St. John's University Athletics
St. John's Hosts ECAC Foe Fairfield In Season Finale
4/28/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
April 28, 2006
QUEENS, N.Y. - St. John's meets ECAC foe Fairfield under the lights on Saturday at DaSilva Memorial Field for its season finale. Faceoff is slated for 7 p.m. The Red Storm looks to rebound from a 12-7 loss to the Statesmen of Hobart in Geneva, N.Y. last Saturday. Fairfield, meanwhile , is coming off a 7-6 loss to Massachusetts in Amherst, Mass., on Tuesday. The Red Storm will look for its first ECAC Lacrosse League victory and break its four-game slide.
THE SERIES
• The Stags lead the Red Storm 2-1 in the all-time series. St. John's and Fairfield faced-off last season in Fairfield, Conn. The Red Storm lost 17-5, The two programs also met in 1981 and 1982. St. John's defeated Fairfield 17-5 in 1982.
RED STORM IN SEASON FINALE'S
• In the program's 15 years of existance, St. John's has won 10 of its season finales.
SENIOR DAY
• The Red Storm will honor its captain, senior defenseman John Kutner (Garden City, N.Y.) in a pregame ceremony on Saturday. Kutner arrived at St. John's after playing for Nassau Community College. In 2005, Kutner was sidelined for most of the season with an injury but played in five games and collected 11 groundballs. This season, he has started in every game, picking up 29 groundballs and tallying two assists.
IN THE ECAC
• St. John's continues to look for its first ECAC Lacrosse League win in program history. The Red Storm came close to earning the "W" against No. 14 Loyola in March as well as against Rutgers in the beginning of April. St. John's fell to the Greyounds, 6-5, and lost to the Scarlet Knights, 4-3. Meanwhile, Fairfield is 3-3 in league play, deafeating Rutgers (11-7), Hobart (15-9) and Loyola (13-12).
GETTING THOSE GROUNDERS
• Freshman defenseman Dominick Denapoli (Hewlett, N.Y.) leads the Red Storm in groundballs with 51 this season. He is also 34th in the country in this category. Denapoli had a game-high nine groundballs against Massachusetts on April 8. He has also recorded one goal and two assists for three points this season.
TOM'S THE "MAN"ES
Freshman Tom Manes (Philadelphia, Pa.) has made an immediate impact to the Red Storm offense this season. The midfielder has played in all 12 contests this year and is second on the team with 8 assists. Manes has also posted five goals this season, the fifth best mark on the Red Storm.
HE SHOOTS, HE SCORES!
• Tom Michaelsen (Bethpage, N.Y.) registered a hat trick last week against Hobart for his second one of the season and fifth of his career. Michaelsen has scored at least one goal in every contest this season. He leads St. John's in all three scoring categories, recording 20 goals, nine assists and 29 points. He has also collected 13 groundballs. Michelsen's best contest was against Robert Morris when he scored three goals and three assists for six points.
AT THE X
• Three Red Storm members have taken most of the battles at the faceoff circle this season. Recenlty, Denapoli has seen the most time at the faceoff circle. He posts a .395 winning percentage (32-81). Jack Rosson (Severna Park, Md.) has registered a .464 mark, taking 13 of 28 battles. Meanwhile, Devin Madden (Kensington, Md.) leads the team with a .607 winning percentage (68-112) but has been sidelined due to an injury since the Lafayette contest.
DAVE "THE SAVE" SACCENTE
• Sophomore Dave Saccente (Lake Grove, N.Y.) has started all 12 games in the cage for St. John's this season. He currently posts a .542 save percentage, averages 9.17 saves per game and allows 8.16 goals per game, which is the 24th best average in the country. Saccente tied a personal best against Georgetown, muting 18 Hoya shots en route to a spot on the ECAC's Weekly Honor Roll.
IN THE COUNTRY
• The Red Storm defense allows just 8.17 points a game, which is the 23rd best average in the nation. Navy leads the country with a 5.5 average. In St. John's 12 games this season, the defense has kept the opposing team under the double-digit mark five times. The Red Storm D's best performance was against Rutgers, allowing the Scarlet Knights to score just four times.
• St. John's is ranked 23rd in the country in faceoffs, recording a .514 winning percentage. Delaware has the best mark, posting a .692 mark.
DOUBLE THE W'S
• St. John's 7-5 win over Lafayette was the Red Storm's fourth of the season, which doubled last season's win total. In 2005, St. John's went 2-11 after the program returned from a nine-year hiatus. The two Red Storm victories were against Robert Morris, 8-7, and Hartford, 9-4, in what was St. John's first year in the highly competitive ECAC Lacrosse League.
SCOUTING THE STAGS
• Last Time Out: Fairfield lost to Massachusetts Tuesday, 7-6, in Amherst, Mass. The Stags held a 6-3 lead with 9:16 to play in the game. The Minutemen, however, scored four times in that period of time, including the tying goal and the game winner with 63 seconds remaining in the contest. The Stags fell to 5-7 overall, 3-3 in league play with the loss.
• In The ECAC: This is the inaugural season for the Stags in the ECAC Lacrosse season. Fairfield posts a .500 mark in the league with a 3-3 record. Last season, the Stags were a member of the Great Western Lacrosse League (GWLL).
• Between The Pipes: Junior Michael Kruger has started all 12 contests for the Stags this season. The goalie has muted 129 opponent shots this year for .538 save percentage. He also has a 10.30 goals against average, which ranks him 43rd in the nation.
• Faceoff Man: Midfielder Charlie Keinath has taken most of the battles from the X this season. The junior has won 92 of 178 faceoffs for a .517 winning percentage, which is the 27th best mark in the nation.
• Top Returner: Midfielder Greg Downing returns to the Stags for his junior season. He leads the team with 25 goals and is second in points with 32. Downing was named this week's ECAC Offensive Player of the Week for his performance against Loyola last weekend. He scored four goal, tallied one assist and scooped up four groundballs. Downing is ranked fourth in the country in goals per game with a 2.78 mark and is 15th in the country in points per game with a 3.44 average.
• Last Season: In 2005, Fairfield posted an 11-5 record and was 4-1 in league play for its best season in program history. The Stags were the Co-GWLL Champions and earned a NCAA Tournament berth. Fairfield fell to Duke, 23-4, in the first round.
• The Skipper: Ted Spencer is in his 11th season at the helm of the Stags lacrosse program. He is the winningest coach in Fairfield history, registering a 77-68 (.531) overall record. While on the Stags' sidelines, Spencer has led the team to six postseason appearances and won at least a share of a league championship in five of the nine seasons. Prior to his time at Fairfield, Spencer was an assistant coach for Brown and Yale.
-Red Storm
