In addition to the Top 10 poll, recent scores, upcoming games, and social media gems, I’m also handing out some midseason awards. They may not be official awards, but it’s worth noting some of the players that are putting up unreal numbers and/or having really great seasons so far. Let’s start with the poll, get to some awards, and then talk about last week’s and next week’s games.
NJCAA Top 10 Poll – 4/1/2019
# – Team (Record) – Poll points – 1st place votes – last poll rank
1– Nassau (8-1) – 60 – 6 – 1st
2 – Harford (6-1) – 54 – 0 – 2nd
3 – Onondaga (5-2) – 48 – 0 – 3rd
4 – Howard (5-2) – 42 – 0 – 4th
5 – Anne Arundel (4-3) – 33 – 0 – 8th
6 – Essex (5-2) – 26 – 0 – 5th
6 – Genesee (3-1) – 26 – 0 – 6th
8 – Suffolk (4-2) – 23 – 0 – 7th
9 – Mercer (4-5) – 11 – 0 – 9th
10 – Potomac State (5-1) – 6 – 0 – 10th
Others Receiving Votes: Hudson Valley (4-3), 1 point
Mid-Season NJCAA JCR Awards
Today I hand out some Junior College Report mid-season awards, and while these players might not be the guys who deserve these awards at the end of the season, right now they are. If you’re an NCAA coach, these are guys you definitely want to check out. Give their NJCAA coaches a call, and if they’re already committed somewhere, I’m willing to bet the NJCAA coach has another guy (or two or three) that will be of interest as well.
I’m a traditionalist when it comes to awards, so we’re going with TEN TOTAL players on the Mid-Season JCR All-American list. 3 Attack, 3 Midfielders, 3 Defensemen, 1 Goalie. If a FoGo, SSDM, LSM, or any other specialist out there wants to make the list, they just have to be really good, like everyone else!
Mid-Season NJCAA Attack
Owen Consoletti – Harford – 24 goals and 7 assists means Consoletti is a finisher, and his 52% shooting percentage backs that up. 19 ground balls help make the case for this efficient player and his ability to string together consecutive goals makes him a back breaker for opposing defenses.
Percy Booth – Onondaga – Booth is starting to make a real mark for the Lazers, and he’s doing so in big games. Booth has 27 points on 18 goals and 9 assists right now, with only 5 of those points coming in recent blow out wins for OCC. 22 points against Harford, Nassau, Howard, and Genesee is nothing to scoff, and Booth is averaging 5.5 points per game against top level teams.
Justin Roderka – Nassau – Roderka can finish with flair, and leads #1 Nassau offensively in points, but he is surrounded by talent, and the great thing about Roderka is how he allows that talent to shine, and everyone benefits. It’s a team thing at Nassau, so honestly picking one guy was hard and Dan Rooney was right there too.
Mid-Season NJCAA Midfield
Jeremy Sforzo – Howard – With 19 goals and 22 assists in just 7 games on only 42 shots, and Sforzo has proven himself to be a truly multi-talented player. Sforzo has scooped up 31 ground balls, and he has scored two man down goals. Sforzo also shows up in big games, and produces even in losses.
Chandler Schmidt – Harford – Schmidt may be more of an attackman, but Harford has him listed as both, and he loves a short stick match up, so I’m listing him as a midfielder at this point. 23 goals and 5 assists mark Schmidt as another scorer for the Owls, and his ability to constantly move keeps the defense guessing for the team’s benefit, making those around him better.
Kollin Vaught – Essex – Vaught has won 100 of 128 face offs taken, and has scored 10 points on 7 goals and 3 assists only on 14 shots. 59 ground balls and very few turnovers make Vaught a game changer as a face off midfielder, and a player other teams really need to play for. Oh, and he’s a freshman.
Mid-Season NJCAA Defense
Aiden Conk – Nassau – Ground balls, caused turnovers, man to man cover, picking off passes… Conk has been doing it all at a high level and helping to lead the way for an impressive team unit on Long Island.
Brian Schafer – Nassau – Schafer is not the flashiest player on the field, and doesn’t put up eye popping stats, but he’s a leader, true team guy, and one of the most important cogs in Nassau’s tough defensive unit. It’s no stretch to say that a number of Nassau’s poles could have occupied either of these two spots. There is talent and depth out there but Schafer brings serious consistency.
Shaun Vines – Harford – Vines can put the ball on the carpet and then pick it up, and he does an excellent job of staying out of the penalty box even as he gets aggressive. 5 caused turnovers in one game against OCC is never bad either.
Mid-Season NJCAA Goalie
Nicholas Lovaglio – Suffolk – Lovaglio’s 10+ goals against average doesn’t look all that great, but then you see his 72% save percentage, 89 total saves (in just 190 minutes of action over six games), and THIRTY saves against Nassau in a 12-5 loss, and you start to see why I’m impressed. 30 saves. In a game. Against Nassau. In games where Suffolk is winning big, Lovaglio gets pulled, but if he stayed in, his GAA numbers would be just as amazing as all the other ones are, and the fact would still remain that he is an incredible stopper.
10 players, from 6 different teams made my mid-season list. Nassau and Harford led the way with three players each, and Onondaga, Howard, Suffolk, and Essex each landed a guy on my team of ten. Could you pick another list, with ten totally different players on it, and could that list be equally excellent and talented? Yes, and yes. If you want to give it a shot, tweet your list to me @ConnorWilsonLAS on Twitter! I’d love to see it!
Were there other excellent deserving players at every position? Of course there were! Was this hard to do? Absolutely. Is it for fun, and pretty meaningless? Also absolutely. Anyone who feels slighted has plenty of time left in the season to prove me wrong. That’s the best thing about all of this!
Recent NJCAA Results/Recaps
There were a couple of important games last weeks, and some tight contests that deserve a deeper look, so let’s get back to what’s happening on the field.
Nassau 24, Brookdale 1
Union 14, Sussex 2
Finger Lakes 22, Mohawk Valley 7
Hudson Valley 17, Tompkins Cortland 4
Howard 23, Ocean 3
Suffolk 17, Mercer 6 – Suffolk showed they are an elite level team with a comfortable win, as Mercer continued to impress in year one for the program. Suffolk was up 9-2 at the half, 9 different players scored for Suffolk, Patrick Doyen scored 5 goals and 2 assists and had a hat trick in the first quarter.
Onondaga 29, Jefferson 0
Hudson Valley 16, Monroe 14 – HVCC earned their first win over Monroe in 10 years with a big comeback, and it’s worth checking out the school’s recap, HERE, for more. Nathan Bruce and Austin Hinderliter combined for 10 goals on the day to lead Hudson Valley.
Onondaga 22, Tompkins Cortland 1
Harford 30, Union 1
Anne Arundel 13, Essex 9 – Essex was up 3-1 after the first quarter, but Anne Arundel clawed back, taking an 8-7 lead after three quarters. A 5-2 4th quarter pushed the lead and sealed the big win for Anne Arundel. 4 players on AACC combined for 42 shots, and 12 went in, with Stephen Moheiser leading the way with 5 goals. Hugh Edwards made 12 big saves for the win, while Dylan Fahey made 15 saves in the loss for Essex.
I don’t know who runs the below Twitter account, but they tweet about NJCAA lacrosse, and I like it, even if they stole their name from my post titles. It’s all good, you can follow me now.
Nassau 12, Suffolk 5 – We don’t have a ton of accessible info for this game, which is a shame, because it was clearly a good one! The Nassau defense has shown they are consistently able to answer the call, and while they don’t always blow people out, the end score lines are convincing. Scoring on Nassau is a puzzle every team in the NJCAA will need to figure out if they want to win a title this year. The Lions are rolling.
Herkimer 12, Jefferson 9
Genesee 30, Mohawk Valley 3
Nassau 23, Mercer 2
Big Upcoming Games
Tuesday, April 2nd
ASA vs Ocean
Essex vs Delaware Tech
Wednesday, April 3rd
Brookdale vs Delaware Tech
Sussex vs Mercer
Herkimer vs Hudson Valley
Howard vs Anne Arundel – This is a big one with AACC’s recent win over Essex, can they keep the momentum going?
Tompkins Cortland vs Mohawk Valley
Friday, April 5th
Onondaga vs Finger Lakes
Saturday, April 6th
Genesee vs Howard – Both of these teams are looking to find their groove, and take that groove to a couple big wins. This is a huge test for both programs to see where they are in early April.
Anne Arundel vs Harford – Two days after they face Howard, AACC, takes on surging Harford. Can they bring the Owls down to Earth? This just became a really, really interesting game, instead of just a really interesting game.
Ocean vs Delaware Tech
Nassau vs Army Prep – Army Prep isn’t an NJCAA team, but who cares? These are usually great contests, steel sharpens steel, etc.
Potomac State vs Essex – This is a BIG Region 20 game of course, but can we pause for a minute and talk about how great Region 20 is this year? Harford, Howard, Anne Arundel, Essex, Potomac State… each of them has been in the Top 10 this year (that’s 50% coming from ONE region) and it speaks to the unreal depth that the Maryland Junior College scene is seeing right now. It is more than worth it to pay attention to this Region heavily. It’s great lacrosse!
Monroe vs Jefferson
Sunday, April 7th
Finger Lakes vs Union
Herkimer vs Monroe
Plenty of NJCAA action for the first week of April, and there are important tests ahead for many of our teams, regardless of where they sit in the rankings. Nassau and Onondaga seem like the top teams up North, but Suffolk and Genesee can’t be counted out. Region 20 absolutely dominates the rest of the competitive field, with Harford leading the way, with Howard, Anne Arundel, and Essex not all that far behind. Who makes the playoffs will be determined this month, and then a second mini-season begins, and the hardware gets handed out. Only 47 days until we have a 2019 national champion!
