heard of it.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:30

Yeah. I like the cute, I like it all. I like the music. I like the vibe. I like it.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:41

All right, Chase. You're killing me, dude. You're killing me. Are you a do-it-right away guy or a procrastinator?

SPEAKER_00 1:20:48

It depends on what it is. But for me, I I like to get it done. I mean, I'm a pretty busy person, so if it's out the way, it makes it a lot easier.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:56

There you go.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:57

Check the block, keep moving.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:59

Yeah. All right. Favorite class at Flagler.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:03

My favorite class at Flagler, I took last year. It was uh called M OK and Elvis Presley. So it was a class on M OK and Elvis Presley. It was great. Interesting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:14

What'd they discuss in it?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:16

Like well, because M OK did um a lot of protests in St. Augustine back in the day. So they showed us like where he stayed at and everything that he accomplished here, and then they showed like how like the similarities and differences between the two.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:32

Wow. Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:33

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:34

Who is your favorite professor at Flagler?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:37

I got a couple. Um, so Flagler's pretty small, so you have the same professors over and over again. So it's either Professor Velomir or uh Dr. Ryder, probably.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:48

All right, shout out to those guys. All right, who's the one person who really helped you on your lacrosse journey?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:55

I would say my dad. He was there at every step of the way. Um, he didn't play lacrosse growing up, but I'm telling you, he watches more lacrosse than any human ever. He watches D1, D2, D3, Club Lacrosse, any lacrosse he can watch, he's watching, and he's he's sending me texts every day on what I need to work on and what he thinks I can improve on. So definitely my dad.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:16

Uh that's a great answer. I mean, I'm the same way. I I never played the game, and I watched a ton of lacrosse. I drove 90 minutes to watch 10th graders play in the summer. Yeah, I'm like, I'm like, what the hell? I got no light, man. I gotta go find something else to do. Yeah, who's the funniest kid on your squad?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:36

Funniest kid with gotta be number 45, Ryan Berkman.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:40

Ryan Berkman, he's a funny kid, huh?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:43

Yeah, he's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:44

All right, cool. And who's the one kid on the squad you'd never let date your sister?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:50

One kid on the team I'd never date let date my sister is definitely uh transfer from um the Mount Mount St. Mary's Jack Pillow.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:03

Jackie's got Jackie, he has a sinister look on his face.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:07

Oh, yeah, he's always up to something.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:09

Well, that's hysterical. All right, Trace. Here's on flip side. Give us one thing that many maybe not too many people know about you.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:21

Um one thing that not too many people know about me is that I can golf left-handed and right-handed.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:28

Wow. That's awesome. That deserves that deserves some hand claps there.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:34

Yeah, so I'm I'm predominantly right-handed, but I play lacrosse lefty, I kick lefty.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:39

So it's all I'm a total lefty. I I'm very dominant left hand, I play golf righty.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:46

Yeah, it's all it's all I bet if you put in your left hand too, you can probably figure it out.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:51

You know, my middle son, he was a a lefty, like he played quarterback. He played lacrosse too, but he threw the ball lefty, he ate lefty, but he batted righty, so he was right stick dominant, and he kicked righty.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:07

Yeah, what do you right would do right? His left hand. I played baseball, I kick I hit lefty and threw righty.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:14

Wow, okay. A lot of guys do that though. Yeah, you know, that's pretty common in Florida, too, actually. Um, give us one thing on your bucket list.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:25

Probably uh go skydiving.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:28

Skydiving.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:29

Yeah, my dad did it, and I've always just like I'm I'm personally I'm kind of afraid of heights, but just jumping out of a plane sounds so something that I wouldn't do, but I would want to do.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:40

My middle son uh right now is going through airborne training at Fort Moore in Georgia. Awesome. I'm gonna jump out of an airplane next week. And I keep on telling him I was an aviator in the Navy. I'm like, why are you jumping out of a perfectly good airplane?

SPEAKER_02 1:24:54

Right, right, right. That's crazy. Uh what's your best lacrosse memory?

SPEAKER_00 1:25:03

Uh it's gotta be winning a state championship my senior year at high school, St. Thomas Aquinas.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:09

It's a good year. Yeah, I like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:10

Yeah, we uh we beat our rivals, Ponta Vidra. They uh they beat me my freshman year by uh that's when they had Dylan Hess and Carter Parlett, they had all those studs. And uh I don't know, Dobson didn't go there, but he went to um Fleming Island. But they they were great, and so they it came full circle when we played them my senior year in the state championship. There was a two and a half hour rain delay. We didn't end up finishing the game till like 1 a.m. It was a crazy, crazy game, but it was awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:41

How many, how many goals you have?

SPEAKER_00 1:25:43

Oh, I think I only had one goal. I we had a bunch, we had like four all Americans. We I think I had one and three.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:50

In the state championship game.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:51

That's okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:53

That's fine with me.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:54

Guess what? An assist, same amount of points as a goal.

unknown 1:25:57

Right?

SPEAKER_00 1:25:58

I I love assists. They're just as pretty as goals are even prettier sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:03

You're dishing out dimes like you're going to the electric chair, kid. You are just dishing them out there. It's been great to watch. Okay, last one. Give us your best impression of Coach Duncan.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:16

Oh boy. I don't know if I could do this too well. Uh let me think. Uh Coach Dunk.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:25

Come on, there's gotta be something that he does. That's just there.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:28

All my teammates, all my teammates do great impersonations of him. I'm not the one that you know step on the toes a little bit, but he'd be like, We'll be we'll be in a huddle. He'll call timeout. Be like, what are you guys doing? Are we soft, fellas? We need to run through. We need like just something like that. Like he he's he's always gonna chirp us to get us fired up and get us going.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:49

Yeah, all right, good.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:50

I can see him doing that. Yeah. All right, you know him. He he he grew up, he grew up in Maryland. He played at uh uh what's this college he played at?

SPEAKER_02 1:27:02

USMBC.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:03

Yeah, he played, yeah. He UMBC. Um B C. I mean he's got he's definitely gone through the ringer, so yeah, he he does the same to us, and we respect the heck out of him because we know he's only doing it for the best of our capabilities, and he loves us.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:16

So absolutely. Well, Trace McDonnell, you did a great job in the firing round. You were a phenomenal guest tonight, man. Man, I really appreciate you coming on, have a good personality. You're the type of kid I'd probably hang out with if I was at school, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:30

Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:31

And you know, thank you. And tell Coach Duncan, I still got four four years of eligibility left.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:36

Oh, I will. We'll take whoever.

Shout outs

SPEAKER_03 1:27:42

What'd you think of Trace McDonald there, Danny? Dude, I want him on my team. Are you kidding me? Can you believe? Well, I can believe based on a couple things he said. I was shocked that he was not recruited by Sunshine State teams. But if you look at it, COVID. Year he had several players his grad year that seemed to be as good if not better than Trace.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:14

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:15

From what he was saying when they won the state championship. Yeah. So he he's a kid that totally got lost in the shuffle.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:22

And it happens. It happens. You know, it happens more often than you think. There's a lot of good players out there that for whatever reason. But you know what? He comes from a storied high school program at St. Thomas Aquinas. They won states. It's an unbelievable athletic school. Their football team is nationally ranked. Their lacrosse team is like a state champ. That's a great, you know, sports athletic school, St. Thomas. Um, and what a great kid. I just like his whole attitude. He's cool, he's chill. And you know what? He's a baller and he's a gamer, and he's he's a kid that wants to win. And, you know, he's willing to put his body on the line and do all those little things to help his squad. You heard him talk about Coach Duncan. He loves him. And he said, you know, Coach Duncan loves me. He tells me he loves me every day.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:12

And then he said things, and then he said things like, you know, I'm doing this this year for our seniors. I'm you, you know, he just Yeah, pretty cool. Yeah. And you know, although he's scoring a lot and he knows I like I said, he's the go-to guy. He's not playing for himself. No, he dishes. He's got more assists than he has golf. Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:34

You know, he likes to dish. He said, I live for the assist, man. He loves it. You know what? And what I really liked is that, you know, that one person in his life that helped him on his lacrosse journey was his dad. Yeah. I love I love when kids, you know, talk about their dads because they really don't talk about him that much. It's always like, it was my first club coach, Coach Martin, shout out. You know, meanwhile, I got you know, hasn't seen him in five years, but you know, there's dad, you know, driving to another tournament, you know, making sure that he's got a sandwich ready, you know, like that kind of stuff. So I I really like Trace McDonald. I think his team is phenomenal. I've been talking about Flagler all year. I guess I sound like a broken record, you know. There's certain teams that I like, I just see what I see, and I like what I like, and I think Flagler's one of those teams that they're just gonna be badass. And and Trace, to have a kid like him on your team, every coach would would give their arm to have 10 of them. You know what I mean? So one of them a lot of times. Yeah. So Trace, thanks for coming on tonight. You were an excellent fun.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:42

A lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:42

Exceptional guest tonight.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:44

Okay, before we go to shout-outs, going back to our notes, do you want to go over the USILA top 20?

SPEAKER_02 1:30:52

Yeah, so our listeners aren't so confused, you know, because the week before people, so I'm sure you know that. But we're gonna go, we're gonna read down the entire top 20 this week's. That just dropped Monday. Today is Tuesday. The podcast will come out Thursday, so that's this week's top ten. Number one, Tampa. Number two, Adelphi, number three, limestone. Those three never changed. Seton Hill with the big win goes to number four. St. A's moves up because of their win five. Flagler wins big game. They move up to six. Lenore Ryan moves up to seven. Lewis moves up to eight. Pace moves back to nine, and Wingate moves back to ten. Yep. That's your top ten. That was a pretty badass top ten right there. Those teams are pretty good. Every single damn one of them. Number 11, Maryville. Number 12, here comes Anderson.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:57

Number 13, Newberry. 14, St. Leo. That loss to Colorado Mesa. Dropped them back one, but they're still in the hunt. I'm telling you, they could be in the Sunshine State Conference Championship this year, Kev. They literally could be. Yep. Um, number 15, Bentley drops back after that loss. Emory Riddle's hanging in there at 16. Look at them, huh?

SPEAKER_03 1:32:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:23

Mercy's uh at 17, Malloy hanging in there at 18, and deservingly so. Montevallo with the big win over Meryville moves into 19, and Colorado Mesa rounds it all off at 20. So that's your this week's top 20.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:41

I love it. I love it. Thanks for going over that with the listeners there, Danny, and me. I had it right there in front of me, but you say it much better than me. Okay. Do you have any shout-outs for this week? I only have one.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:54

I have one. And this goes out to the junior attackman from Wingate University, Kyle Spence. Dishing dimes taking names. 100 career points. Congratulations, Kyle. Good job, buddy.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:09

I've got one shout-out as well. And this one I kind of teased earlier, and that's to Emmanuel University. They stand seven and two this season, Danny. Amazing. So just beat Lise McRae as we recorded tonight. So I want to send out a shout-out and a congrats to Coach Lance Olson and his assistant Mike Penna on what they've been able to do in their second season.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:36

Good job, fellas.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:40

And as always, thank you to our sponsors, the D2 Showcase and Shad Coffees and Lids. We really appreciate your sponsorship. So please, if you're listening to this podcast, check them out.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:02

Springtime, Kev. I love it. I love it. And we hope you have a bright sunshiny day to all our listeners out there. Keep the DMs coming.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:16

And that, Danny, is a wrap.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:19

That's a wrap, Kev. But also a political thing.