It's Tourney time! A look back at week 12 and a preview of week 13

Intro

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Welcome, welcome, welcome to another episode of In the Crease with Danny and Kevin, a coast to coast to coast, a coast to coast discussion of D2 Men Facross.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

Easy for you to say.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

I know. I'm your co-host, Kevin Stenterman, and with me as always is the Troubadour of D2 Lacrosse, Danny Moran. Hey Danny. Hey, Kev, how's it going tonight? I see you're back in Northern Virginia. How are you? I am. I got back today. Sit and set up my whole uh computer again, my office. I'm good to go. Good and ready to talk lacrosse this week. It is crazy. I'm sure you'll do the top 10 roundup in a second, but we're getting right into the thick of conference play. It's already started, and we had a bunch of crazy games early on last week. Do you want to do the top 10 first? Yeah. Yeah.

Top 10 Roundup

SPEAKER_03 1:02

All right. Ladies and gentlemen, this is your own. All right, boys and girls. Here we go. Number one, limestone continues to roll on and roll on. They beat Mars Hills 20 to 3. Number two, Lenore Ryan. They continue to roll on. They beat Kataborat handily 20 to 5. Number three, Tampa beat a Pesky Florida Tech team really bad, 21 to 7. A Delphi beat St. A's 8 to 7 in a tight one. Yeah. Number five, Rollins lost to St. Leo. One of the early crazy games. 12 to 9 in a crazy. That was that I watched that game. Number six, Mercy beat Mercyhurst in another nail bite of those cardiac kids, 1816. We'll talk about that a little bit. Number seven, St. A's lost to St. Michael's. And to Delphi. They had a tough week, St. A's. Number eight, Wingate beat Coker 18-1 in the SAC semis. Quarter.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Quarters.

SPEAKER_03 2:31

Quarters. I'm sorry. Quarters. Number nine, Pace beat AIC. Tough, tough win. This was not an easy win for Pace. 17 to 14 over AIC. AIC showed a lot of grit in that game, Kev. And number 10, Newberry beat Anderson 20 to 14 in the SAC quarters. And that's your first time. Chestnut Hill beat Felician 14-5. North Greenville over Young Harris 20-13. Malloy beat George and Court 12-9. And Merryville beat Rockhurst 13-10. That's just a couple of good scores in North Cavs.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

But besides Dominican, Wilmington beat Post 15-10 on Saturday. And here's the interesting about that game, Danny. I don't know if you saw any of that. Post led most of the way in this game until the fourth quarter. And then in the fourth, there were three ties: eights, nines, tens. Wilmington then scored the next five goals to close it out. And with that win, Wilmington secures regular season championship and the one seed in the CACC. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 4:11

So Kev, just I would like to do this. Um we we're always like a week behind with our top 10, kind of a little bit. So with everything starting this week with the quarterfinals in the sack, we got Conference Carolinas getting ready to start up. We got Sunshine State in. Okay. Okay. So today, today's today's uh coach's poll came out, and I'm trying to pull it up here. It is number one, Limestone, number two, Lenore Ryan, number three, Tampa, number four, Adelphi, number five, Mercy. Wingate moves up to number six. Pace moves up to number seven. Newberry moves up to number eight. Rollins drops to number nine after that big loss. Yeah. Undy's at 10. Uh St. A's is at 11. Mercyhurst is at 12. Bentley's at 13. Frostburg State comes in at 14. Followed by Westminster at 15. Wow, Westminster. 16 is Maryville. Number 17 is Seton Hill. Number 18 is Colorado Mesa. 19 is Farda Southern. And rounding off the top 20 is Rockhurst. So that's your new top 20 in Division 2, Gev.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Yeah, that's pretty interesting how some of that has changed. Some teams, even in the top, the last 20, that means the last 10 are inching their way up because of the way they played.

Week in Review

SPEAKER_02 5:55

Really interesting. So let's get into other games in the week in review. Where do you want to start? You want to do the St.

SPEAKER_03 6:03

Leo Rollins game? That was like whatever you want to do, man. Whatever you want to play.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

All I have is uh I didn't get to watch that game. I just have the score. I'll tell you that week, if you look at that, and then you can go and if you want to talk that game, interesting scores that that Wednesday. We, you know, is that before our last podcast came out, but you talked about it. St. Mike's beating St. A's 15 to 13. Frostburg beating Seton Hill 17 to 9. And then St. Rollins beating Rollins. I mean St. Leo beating Rollins 12 to 9, and Palm Beach Atlantic beating Emmy Riddle 14-13. And if you listened to us last week, I thought Emmy Riddle was going to be in and Saint Leo was going to be out.

SPEAKER_03 6:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

The conference tournament because of those two games. It flipped. St. Leo was in. And Emmy St.

SPEAKER_03 6:56

Riddle was out. A couple of St. Leo people have a little bone to pick with you. You said they were going to make it.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

Hey, ball never lies, Danny. There you go.

SPEAKER_03 7:05

You know what? St. Leo really that was a great game against Rollins. Rollins jumped out to a 3-1 lead before Matt Cleary got the Lions on the board. Then Bistro and Palmer each scored, and things were tied at three. Berkman scored a pair for the Tars and got Bistro buried a pair himself. It was 6'4 Rollins at half. Pretty tight game. Yep. You know, Rollins is usually putting up pretty pretty big numbers. So it was it was more of a defensive battle, right? Man, that St. Leo defense really came to play in the second half. They held the defense, they held Rollins scoreless the entire third quarter. And St. Leo scored six unanswered goals. And the difference was just too much to make up. Rollins, in my opinion, Kev, they were outworked. They were out hustled. They were simply outplayed. I if you ask me, it seemed that St. Leo could just control possession in that second half. They played team ball. You know what I mean? Yeah. They played team ball. One guy wasn't trying to look. They were constantly moving, constantly in action. And uh they really played well. Uh guy Bistro, five goals and one assist, he had himself a day. Greg Palmer, three goals and four assists. John Rao came out, cleared each one. Michael Flores, 15 for 21 at face-off. And Jay Strait was uh, I think the uh player of the week down there. He stood on his head, he had 12 saves. And for Rollins, uh the usual uh the usual suspects, Grant Hansen with three, uh Mikey Berkman with three, White Johnstone and Caracciolo had one. Uh Brady Greco suffered. He's he struggled at at face off four for 13. They threw Lake Baker in there. He was three for 12. They didn't do too good on the on the uh face-offs Rollins that night. But the big diesel captured during he had 12 saves, and uh and so did straight. So I mean Saint Leo just outplayed them.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

Yeah, I was you the one you texted me that that game was on and what the score was, and I watched probably the last half of the fourth quarter, and I totally agree with you. I think that Saint Leo was playing team ball by that point. Rollins was tight, they really had to make up time, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:25

And and just I just felt that St. Leo played really well, they just played really well, you know. They were getting getting ground balls and they were just holding on time of possession and just didn't they, you know, when you when a team plays like a team, anybody can beat anybody, and Saint Leo completely proved that, got themselves into the Sunshine State conference, and then immediately shit the bet and lost.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Well, they they they ran up against a little bit of a buzzsaw. They had a team that really came out and and beat them in Florida Southern. We'll get into that in a little bit. Maybe we'll do that when we talk conference tournaments a little bit. I think what's interesting, you talk about that, and we've we've talked about parody. I think we see that in the Sunshine State this year with teams like St. Leo, Emory Riddle, even Lynn. Lynn, who made it into the into the the conference tournament uh by beating Florida Tech. Here's another one, Danny. This happened on Saturday. You mentioned it. Rockhurst against Maryville. Maryville pulls it off 13 to 10. This was one of the GLBC hurdle teams. I I said Rockhurst had a beat. But now, if you look at it, you look at the conference standings in the GLBC, Undy four and one in conference, Rockhurst four and one in conference, Lewis four and one in conference, Maryville three and one in conference. Maryville with that win puts them right in the driver's seat with the rest of them, and they they notched their 10th program win, and that's a program record for them. 10 wins this season.

SPEAKER_03 11:06

10 and 3 right now, Rockhurst.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

Really interesting game because it was only 1-0 after one. Saints get on scoreboard, but the defense really held for the rest of the quarter on both of them. Then it was only 2-1 after two. Rockhurst did not score until 128 left in the second quarter. Then the game was back and forth. It was 4-3 Maryville, 5-4 Rockhurst. Then Maryville goes on a four-goal run to make it eight to five. You think they've got the they've got it going. Rockert Rockhurst keeps cutting back into lead and ties it at nine. Maryville goes on another mini run and they open up a two-goal lead to make an 11-9. That's basically all she wrote. Ox could not close from there. Two completely different halves.

SPEAKER_03 11:49

Three-one at three-one, a two-one at halftime, and then end up 13-10.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

Yeah. Wow. So it was good. Justin Simonson from Maryville, three goals, two assists. Ben Foster, three goals. Zach Baker, two goals. Mitchell Kay, one goal, one assist. Three do stray, one goal, one assist. And the Rockert side, Lars Yarkowski, three goals, one assist. Jonah McConnell, two goals. Ricky Balloon, one goal, three assists, and Alec Heflin, two goals, one assist.

SPEAKER_03 12:17

Yeah, man, man.

SPEAKER_02 12:20

All right. You want to talk uh the uh one of the close games on Saturday, a Delphi St. Anselm? I did not watch that game. Crazy game. Talk about a game of two halves, Danny. It was two two after one. Hawks led, that's right. It was the exact same. When you say you didn't watch the game, it was the exact same time the Wingate game was on. Three o'clock.

SPEAKER_03 12:44

Yeah, there was a lot of games on at that time.

SPEAKER_02 12:47

Yeah. So I watched the Adelphi St. Anselm game. It was 2-2 after one, Danny. Hawks led 2-1 before the Panthers went on a total run. Out, they outscored St. A's 5-0 in the second to lead 7-2 at half. And really what I saw in that first half is that Adelphi's offense was clicking, and their D was really stout in that second quarter. But the second half belonged to St. A's. Just flipped, Danny. There was only one Gorse goal scored in the third. St. Anselm held Adelphi scoreless. And they outshot a Delphi nine to three in that quarter. And with nine shots, it was really Dylan Renner making saves that limited St. A's to just one goal. So it's 7-3 after three, Danny. And I'm thinking the Panthers have this. If they keep their defense playing like they are, they're just going to win this game out right pretty easy. And then no goals were scored in the fourth until St. A scored two in about a minute with 6-30 left to cut it to within two. And you think, okay, let's see what happens. A Delphi scores though a minute later to go up 8-5. And you think, okay, is that it? That sealed the deal. Three goals. The next two goals, Danny, were crazy. Will Andrews scored on a rebound. Dylan Renner saves but doesn't get the ball. It rebounds right to Will Renners, 8-6 with 327 left. Then a Delphi wins the ensuing face-off, which is their only one of the game.

SPEAKER_03 14:24

Yeah, they got destroyed at face-off. I see. I was looking at the box score right now.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

So you think that's in fact the announcer's like, oh, the perfect time for the win a face-off, but they turned it over. And then Dylan Renner gets barrazzed with shots, like three or four, three shots until Jake Davis buries the one. There's a third one. I mean, it was just shot, they get it back, and defense is still out there. Shot, they get it back, and defense is still out there. They scored that with 105 left. So you see how long that St. Ay's had the ball on their offensive side. Two minutes. Shooting at Dylan Renner. They score. So now it's eight to seven. Saint Ay's wins the face-off. They call timeout to draw up a play. They come in. Aiden Fitzgerald of a Delphi strips the ball from a Hawks player. There's a huge scramble for the ball over several seconds. I mean, like it was one of those, it wasn't really a scrum.

SPEAKER_03 15:27

The ball's moving off the face of the screen.

SPEAKER_02 15:30

And you know, so St. Ay's gets a last ditch effort to shoot with a couple seconds left and and goes right into rent. Dylan Renner gets it. He stops the ball. Now he's just gotta he's just gotta fling it. Game's over.

SPEAKER_03 15:46

Yeah. Yeah. Dylan's Dylan Renner, man. Coach Purdy better buy him a car at the end of the season. If they make it to the national championship, it's really good. Because his there he's making defense turn into offense because they're getting destroyed at face-off. Destroyed. And look at the difference in saves.

SPEAKER_02 16:05

Did you see the team stats? Saint A's had three saves. A Delphi had 21. There you go. And I'll tell you, St. St. Anselm's usual goalie, Anthony Kubick, was out. So they started a freshman, Finn Granera. And you know, a freshman starting his first game against a Delphi.

SPEAKER_03 16:29

Yeah. Hey, welcome to the league, kid. Yeah. That's what happens. Listen, St. A's a tough squad. They they play a tough schedule. But I just think what a Delphi has on defense, their defense is getting them offense. You understand? Because they're not winning face-offs. They're really getting destroyed at face-offs. But Dylan Renner has been so solid, and that defense has been so solid on the Delphi that once the offense gets the ball, there's talent on the offensive side of the ball.

SPEAKER_02 17:01

Yeah, but look at and but look at that second half. They scored one goal the whole second half.

unknown 17:08

St.

SPEAKER_02 17:09

A's is tough, man. They're a tough squad. Yeah, it was a good game. It was crazy. I gotta watch it.

SPEAKER_03 17:14

I'll watch it on replay. What other games did you see? Um, the Mercy, Mercy Hearst game. Did you watch any of that?

SPEAKER_02 17:23

No, I watched the whole thing, Danny.

SPEAKER_03 17:25

The cardiac kids let them mercy hearst. Oh my god. I thought they were gonna. I was like, oh my god. I thought they were gonna roll with them.

SPEAKER_02 17:32

I'm like, I'm like, where is Mercy Hurst?

SPEAKER_03 17:35

First of all, Mercy, it was 7-0 before like I even knew what happened. Mercy jumped all over Mercy Hurst.

SPEAKER_02 17:45

They were scoring every which way, Danny. There was a transition goal from Korber to Kramer, two defensive players to get the 2-0 lead. Only then goes Brent only goes out of the goal to help the clear. There's a turnover, and Greg Gibbons scores for midfield, broken play, transition goals, rebound goals. It was just crazy.

SPEAKER_03 18:05

I was just like, you know, Keeley, man, your boys come to play today, or what? Like it was so quick that those goals, it was just a flurry, a fury, a flurry. It's just it was seven-nothing before you like could sneeze. And I was like, oh boy, Mercy looks really good. But you know what? Mercy Hurst in the second half was a completely different team. That defense tightened up, man, big time. And they started causing turnovers and making it difficult for Cooner, who had a great game still, but he was turning the ball over. They were forcing on those face-offs. Uh they were forcing Mercy into turnovers.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

Yeah, they won some of those turnovers that way. I mean, they were getting shut out by Cooner in the first half.

SPEAKER_03 18:54

Well, yeah. He's, in my opinion, he's, I think, the best in the country. I think it's either him or the kid from Tampa, right? Palmer. In my opinion, I don't know what the numbers of the stats are, but Cooner's just been great for Mercy all year. And but Mercy Hearst really tightened up the defense, man, in the second half. Mercy Hearst scored, was 11-7, then Mercy scored 12-7, then Mercy Hearst scored 12-9, then Mercy scored the next two, 14-9. And I was like, they're coming back here. Then Hurst scored the next three goals, made it 14-12. Then Mercy scored 15-12. You know, I was like, okay. And then it started getting chippy. Mercy Hearst scored 15-13. Mercy scored the next two, 17-13. I was like, wow, okay. But Mercy Hearst kept chipping, man. Uh Casey Scott buried one for Mercy Hearst, man. It's 1715. Calabria scored at the 342 mark of the fourth quarter, making 1815. Colin Schmatz scored 311 mark for Hearst, 1816. I was like, oh my God, this game is well.

SPEAKER_02 20:09

You're right. And at that point, the way the scoring was going, pretty quick at that point, 350, 311. I'm thinking, okay, there's gonna be another score. Can Mercyhurst come back? But the next three minutes were just shut out on both sides.

SPEAKER_03 20:26

Yeah. There was uh Kuner won one of those face-offs at the end, like the last minute or so, and he turned the ball over. And Mercy Hurst got the ball and called timeout. I was like, uh oh, there's like a minute or so left. I've seen crazier things happen, you know. And uh Murphy made the save and they were able to just chew out the clock at the end, Mercy. But I mean, they let Mercyhurst back into that game. They had him by seven goals, and the Cardiac Kids let another team, but you know what?

SPEAKER_02 20:59

I so I you're you're right, you're right. But I think also Mercyhurst all of a sudden uh talk about whether it's adjustments or just waking up or like I don't know, but they started to play the way you would expect Mercyhurst to play.

SPEAKER_03 21:14

Yeah, the first the first half they looked lethargic, they just didn't they look they were down so quick so fast.

SPEAKER_02 21:20

Well, they looked shell-shocked, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know if it's lethargic. I mean, everything was going right for Mercy, and things were going wrong for Mercyhurst too on some of those goals, but credit mercy on what they did. And I I give a lot of credit to Mercyhurst and how they fought back.

SPEAKER_03 21:36

Oh, yeah, they they really get, I'm telling you, Mercy Hurst was on their heels a little bit in the last if it wasn't for a couple of quick scores and mercy was like able to get that mercy hearst was like really in that game in the last five, six minutes or so. It was really interesting.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Well, you said it when it was 12 9, Danny. I'm like, here they come, and all of a sudden there was two more scores by Mercy, and you're like, Oh, okay, but they fought back, they just Kept on coming back.

SPEAKER_03 22:01

It was a good game. Yeah. Yeah. Mercy needed to have a game like that. Haven't had a game like that in a while. So they beat number 12 Mercy Hearst. So they continue to roll on, and Mercy Hurst. Mercy's only got one loss. They look pretty good. They're 11 and 1 now.

SPEAKER_02 22:15

Yep.

Games to Watch this Week

SPEAKER_02 22:17

All right, Danny. It's time to talk about games to watch this week. Now, this week, there's only a few games left in the regular season, but a lot of conference tournament games in full swing and starting. So let's just go through right now regular season games to turn to, and then we'll turn to talk about the conferences and the games and the conference tournament. So the the big ones that I've got, I'll start off. On Saturday, it's Flagler and Montevallo. This is a statement game for Flagler, in my opinion. They need to get this to go two and two in conference. I don't think it really changes their seating, but but it certainly would boost their confidence. Because they, if they lose to Montevallo, that means they've lost to Montevallo, Lander, and UAH in the regular season.

SPEAKER_03 23:02

I circled that game as well.

SPEAKER_02 23:04

Yeah. And then I've got the only other two I'm really looking at are both GLBC games. It's Lewis against Rockers. This is the other GLBC hurdle team for Rockers. They lost to Maryville. Can they beat Lewis? Or can Lewis who lost to U Indy last week, can they bounce back?

SPEAKER_03 23:29

Right? It's tough now.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

Now look at Maryville U Indy as the other game.

SPEAKER_03 23:34

Yeah. Seating invitations right here. That's the game I circled. I circled the Maryville U Indie game. That should be, you know, again, this is GLVC seatings. You know, U Indy, if they win out, they have a really good chance of getting into the NCAA tournament. Yep. You know, as the way I see it right now. Yep. And if Maryville can win out, I think Undy might have an edge because it's a screen of schedule. Because Undy plays some, you know, they play some higher end teams, but who knows? We'll see. But I think that's that's a good one, Kev. Yeah. So I think what about tomorrow night's game? That's gonna be a Wednesday game. So that's any.

SPEAKER_02 24:16

So let's go into it. I f oh in oh that's right. We talked about it last week. It's pace St. Anson. We talked about that last week. And that is gonna be a huge we talked last week how big it's gonna be. It's even bigger now because St. A's lost to St. Mike's and lost to Delphi. And it's at St. A's. At St. A's gets the number two seed, I think, if they beat St. A's.

SPEAKER_03 24:41

Oh, absolutely. 100%. If they beat St. A's, they get the number two. But you know what? St. A's gave a Delphi a hard time. They did. You know, and and and St. A's can can do a lot of good things. So Pace is gonna have their hands full. They're on the road, man, in any 10 matchup. You know how that is. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:01

So that's that game will be over by the time this comes out. But you're right, that's gonna be right. We're recording this on Monday night. Monday, yeah.

Conference Tourney talk

SPEAKER_02 25:08

All right. Well, why don't we move into the conferences? Uh we need to focus on the North conferences really quickly, but let's talk about the two conferences first in the South. The Sack already had had games in the quarterfinals. Wingate beat Coker 18 to 1, and Newberry beat Anderson 20 to 14. So Limestone plays Newberry on Sunday, on no, on this Wednesday, and LR plays Wingate. So that's the Sack in the Sunday. What a conference, huh? What a conference. Oh my god. But the Sunshine Stage, the other one that had games already. Florida Tech beat Lynn 10 to 9 in overtime. Great game. Yep. And then, like we talked about quickly, Florida Southern beat St. Louis pretty handily 20 to 15. So Tampa plays Florida Southern, and then Rollins plays Florida Tech. And what's interesting, their final's going to be on Saturday the 27th. The Sacks finals on the on the 28th. Conference Carolina starts up this week. And then their finals on Sunday the 28th. And then the RMAC's the same thing. April 26th. Let's talk quickly about CACC. They are April 28th, May 1st, and May 5th. Here's the seeding for this. Wilmington's one. Chestnuts two if they beat Bridgeport. Georgian Court is three seed. Post will be the four-seed if they beat Caldwell and Bridgeport is the five seed. In the GMAC, April 27th, May 1st, and May 4th. Mercyhurst is one, Seton Hill 2. I've got Lake Erie 3. Malone as the four seed, Walsh as the 5, and Wheeling as the 6. And then ECC, which is May 1st and May 4th. Mercy as one, Frostburg 2, Roberts Wesley and 3, and Malloy should be the fourth seed at 3 and 5. And then we get down to the NE 10, the last one. April 27th, May 1st and the 4th. A Delphi is the one seed. St. Anselm could be the two seed or pace, depending on who wins that game against them this week. Bentley, I see, as the four seed because they beat St. Michael's. St. Mike's is the five seed and Assumption is a six seed. Do not overlook St. Mike's in this tournament. So that's a quick rundown of the conferences coming up and the games, and we're gonna a lot to review next week.

SPEAKER_03 27:39

Yeah, it's it's that time of year, Kev. It's the best time of year, man. This is all and it's been good this year. Oh man, that's that south really looks good, though, huh? They look good down there. I just think some of the teams, you know, like I think about the north, and then I'm thinking about the south. I'm like, uh, Tampa, Rollins, Limestone, Gate, Undy, Limestone, Lenore Ryan. Man, that South is gonna be wow.

SPEAKER_02 28:07

That's the gauntlet before you even get to the final.

SPEAKER_03 28:11

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Spotlight

SPEAKER_02 29:22

We have a huge wrinkle this week, Danny. Yes, I'm I'm I'm excited for this one. Listen to this. No player spotlight, no coaches spotlight, no guest analyst. Tonight, our guests hail from a different part of the field, the broadcaster's booth. Yeah. Actually, watched one of our guests in person last year do his craft while in the press box at the AIC Caldwell game. Totally amazing, Danny. I remember I remember you went there. I remember you talking about it. Yep. We have the luxury of recording and editing our mistakes. They don't. And they juggle with stats and player info and a lot of other information. They try to keep the game moving and people in interested. So we thought it'd be cool to get a couple of those guys on who do the play-by-play andor color commentary, or both, and just see how they do it. So let's welcome them in right now. Seth DeSalt from AIC and the Mouth of Sports. That's his email address. Fabian Fuentes from Limestone. Hey, how are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 30:34

Hey, gentlemen. Thanks for having me on tonight. Looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_00 30:38

Yeah, appreciate you guys uh wanting to have me on here. It means a lot uh to get this opportunity. That's awesome. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 30:46

Seth, let me start with you. You're the coordinator of athletic communications at AIC, so your role is much broader than just play-by-play. Tell us about your role, what it entails, and then specifically broadcasting.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

So I like to joke that coordinator of athletic communications is a whole bunch of big words for yells aloud about sports. That's probably the most fun part of my job, but it entails our website, social media, graphics, uh recaps, stats, anything that comes out of the athletic department um for public consumption kind of goes through me. Wow. So I have a group of student workers, I have graduate assistants who help me out. You know, at halftime when we're in commercial break, um, you know, double checking the stats. Hey, you missed a cause turnover here. Hey, we got to add a uh add an assist on that goal, that kind of thing. A little bit of everything, uh, highlights after the game, you know, all that. So a little bit of everything, but definitely always has been my favorite part of the job is when the whistle blows and I got that headset on and I could be calling in game.

SPEAKER_02 31:57

Well, it is it is amazing, Danny. I watched him do this. We talked about this a little bit uh before we started recording. He's coaching students while he's also doing the play-by-play. You go off right, he goes, hey, you missed that, you know, and then he's talking like, let's talk about this when they go on a break. It's amazing. Well, let's move to the mouth of sports because I love that email, Fabian. I actually love that email address. Tell us how you got into broadcasting and actually broadcasting limestone lacrosse games.

SPEAKER_01 32:29

Uh actually, uh getting into the broadcasting bit began uh when I was in high school. Uh actually I started out uh doing um the uh introductions for our boys basketball team at St. John's Country Day School. I was also the team manager and was also a baseball standout. Make a long story short, uh I had always watched games on TV, grew up just outside of Philadelphia, uh Pennsylvania, so I listened to Harry Callis, Richie Ashburn on a summer night on the transistor radio playing ball outside. Merle Reese is still the voice of the uh Philadelphia Eagles. And uh we moved down to Florida in uh 1981, uh, that was the age of uh cable TV. And one of the stations we got was WGN out of Chicago. And I got this loud broadcaster by the name of Harry Carey. And at the time the Cubs did not have uh lights the field, so home games were all played during the day. So I would sprint home from school, listening. Uh how Limestone Lacrosse started. A lot of folks don't realize this. I got a partial baseball scholarship to play for Gaylord Perry at Limestone as part of the second recruiting class.

SPEAKER_04 33:41

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 33:42

So that's how I got to Limestone in 1988. 1989, they started this uh sport called lacrosse. And I was like, okay. And I got to know the uh first head coach, Mike Sereno in program history. Very first game for men's lacrosse was against the Hooters club team. We played on a non-regulation field at the time. It's not the one that this uh Limestone plays on now. He had to get me an extension ladder so I could climb up the side of the cafeteria with one of those big old camcorders back in the day. It's 19. And my claim to fame, other than being on handed all five national championships, was I got to video the first ever game in the history of Limestone Men's Lacrosse against the Hooters club team. Yeah, I ended up as a sports director at the local radio station, handling play-by-play for you know high school football, limestone college basketball. So first national championship game in 2000, everybody wanted me to go broadcast it. Well, I said, guys, I'm going as like Seth. I went as the SID. I said, I don't know a thing about lacrosse. I can do a release, but I cannot do a thing about lacrosse. 2001, they ended up talking me into doing that national championship game. I went ahead and did it, and I have been able to broadcast all uh four national championship wins for limestone. There have been losses, but I've been doing a video stream ever since we started doing video streaming webcasting, whatever you want to call it, yeah, for nearly 20 years. And I absolutely absolutely love it. I've worked with some great coaches.

SPEAKER_02 35:18

So you answered my question about how did you did you know much about lacrosse when you started? I guess you you really didn't. Seth, same thing for you. How much did you know about lacrosse when you started uh doing the commentary and and and and all that?

SPEAKER_00 35:35

Nothing. My high school didn't have it, still doesn't have it, actually. Usually like a hundred people. Um, there were a lot of sports that I got when I got to AIC and started out that I had, you know, never done field hockey. The only things I knew were basketball, baseball, football, softball, and ice hockey, uh, which was all we did to start. But my junior year we started streaming and we wanted to do all the sports. So it was soccer, it was field hockey, it was lacrosse, wrestling. Um, and I was terrible at first because I had no idea what was happening. Yeah. You know, you learn pretty quickly, right? And and the opportunities just kept being there. So we did all of it, and it's been a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02 36:18

So did you start doing it when you were sorry, yeah. Did you start doing it at AIC when you were a student?

SPEAKER_00 36:25

Yeah, I started uh started my freshman year. We had uh radio station. So I started as a freshman. I got very lucky. Um, it was mostly students who did everything, and they had just graduated three. So they were they were looking for help, and I walked in with all the confidence that an 18-year-old boy has and said, I want to do sports broadcasting. And Will Hughes, who was the chair of the communications department at the time, just was like, Cool, you're on the football game on Saturday. And my first the first thing I ever did, I still remember this, the first thing I ever did on the air was actually an interview with the captain of our cheerleading squad talking about what they do at games back in uh September of 2007. I think it was September 7th, 2007.

SPEAKER_03 37:09

That's awesome. So, how many different sports, Seth, do you call play by play for?

SPEAKER_00 37:15

Oh gosh, I would have to count, but field hockey. That's crazy. Uh both basketballs, ice hockey, baseball, softball, men's and women's lacrosse.

SPEAKER_03 37:29

Holy mackerel.

SPEAKER_00 37:30

And wrestling.

SPEAKER_03 37:31

Um dude, where do you get your time?

SPEAKER_00 37:35

Uh you know, just finding it.

SPEAKER_03 37:37

Do you sprint from one game to another? Like, uh, the lacrosse game's over, but the girls' softball's starting in 40 minutes, so they can sprint over there.

SPEAKER_00 37:44

Is that oh my gosh. We had a game just a couple weeks ago. We had uh two o'clock, four o'clock softball. So naturally the second game goes extra innings, and a seven o'clock women's lacrosse game. My softball game ended at 6 45. Took the headset off, turned to my one graduate assistant. I said, Can you clean this up? I gotta go do the other game. Sprint it up into the press. Thankfully, our fields are next to each other as you saw, Kevin. Yeah. It up into the press box, toss the headset on. I'm like dying for you know for air, but uh got it going.

SPEAKER_02 38:16

That's awesome. And and Fabian, do you do other sports for limestone as well?

SPEAKER_01 38:21

Uh I used to do I used to do a variety of sports for limestone, but as I've gotten older in times of change, I've kind of I've kind of scaled back. I I now do the men's lacrosse and um I do I do football. Um men's basketball up until recently. Um I've done wrestling, but for a um another school, softball. Uh you know, that that's that's about it. But back back in the prime, I was I was burning the candle at both ends, if you will.

SPEAKER_02 38:56

I bet. I bet. Yeah. And so I said this in kind of the intro. You both of you do a great job of knowing not only the players on your teams, but other players and stats and like little tidbits, especially on from your team, but even from the other teams and how they've played during the season. So, how long does it take you to prep for a game?

SPEAKER_04 39:23

Thank you for visiting Richards.

SPEAKER_02 39:25

Fabian?

SPEAKER_01 39:29

Well, including watching video, um easily for me, it takes about an hour and a half from the time I put together my charts, uh, filling an hour and a half for each team plus video time.

unknown 39:46

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 39:46

So you're you're you're looking at at least three hours. Sometimes it's overkill because you're not going to use everything that you put down, but you also don't want to be standing there like with nothing to say.

SPEAKER_04 39:57

Right.

SPEAKER_01 39:58

Um, years ago it might have been more than that, but I'd say on average, right now, just the paperwork alone, by the time you format your route, because you you don't print out a roster, or I don't, you don't print out a roster from a team's website and go ahead and use that. You put together your own chart. You you have things that you want, and Seth's probably the same way. You can do a certain way that you do things, you color code things, you take pride in it. And folks will take a look at some of the paperwork I have, the charts, and they're like, Well, I don't understand that. I what you don't have to understand it. I'm the one that has to understand it.

SPEAKER_00 40:34

So Seth, for me, it's you know, because of what I do, I'm already kind of looking at other teams, you know, just from the stuff that I have to do at Athletic Communications is we're for games, you know, uh reading weekly releases and you know, seeing who's playing, you know, who's been hot, that kind of thing, checking the other school's websites, getting pronunciation, you know. So it probably ends up being about an hour per game, um in total with with all of that. Um, you know, I'll one of the things that I do like to do is I'll grab um our coaches sometimes and I'll just you know, hey, can you give me the scout? Uh super useful.

SPEAKER_02 41:16

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:17

And the other good thing is because the Northeast 10 uses uh Blue Frame, which is now owned by Huddle, all of our stuff through Huddle, like I have access to every game that every team in our conference has played. So I'll go in and I'll watch you know 15 minutes of you know the first the first quarter of their most recent game. Let's just see what their tendencies are a little bit. Let's see who the good players are, let's see who they count on, let's see where the weaknesses are. And then you kind of work all of that in and the knowledge. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, if I if we're playing St. A's, I've seen half of that team twice before. So it's not that much, you know, it's not that much turnover. You remember people, you know, you remember the good players, you remember, oh, that kid had four goals against us last year. So that that helps too, the the familiarity with everybody.

SPEAKER_03 42:09

I'll tell you, since I've started this podcast with Kevin, and uh, you know, I I know so much about division two that I didn't know three years ago, and the players and the coaches and stuff like that, and what teams like to do and what they don't like to do. And just it's just my my knowledge of the game is and just about the sport of lacrosse, but players and knowing players and knowing coaches and knowing conferences and knowing which games are the big matchups, and hey, you got we have two first team All-Americans against each other tonight, you know, that kind of stuff. And I just love that too. But I'm doing it on this side. You guys are like doing it live. We get to edit it.

SPEAKER_01 42:50

Seth, let me let me say this. Uh, I've been in your shoes before, not as extensively as as you've been as part of uh athletic communications. And I constantly thank our staff at limestone or any school that I work with. I I thank you for your tireless efforts because literally you don't get much time off um until the summer. And then even then, you're getting ready for the fall sports season. So I really do appreciate uh what you you folks do uh behind the scenes because it is a it seems like the only time you hear anything from anybody is when you got a typo and a release or something like that, or somebody's name gets left out or misspelled. So thank you for what you do. Uh I agree.

SPEAKER_03 43:33

I agree with that.

SPEAKER_00 43:34

I will say this. I have been very, very fortunate in my time at AIC, uh, coaches that are extremely supportive, uh, student athletes that are extremely supportive. I mean, we have a large international population. I mean, hey, it's you know, right in the name, right? You know, we're kind of like their lifeline to their families, you know, these kids that are coming from all over the place. You know, we have a bunch of Canadians, for instance, on our men's look. Cross team. Um and so like they're all super appreciative and supportive. And yeah, I just yeah, I feel like people are grateful for what I do. So it's it makes it that much easier, too, as you said, put in all that effort to do all of those things that we that we do for them.

SPEAKER_03 44:18

And you know what? You guys are in great conferences, both of you. Baby and in the sack now, you used to be in the Conference Carolinas now, but now in the SAC. And I think SAC is a better conference than North uh Conference Carolinas, if you ask me. That's just one man's personal opinion. And the NE-10, that's the granddaddy of them all. That's the granddaddy of them all. They set the standard, NE-10, in Division II sports. And and they they have the most tradition, probably, the NE-10, some of the teams, and like been around a long, long time. So you guys are the best at what you do in your particular divisions, and it's great.

SPEAKER_01 44:56

Well, thank thank you very much. And Kevin and Danny, I want to thank you for giving Division II lacrosse something that is needed, and that's respect. I don't know why Division II Lacrosse is thought of, quite honestly, as a third wheel. You turn on an NLL game and you hear the names that the announcers were talking about in NLL games. Uh, I just I don't understand why this division uh does not get more respect. I I really don't.

SPEAKER_02 45:32

We've had several of those NLL players who used to be D2 on our podcast and PLL players. So that's why Danny and I started this podcast because our sons played D2 and just didn't get the love that it deserved. It's it's too damn good lacrosse not to get recognized.

SPEAKER_01 45:51

And you've you've got you know fantastic coaches uh that are that are on that level. I I just you know I I I don't know, but I just want to thank you, you two gentlemen, for for doing a show here where you're kind of focusing on on Division II Lacrosse. It's it's it's much needed.

SPEAKER_02 46:10

Well, well, we appreciate that. I mean, it's obviously a passion for Danny me. And I I have to point that you look at a uh a team like AIC in lacrosse, let's be honest, Seth, kind of a doormat for years. And yet you look at them now this year, they're making St. A's quake in their boots when they play them. What's that like for your for to watch AIC lacrosse like that?

SPEAKER_00 46:38

It's unbelievable. And especially as a two-time alum of the college. Um, you know, we've we've had a couple teams over the years that have maybe not had the kind of success that you would hope to have. Um, I think back to our ice hockey team was, and I know they play Division I, it's a little different, but was always kind of the same way. And then Eric Lang came in uh now eight years ago at this point, and three years after he came in, we went from being 60 out of 60 in Division I to Atlantic hockey champions knocking off St. Cloud State, the number one team in the country in the NCAA tournament, four straight conference championships, national rankings, and just the like the feeling of this was worth it, it was worth all the heartbreak and going, you know, four and twenty-six to to get there and to finally lift that trophy. And I think with our men's lacrosse team this year, it's the same first step.

SPEAKER_04 47:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:34

Um five wins more than we've ever had before. I know it's not a lot, but it's you know, it's a start. Uh, you look at what some of the young kids are doing on our team. Reese Bauer is one cause turnover to to tie two to break the NCAA record with you know, our on Tuesday night against St. Mike's Carter Link letter. Uh, you ever see a guy score a wraparound short-handed goal with a long pole before? Uh, he did that unbelievable. You know, it's like you know, going on a running a marathon almost, right? Like it's just exhausting and difficult and you're sweaty and you want to quit, but you keep going because you know when you cross that line that it's all going to be worth it. And and this year has been so worth it. Being at Franklin Pierce, when we won our first conference game in 10 years, I told the guys on the bus, you know, 3,667 days or whatever it was. I said, you know, and I want to thank each and every one of you for doing this.

SPEAKER_03 48:32

Yeah, it means a lot to the kids too, you know, and they know that they're you know they've done something that hasn't been done in AIC before. Yeah, and that's that's fantastic. And you get to call the games, which is even cooler. You get to see the you get to see the growth, you know.

SPEAKER_00 48:46

Yeah, exactly. And travel with them too on the road and and do photography or whatever else, like just to be able to support them. That's to help them to play it to play a role in that.

SPEAKER_03 48:58

Now, Fabian gets to call games for one of the best teams in the country year after year. Imagine what that's like, you know.

SPEAKER_01 49:09

It's not a ride because it's uh it's been uh 78% win percentage all time, uh, five national championships, uh the uh semifinal game in the sack uh this week. I cannot believe that game's at three o'clock in the week.

SPEAKER_02 49:27

I can't either, baby. I'm not happy with that.

SPEAKER_01 49:29

Not happy with that. I'm not getting into that, but you know, limestone's going for program win all-time uh 415. And when we first started Limestone Lacrosse, it was the southernmost team in the South. You didn't have Conference Carolinas, you didn't have the SAC. You didn't have Sunshine State. Limestone was the furthest southernmost team in uh in men's lacrosse and was that way for years. So uh, gentlemen, listen, uh, they're about to run me out of my little space here.

SPEAKER_02 50:04

Well, I'll tell you what, I just want to thank both of you guys for coming on. It has been a treat for us to have you on and for you to explain your profession, your craft, because I'm telling you right now, I couldn't do it. And I have the most respect for you guys. I love listening to you guys on the on your streaming, and we wish you all the best this season, next season, and in the future.

SPEAKER_03 50:27

You guys have been great. We we could have easily done an hour.

SPEAKER_01 50:30

We could have. Yeah. Well, when you get two guys like me, Steph, and combining with you two, yeah, we could.

SPEAKER_03 50:36

Well, you know what? This has been a lot of fun. We really appreciate you guys coming on and taking the time with us tonight. And uh, I want to do this again. I want to pick up where we left off the next time.

SPEAKER_01 50:47

Yes, sir. Tell it any anytime.

SPEAKER_00 50:49

Hey, whenever you want. I'm all I'm in. Let's go.

SPEAKER_02 50:52

All right, okay, guys.

Shout outs

SPEAKER_02 50:54

All right, Danny. Was that fun or what with Fabian and Seth?

SPEAKER_03 51:01

Kev, I could have done an hour with those guys easily.

SPEAKER_02 51:04

I think we do one this summer, one of our summer podcast episodes with some broadcasters. Let's get a few more on, and we'll just shoot the shit with them.

SPEAKER_03 51:12

That's not a bad idea, man. They're both like they're both excellent at what they do. You know, if you listen to an AIC game, Seth is at the top of his game, man. He's at the top of his game. He's running from one game to another. He wears a lot of hats. I give him a lot of credit. You know, he's running that whole communications program uh program there, and he does a phenomenal job. And and Fabian, you know, he's he's a professional, been there, done that, been doing it for a long time. Yeah, you know, and he he he seems like a fun guy, like guy kind of guy you could have a couple of couple of beers and a couple of chicken wings with. But you know what? They were both great, a fun, fun episode. It went by so quick. I was like, I was just listening. I was like, just listening tonight. There, that's how good they were.

SPEAKER_02 51:59

I agree. All right, well, let's move on. It's time for shout-outs. Who you got?

SPEAKER_03 52:04

My first shout-out and only shout out tonight is to my boy Matt Cleary, my son's high school teammate. Uh transferred from St. John's to St. Leo. He's got to keep it Catholic. You know, I don't know what I got to talk to his mom and dad about that. But you know what? He he he went to St. Leo and he got a chance to play. You know what I mean? Yeah. Because when he when he was at when he was at St. John's, he just wasn't playing. And not only did he play, he contributed. And St. Leo went into the tournament. Okay. And in the last game, Matt had six and one. Six goals, one assist. His his best game by far as a as a lacrosse player in college. And I mean, even though it was in a losing, you know, losing fashion, they got to beat Rollins the week before. So just imagine the fun that they had. So my shout out goes to Matt Cleary and the St. Leo Lions on a really, really good season. I love it. I love it. I've got two.

SPEAKER_02 53:09

I've got two. The first goes out to Nick Shannon of Florida Southern. We shouted out Victor Powell last week with 113 cost turnovers. And you know how much we like Victor. He's an awesome player. And we've talked about Nick. Nick has 128, or at least he did. I'll even look at the how many he had against St. Leo. Program record for him as well.

SPEAKER_03 53:32

I think Nick's an all-American this year, Kev. I agree. I agree. So that's a shout out to him. That's a great shout-out. He's a really good player. He's a lot of fun to watch. I'm like, he's he's the kind of guy you want on your team, you know. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:46

Okay, my last shout out.

SPEAKER_03 53:47

That's a great shout-out.

SPEAKER_02 53:48

That's a good one. My last shout-out goes to all the D2 lacrosse broadcasters. You and I listen to a lot, Danny. I can't name them all here because I there's just too many. I'd miss some. We only had two on. We just picked them, we brought them on. But I I think we both appreciate what they all do for the sport in all this stream.

SPEAKER_03 54:12

Yeah, it's a it's a really big part of sports, is the announcement. And in the and the and in the time of now where everything is streamed, live streamed, you have the internet, so many ways to watch a game. They have a million ways to uh to to broadcast it. And it's just these guys are getting better and better, and these small schools are are doing it. And if you listen to Fabian Puentes, if anybody has never heard a limestone game, listen to what that man does. He's a he's a true pro. Like again, been there, done that. And he's got the voice, and he's got that little southern draw, a little bit that just kind of draws you in, like your your uncle. You know what I mean? Just kind of you know, you want to listen to your old southern uncle, and he's just really good at what he does, and Seth as well, you know, and looks like Seth's gonna have a great long career.

SPEAKER_02 55:03

Yep. And I just add this in to Rollins, bring back Roy Hanson. And with that, Danny, that's a wrap.

SPEAKER_03 55:13

Sneak got the good one, and that's a wrap, yeah.