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NJCAA Champs – Final Junior College Report

The 2018 NJCAA Champs were crowned on Sunday up in Syracuse, NY and the Lazers from Onondaga Community College won their second title in a row, doing so 11-9, over Nassau Community College. This is OCC’s 11th overall men’s lacrosse championship, and all 11 titles have been won between 2006 and now. It’s been an impressive run for OCC over the last 13 years, to say the least!

njcaa champs
Photo Credit: Rich Barnes

Congrats to the Lazers of 2018!

While there will be one more Junior College Report where I hand out some awards, and rank the teams from top to bottom, this is really the final Junior College Report of the season, as there are simply no more results to publish!

I’ll go through how Onondaga won their 11th title in 13 years by providing links to game stories and photos, as well as embed some video, but first I will recount how my pre-tourney predictions matched up with reality.

Predicting Pretty Perfectly

Now that it’s all said and done, I’d like to recap the predictions I made before the playoffs started, because they were GOOD. Like, really, really good.

Team A vs Team B – Prediction – Reality – Verdict

First Round:

Genesee vs Ocean County – GCC 21-9 – GCC 22-4 – Close enough!
Howard vs Harford – Howard 16-9 – Howard 16-9 – 100% accurate!

Final Four:

Nassau vs Genesee – Nassau 13-11 – Nassau 15-14 – Close enough!
Onondaga vs Howard – Onondaga 22-14 – Onondaga 23-12 – VERY close!

Finals:

Onondaga vs Nassau – Onondaga 15-12 – Onondaga 11-9 – Close enough!

Basically, I got every prediction right within 7 total goals scored by both teams in a game AND none of my specific game margins were off by more than 6 total goals, with 4 of the 5 games coming within three goals of my predicted margins, and 3 of the 5 games coming within one goal of my predictions. Lacrosse is one of those games that is really hard to predict down to the scoreline, so I’m pretty proud of my predictive prowess here, and I don’t actually say that a lot.

NJCAA Video Highlights

NJCAA Semifinal #1 – Nassau vs Genesee

NJCAA Semifinal #2 – Howard vs Onondaga

NJCAA Championship Game – Onondaga vs Nassau

The videos are all a little short, and lack any finishing touches, but they capture a decent number of goals, and the videos were published really quickly, so I’m not complaining at all. I’m glad people can catch a glimpse of these games. My hope is to get full game video posted online and for free at some point in the near future so people can actually see how good this level of lacrosse truly is. I get why the NJCAA does pay-per-view, as all dollars matter, but if they want NJCAA lacrosse to grow, more people have to know about it and see it in action.

Photo Credit: Rich Barnes

I have a great idea for how this can happen, so if you know someone at the NJCAA who is willing to listen and wants to take men’s lacrosse (and women’s too!) to the next level, you know how to reach me. I’m serious about this. 25,000-50,000 viewers should have watched Sunday’s game and the two semifinals, but there is no way that any number even near that saw it played. That’s just a gosh darn shame. This is GREAT lacrosse, and it should be shared. People would love it!

Listen, I’m not an NJCAA guy. I didn’t play NJCAA lacrosse, but I stumbled upon it, fell in love, and I want more. I know if people like me found it (and could actually watch it), then they would, because it’s very, very good. Have faith in the product these programs are creating, and sell it to the world. Sponsors > PPV in lacrosse, 100% of the time.

NJCAA Champs – Links, Photos, Other Stuff!

I’ll be back with All Americans and the NJCAA ranked from top to bottom, but here’s some other stuff on the recent end to the NJCAA season. Congrats to the coaching staff at OCC this year!

OCC lacrosse coaches
Bob Leary, Zach Vanvalkenburg, Nick Gatto, Chuck Wilbur (HC), Chris Brim, Mike Villano

NJCAA Title Game Recap – NJCAA.org
NJCAA Title Game Photos – NJCAA.org
NJCAA Championship Box Score – NJCAA.org
OCC wins 11th NJCAA Men’s Lacrosse National Championship – WSYR
MCC wins 6th straight women’s lacrosse national championship 20-13 – 13WHAM-TV
Number 11 – SUNYOCC.edu
‘Indescribable’: Onondaga Wins 11th Title… – InsideLacrosse.com
Onondaga Lazers win program’s 11th National Championship… – CNYCentral.com

So like I said, I’ll be back with one or two more NJCAA posts for 2018, then it’s off to other things, coming back to Junior College next season!