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Bowhunter Cup US Iroquois box lacrosse game
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Hot Pot Of Lax: US Indoor Team For Bowhunter Cup

On October 16th, the US will face the Iroquois Nationals in an exhibition box lacrosse game at Turning Stone Resort Casino.  The game is presented by the Oneida Nation and will be played at the casino’s Event Center.  The US and the Iroquois played this exhibition game last year as well, and also met in the recent World Indoor games, where the Iroquois emerged victorious.  The US has been making big strides as a team and many think they are quickly catching up to the Nationals, so the game is sure to be hard-fought and exciting for both sides.

Who knows who the Iroquois will put forward?  Rosters aren’t typically announced on the early side of things, but you can be almost sure that the roster will include at least one or two Thompsons, Bucktooths, and Smiths.  Those recognizable name players coupled with even a team of younger Iroquois would be incredibly dangerous, and if the Iroquois bring a top flight team, they should be heavily favored to win.  The US team actually looks really solid, but for most of these guys, the box game is still a second game, and against a team like the Iroquois, that will show.

Bowhunter Cup US Iroquois box lacrosse game
A little US-Iroquois scrimmage action....

The press release over on Laxpower has the players listed out as attackmen, middies and defensemen, but we all know by now that those are not box lacrosse positions.  So I’ll try to give these guys more realistic position titles, but remember that these are only my best guesses.

Forwards: Grant Catalino (Maryland ’11), Dan Hardy – Philadelphia Wings (Syracuse ’09), Joe Resetarits  (Albany ’12), Greg Rogowski – Boston Blazers (Merrimack ’09), Joe Walters – Rochester Knighthawks (Maryland ’06), Joel White – Syracuse ’11

Transition: John Galloway (Syracuse ’11), Tom Guadagnolo (Syracuse ’11), Ryan Hotaling – Colorado Mammoth (Nazareth ’07), Jovan Miller (Syracuse ’11), Max Seibald – Philadelphia Wings (Cornell ’09)

Defense: Dan Deckelbaum – Philadelphia Wings (Delaware ’07), Ryan Maciaszek – Buffalo Bandits (Nazareth ’06), Steve Panarelli – Philadelphia Wings (Syracuse ’07), Chris Schiller – Rochester Knighthawks (Penn State ’99), Joe Smith – Philadelphia Wings (Towson ’05)

Goalie: Ginny Capicchioni – New Jersey Storm (Sacred Heart ’01), Jake Henhawk – Rochester Knighthawks

Now, are these some bizarre seeming selections here?  You betcha.  But let’s try to explain some of them before we go too crazy.

First off, yes one of the goalies is a woman.  I’ve seen some film of her play, and Ginny is as good as any other American keeper out there.  So she’s a woman… I actually think that’s pretty awesome.  Good for her.  Jake Henhawk is the other US keeper and he was on the team in 2003 and 2011.  Most recently, he saw a little time here and there with the Rochester Knighthawks.  But this is still the weakest point for the US at times.

Joel White is listed as a forward.  Why not?  You saw what he could do with a longstick when he played offense, so imagine him with a shortstick, being covered by a shortstick.  I like it.  Plus he was a nasty midfielder in high school right?  Something like that.  Listen, if you can play, you can play, and Joel White can play.  I wouldn’t be too quick to doubt this one.  Or see him move to transition or even D.  It’s just interesting!

John Galloway is listed as a transition player.  This is weird, but don’t forget that Brett Queener was a college goalie and he played transition for the Boston Blazers, so it’s not without precedent.  Galloway has a great stick, is a good athlete and will as easy an adjustment to the box game as almost any other field player.  The game is just that different from field.  In fact, by playing goalie, he might not have picked up some of the bad field habits and the transition could be even easier for him.

Ryan Hotaling, Greg Rogowski, and Ryan Maciaszek are on the team and none of them went to D1 schools.  They made this team because all three play a ton of box lacrosse, and because they have proved themselves in the arena.  Plus they were all nasty in college and could have easily been D1 players.  Don’t let your bias show, these guys can definitely ball.

The team features star boxla players like Joe Walters, Chris Schiller, Max Seibald, Steve Panarelli, and Ryan Hotaling, and there are a good number of players from both the Rochester and Boston franchises.  Hopefully, that means these guys will be able to play with each other quickly, and efficiently.  They will need to play team lacrosse to beat the Iroquois.

Overall, the team isn’t dominated by big names, and there isn’t a lot of flash to the group either.  It’s just a lot of hard nosed players who will scrap.  If they can do that as a group, I actually like this team’s chances, and think they’re headed in the right direction.

See promo video below. Warning, music is awful.

[fvplayer src=”https://youtube.com/watch?v=nSp2G1fUFow” splash=”https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nSp2G1fUFow/hqdefault.jpg” caption=”Bowhunter Cup Promo”]

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OTHER LACROSSE NEWS:

– Mount Greylock adds lax.  Lacrosse is growing in Western Massachusetts too! | Berkshire Eagle

– Bob Watson inducted into NLL Hall of Fame | TSN

– Denver to take on Team USA in San Francisco in October! | Box Score News

– Cuse to host alumni game on October 8th.  Exciting. | SU Athletics

– Keith Cromwell returns to Rutgers as an Asst Coach.  GREAT player there in early 2000s! | The Republic

– OWU to take on the D1 boys for charity and fall ball action | OWUblog

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LACROSSE VIDEO OF THE WEEK:

Lax being played in “quetzal ciudad”.  Quetzal is a small city in Guatemala, but we’re not sure that this video is from there or not.  Either way it’s pretty amazing to see, hear and enjoy.  Grow The Game!  And do it in Spanish!

[fvplayer src=”https://youtube.com/watch?v=noVM1NP6h1M” splash=”https://i.ytimg.com/vi/noVM1NP6h1M/hqdefault.jpg” caption=”juegos lax, ciudad Quetzal”]