On a cold and rainy day in eastern Massachusetts, the Saint Leo Lions faced off against the Merrimack Warriors in the Men’s Lacrosse National Championship game. The matchup was highly anticipated by both teams with each looking for their first national title. Merrimack certainly seemed to be the popular team in the matchup, with a large crowd of fans coming from the college that is located only about an hour away from Gillette Stadium. The Warriors may have been represented by a larger portion of the 21,198 people in attendance, but the Lions’ fans were just as loud and had a good showing for being about 1,300 miles away from home.
Saint Leo had come into the game as the underdogs being a No. 2 seed against Merrimack who was the No. 1 seed in the northern region but had plenty of momentum coming off of a victory against No. 1 Lenoir-Rhyne last week.
Unfortunately for the Lions, their miracle run seemed destined to end just under eight minutes into the first quarter when the Warriors’ offense started to get kicked into high gear.
By the end of the first quarter, the Warriors had jumped out to a large lead of six goals. For most of the opening frame, the Saint Leo offense looked lost and had a tough time gaining possession of the ball leading to a shooting differential of 14-5 in favor of Merrimack. Goalkeeper Thomas Tatarian did all he could making four saves, but with constant pressure from the Warriors’ offense, there was little he could do to stop the onslaught.
The Lions showed a little bit of promise scoring their first goal of the game a little over a minute into the second quarter, but it came only after the Warriors were able to score their seventh of the game. Things didn’t get any easier for Saint Leo as the contest progressed; Merrimack was able to close out the first half of play with a score of 13-1. The Warriors got a major contribution from freshman Sean Black who recorded a first-half hat-trick.
Saint Leo struggled to hit the net in the first half with only three of their 12 shots being on goal making it an easy job for Merrimack goaltender Peter Brown. On the other side of play, the Warriors were able to get 19 of their 26 shots on net.
As the game entered into the second half of play, Merrimack didn’t seem to slow down at all scoring two more goals within the first 2:30 of the third period. Down by 14, the Saint Leo offense had a bit of a hot streak by scoring three unanswered goals within a four and a half minute window towards the middle of the third period. The strong play didn’t last long as Merrimack went on to score three more goals before the period ended, two of which were with an extra man.
With a score of 18-4 heading into the fourth quarter, any hope of the Lions making a comeback was practically gone. Merrimack ended up closing the door on Saint Leo’s championship hopes by outscoring them 5-2 during the period.
Overall the Lions were only outscored 10-5 in the second half, but due to the 13-1 first half, the final score was nowhere close. The Warriors’ 23-6 victory was the largest scoring differential in men’s lacrosse title game history across all three levels.
With a tough loss in the title game, the Saint Leo Men’s Lacrosse program has a lot to look forward to in the future.
Credit: Collin Moran
Even after the tough defeat, Saint Leo coach Brad Jorgensen was humble for the opportunity to play in the championship game. Jorgensen stated, “We obviously wish we were sitting here in different circumstances, but with a little bit of time, hopefully, the players will understand the monumental achievement of playing here and being here this weekend. Right now it stings a little bit for them, as it does for me, but not too many folks picked Saint Leo to be playing this weekend. And the guys we have really rallied around each other and made the most of the opportunities that we had this year and fought and clawed and scrapped at a lot of personal sacrifice to get ourselves here.”
After falling to Limestone College in the 2017 National Championship game, Merrimack was able to bring home their first-ever men’s lacrosse title one year later. The Warriors were given big contributions from freshman Christian Thomas who recorded a whopping 10-points, as well as four-goal performances from sophomore Charlie Bertrand and senior Jack Trask. Freshman goaltender Peter Brown also contributed eight saves during his 50 minutes of play.
Even with a tough loss, Saint Leo was given key contributions from senior attacking duo Jake Gilmour and Kyle Pauwels who both recorded three points. Thomas Tatarian didn’t have an easy day in net but came away with an impressive 14 saves after recording 16 in the semi-final game against Lenoir-Rhyne last week. Coach Jorgensen praised Tatarian’s play for this entire season, “…we’re not here without Tom… He certainly battled for us all year. We don’t make the tournament without Tom standing on his head on multiple occasions, and we’re certainly not playing this weekend without him having an absolutely special day at Lenoir-Rhyne last week.” Jorgensen believes that Tatarian’s play provides good hope for the upcoming season, “… as much as it stings to have a bunch of our seniors who were major contributors going out the door today, knowing that we’ve got Tom to sort of cement what’s coming back certainly makes us feel better for the future.”
Saint Leo will be losing key offensive contributors in Gilmour and Pauwels who combined for 146 points this season but will return a solid group of players for the 2019 season. Coach Jorgensen said that he came close to completing his mission he took on when he got the position, “I told the guys that I took the job to try to win a National Championship, and that wasn’t false bravado. It’s what I took the job to do. So there is a little bit of satisfaction on that point that we’re knocking on the door.”
The Lions’ men’s lacrosse program has a promising future after reaching new heights this season and will look to contend for their first national title again next year. Senior midfielder Connor Knaresboro had high praise for the future of the team, “From Saint Leo on, I think that they’re going to keep going up. They know the bar now, we’ve set it, it’s only up from here. We’ve got the experience now, and now it’s time to come and execute.”
