Stat Freaks is back! With another NCAA season upon us, we are ready to dive into the craziness that each week of NCAA lacrosse can bring us.
Why do we do Stat Freaks? Easy! It’s a great way to be sure any great performance gets noticed. Whether the game is one on a small grass field with 300 people watching, or a packed stadium on national TV, the numbers are the numbers. Now, with a few exceptions, all the great players wind up on the list with regularity through the season. Goalies aren’t always here, and neither are defenders. You could also be a midfielder turning in 5 points a game, and that won’t show up here either. But, when you have that one game where everything clicks and things go your way, we’ll notice. Now onto the first Stat Freaks of the year!
Offense: The Cutoff here is a combined 7 goals and/or assists
| Asher Nolting – High Point: 3G, 4A, 9 Shots vs. St. Bonaventure |
| Grant Ament – Penn St.: 3G, 7A, 5 Shots vs. Villanova |
Defense: For here, you need 8 GBs, CTs, and/or points
| Paul Manuszak – Detroit Mercy: 6GB, 3CT vs. Jacksonville |
| Eddie Bouhall – Lehigh: 7GB, 5CT vs. NJIT |
| Craig Chick – Lehigh: 9GB, 5CT vs. NJIT |
| Chris Price – High Point: 4GB, 6CT vs. St. Bonaventure |
| Clayton Krol – High Point: 5GB, 3CT vs. St. Bonaventure |
Faceoffs: Greater than 70%, at least 10 attempts
| Connor Harryman – Rutgers: 22/25, 14 GB vs. Lafayette |
| Sean Christman – Boston U.: 8/11, 5 GB vs. Providence |
| Alex Jarzembowski – Detroit Mercy: 15/21, 5 GB, 2G vs. Jacksonville |
| Brian Smyth – Duke: 19/27, 14 GB vs. Furman |
| Gerard Arceri – Penn St.: 14/16, 9 GB, 1G vs. Villanova |
| JT Simonton – Bellarmine 12/17, 9GB vs. Wagner |
| Justin Shockey – Maryland 8/11, 3GB vs. Bucknell |
Goalies: Greater than 70%
| Joe McSorley – Boston U.: 24/31 Saves, 4GB vs. Providence |
| Colby Kneese – Penn St.: 19/23 Saves, 1GB vs. Villanova |
Stat Freak of the Week:
Without many options for the Freak of the Week, you have to go with Ament from Penn State for the offense. Ten points and only missing on two shots against a quality opponent after missing a season? That’s an unbelievable performance. For defense, things are a little tougher. Paul Manuszak is very tempting given that his totals were against the best opponent of the three, but Craig Chick’s 14 combined ground balls and turnovers is a tad ridiculous. Faceoffs are always a fun group, especially in 2018 when TD Ierlan and Trevor Baptiste were tossing perfect games out there. But Arceri’s season debut for the Nittany Lions is the one that really jumps out at me for this group. And while we only have two goalies, McSorley gets the nod from me for the close win over Providence. More slip-ups, and his team probably loses. Throwing in a few GBs never hurts, either.
But, for the top performance and the final Freak of the Week, I’m going with Craig Chick. That total of 14 ground balls and caused turnovers would have been good for second best of 2018. Kyle Walsh of VMI had a week of 17. Starting out that way in Week 1? Yikes!
READ MORE: Check out the 2018 NCAA Championship post and Stats Freaks here.
It’s too early to start tabulating top appearances and summaries by school, so we’ll wrap it up like this for the week. On to more games next week!
