High SchooL: Boys 2013 NCS Lacrosse Brackets

Printable Brackets for the NCS Lacrosse Championships DI & D2 (click on the Bracket to get to printable form)

updated to Championship games, Thursday, May 23rd, 2013

The NCS Division 1 Championships will pit two MCAL teams against each other in the Championship game. Novato defeated De La Salle in one Semi-Final, while Redwood defeated Monte Vista in the other Semi-Final. For the first time in the history of the NCS Lacrosse Championship (started in 2004), no EBAL team will participate in the finals. An EBAL team has won every NCS Championship and EBAL has provided both Finalists in every year since 2006. What a stunning performance by MCAL teams to not only have one finalist, but to shut out EBAL entirely!

Novato Hornets Lacrosse Team

Redwood Giants Laxers

The third-ever NCS Division 2 Championship pits Marin Catholic against Acalanes. This is a reprise of the first NCS Division 2 Championship, held in 2011. Last year's Division 2 Championship was another all-Marin County affair that pitted Marin Catholic against Marin Academy.

Marin Catholic Wildcats

Acalanes Dons

Hats off to the MCAL Athletic Directors, MCAL High School Coaches, Marin County Youth Coaches and players of all ages in Marin County. What a stunning – and totally dominating – demonstration of lacrosse power by this small county! 

High School: Day 3 results at the Langkammerer

SI         10
Brophy   2

St. Margaret's Episcopal 18
Bellarmine                      12

Sacred Heart Prep   10
Marin Catholic        13

Lincoln              5
Redwood         10

High School: Langkammerer Day 2 results

Bellarmine 11
Redwood    4

Brophy (AZ) 8
SHP              7 (OT)

St. Ignatius       18
Lincoln (OR)     4

St. Margaret's    11
Marin Catholic   5

High School: 2013 Jerry Langkammerer Invitational

Jerry Langkammerer Invitational Trophy

The 7th annual Jerry Langkammerer Invitational will take place at St. Ignatius' J. B. Murphy Field on April 4th, 5th, and 6th, 2013. Eight terrific teams, from three states, and from both NorCal and SoCal will participate. The Langkammerer is, without question, the best in-season Lacrosse tournament in the Western United States.

Here is the list of participating teams:
School                                               State    Rank in State    LaxPower Power ranking
Bellarmine College Prep                     CA            30                  93.76
Brophy College Prep                          AZ              1                  97.32
Marin Catholic                                    CA              2                  99.14
Lincoln HS                                         OR             20                 91.96
Redwood HS                                      CA              7                  98.69
Sacred Heart Prep                               CA             46                 92.39
St. Ignatius College Prep                    CA              1                   99.18
St. Margaret's Epsicopal School         CA             56                  91.98


My schedule will not allow me to attend the Langkammerer this year. It will be the first one I've ever missed. Feeling very depressed about that!

Here's the schedule for the Langkammerer:
       

	Thursday Apr 4			Friday Apr 5			Saturday Apr 6
12:00 turf	Brophy vs  Bellarmine		12:00 turf	SI vs Lincoln		11:00 tuf	Lincoln vs Redwood
12:15 grass	Marin Catholic vs Lincoln		12:15 grass	SHP vs Brophy		11:15 grass	Bellarmine vs St. Margs
2:00 Turf	St. Margarets vs SHP		2:00	St. Margs vs Marin Catholic		1:00 turf	SI vs Brophy
			turf
330 Turf	SI vs Redwood		330 turf	Redwood vs Bellarmine		1:15 grass	SHP vs Marin Catholic

The usual caveats apply: Times and fields can change. Check in with coaches daily for any changes to the schedule.

High School: Early season ranking anomalies

Look quickly, NorCal lax fans. It won't last long, but here are LaxPower's early-season rankings. The East Coast's season has barely started and LaxPower requires 5 games to have been played in order to be ranked, but so what?  This is a nice – albeit transitory – gift for NorCal Lacrosse.

As of 3/17 – St. Patrick's Day – here are LaxPower's National Rankings:

High School: LaxPower's top NorCal teams

We're still early in the season, but some interesting anomalies are showing up in LaxPower's NorCal rankings. Here are LaxPower's top 4 NorCal Lacrosse teams. Quick! How many of them are EBAL teams?

1 St. Ignatius 99.13
2 Redwood 98.79
3 Marin Catholic 97.65
4 Jesuit-Sacramento 95.93

Not until #5 does an EBAL team appear, and even then another non-EBAL team is #6!

5 De La Salle 95.70
6 Bellarmine 95.00

At this early point in the HS season, I'm willing to bet on history and say the EBAL will rise in rankings throughout the season, but... BUT, there are some interesting things happening:

• Of the top 6 lacrosse teams, 5 are Catholic schools
• Two teams are from the WCAL, two teams are from the MCAL, with one each from EBAL and Sac Joaquin.  Are times-a-changin' or is it just early season shakeout time?

Chris Hill to USNA

Chris Hill, Marin Catholic's nifty offensive laxer, has committed to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. He was a first team all-league selection at Middie in the MCAL this past Spring, though he does play some Attack as well. Congrats to Chris on his commitment and, as always, thanks to Chris and all those who put themselves in harm's way to protect our country.

Here's a short vid of Chris in action:

Day 3 at the Langkammerer

The final day at the Langkammerer saw three teams trying to protect their undefeated records at the tournament. Brophy Prep, Corona Del Mar, and St. Ignatius entered the third day with 2-0 records. The #1 team in the Southern Section of California, Corona Del Mar, faced a rapidly improving Bellarmine team - perennial power of the Central Coast Section of CA - and St. Ignatius faced the #1 team in Arizona - Brophy Prep in what everyone knew would be quite the battle. The SI vs BP battle was particularly heady, since both teams entered this game undefeated.

Let's get the scores behind us. Corona Del Mar (CDM) defeated Bellarmine 7-4, while St. Ignatius (SI) defeated Brophy Prep, 8-6. Both were sensational games to watch, with speed, skill, and will to win evident on both sides of the field! Bellarmine held the lead 1-0 and 2-1 before CDM went on a big run led by Michael Keasey, but Bellarmine fought every minute of the game and CDM knew they'd been in a big-time battle. SI smoothly pulled out to a 4-1 halftime lead, only to see Brophy close the gap to end the game at 8-6. Brock Ghelfi was one of two "Players of the Game," in my opinion, with 4 goals and an assist in the game with SI. Will McKee, SI's exceptional Face-off guys was the other. Will has been dominant in every game but one this season and yesterday was no exception. All those extra possessions made a big difference in this game.

Two teams ended up undefeated – Corona Del Mar and St. Ignatius – with Brophy Prep hard on the heels of CDM and SI.

In a non-scientific – and alphabetic – way, the teams I most enjoyed watching were:

Bellarmine – most improved team over early season form
Brophy Prep – willful, never-say-die team with a stud carrying them. Very impressive group of young men.
Corona Del Mar – in my opinion the most athletic team at the Langkammerer
Marin Catholic – not the best record in the tourney, but one of two teams with great grit and tenacity. One of two teams I found myself unexpectedly rooting for!
San Clemente – the other team with amazing grit and tenacity that I rooted for through most of the tournament!
St. Ignatius - I liked the Wildcats because their combination of skill, speed, and balance allowed them to make it look easy on numerous occasions. Making it look easy, I've found, is almost always because of near-infinite practice. They were the smoothest team at the Langkammerer.

Day 2 of the Langkammerer

I have only two of the 4 games results and will fill in the others as I get them. First, Corona Del Mar prevailed in a nice match with Marin Catholic, 10-4. The Sea Kings are a strong team, with strength where you like it. That is, strength along the imaginary line drawn between the two cages. That includes: Goalie, Crease sliding Pole, LSM, FO guy, dodging middie up top and an X Attackman. If you have strength along this axis, you'll be tough to beat. The Sea Kings have it! In addition, their skilled O passes as well and as fast as any team I've seen this year. Well, any High School team I've seen this year! For its part, Marin Catholic gave them a heckuva game. I love Marin Catholic! They're gritty, they're well coached and they get the principles of the game. They clear out the crease, they cut to the crease, they feed the crease. As a result, they get open shots on the doorstep. They just didn't get enough of them against Corona Del Mar. My congratulations to Coach McGettigan for getting his boys to this skill level so quickly. Hope he stays at MC for many years!

The second game I watched was a conundrum to me. This game was SI 9 San Clemente 6. SI is a better team than San Clemente – a substantially better team. Yet, San Clemente had a plan and the will to execute it. They would zone SI to death. Well, NEARLY to death. SI's vaunted Attack line was next to impotent against the zone. That impotence was contagious and spread to the defense, which allowed a couple of open shots (and goals) from within INCHES of the crease. Very unlike the parsimonious SI D! This year, SI has been an Attack-led team. The Attack line was mostly fallow today. Middie Spencer Evans had the hat trick, Middie Matt Emery had at least one, Middie Phil Alimam ripped one, Middie David Fleming had another... followers of SI will know that these fine fellows roam the middle of the field! You know, regular guys – salt of the Earth. Unlike those Flo Bros on the Attack line who dazzle with their BTBs and between the legs goals.

Hey! A victory is a victory. One should be happy with victories over good teams – and that's just what San Clemente is, a very good team! Glad to have them at the Langkammerer! They represent the Southern Section well and they have a gritty, blue-collar mentality that always gets me rooting for teams! Way to represent, San Clemente!

Brophy Prep defeated Monte Vista 6-5 in a BIG win for the Arizonans. I don't have details. but I'll try and get them.
As I get more info, I'll report on the remaining game, which was:
Menlo School v Bellarmine

Day 1 of the Langkammerer

Here's an incomplete – and sketchy – report on Day 1 of the Langkammerer.

Brophy Prep (AZ)  6 Bellarmine (CCS CA) 3 Either Bellarmine's getting better or Brophy had an off game. This spread is smaller than I expected.

Marin Catholic 14 Serra 6 This IS about what I expected. Marin Catholic is a very nice team that seeks to find the open man on the crease. They are successful in this and that's why they're good on offense. They are energetic and relentless on defense and that creates offensive opportunities. This is a team I have grown to like. I like Serra, too. They are just earlier on the development curve than Marin Catholic.

St, Ignatius (CCS) 13 Monte Vista (NCS) 4. This is about what I had expected. Well, it was 1 goal less differential than I expected, and if the refs had not mistakenly excluded a goal by SI I would have been right on the money. SI's Will McKee continues his amazing performance at the foX, The D unit is superbly coordinated and the midfield produced a few nice goals, including a big rip from 10 yards by Phil Alimam. The SI Attack line is the best I have ever seen, in CA – possibly beyond. They are all interchangeable in skills, feeding, and finishing. What that means is when an opponent puts their top pole on, say, JW MCGovern, Poles 2 & 3 face Attackmen who are functionally equivalent. Here's my premise: There is almost always a hierarchy of talent among any Close D unit and in an Attack unit that is good (and equal in skill) the Attackman covered by the weakest Pole will have a BIG day! If you have not seen this Attack line – Chad Cohan, Joe Lang, JW McGovern –  you are missing something special. You owe it to yourself to see these three this season. In an earlier post, I suggested this might be – in quotes – "an interesting game." The outcome was about as expected. The Mustangs are a well-coached team, with a number of fine players, but – this year – they were not a strong match for the Wildcats.

Corona Del Mar 15 – Menlo School 5. It was 3-0 CDM when I left things didn't get any better for Menlo. CDM is big, fast, smart, and unselfish. Their offensive QB, Mike Keasey, is smart, fast, and versatile. The Sea Kings are a very good team! The kind of team whose smarts, ball movement, and physicality makes them a WOW team to watch. Menlo is a smart team, with nice stick skills. The kind of team you want to do well. Against many teams the attributes of smart and skilled can carry the day. Today they ran into a team that is also smart and skilled, but has additional attributes of size and speed. Menlo rarely underperforms expectation, and they did not underperform today. The computers said they lose by about 10 goals and that's the way it turned out. I'm a fan of Menlo lacrosse and will watch them again this season!

More tomorrow on a VERY entertaining Langkammerer.

Rumor: SI will play Monte Vista at the Langkammerer?will

Speculation is rampant, but no official word has arrived. Will the Langkammerer schedule change? Will SI play Monte Vista at this year's Langkammerer? Inquiring minds want to know!

As pure guesswork, I can't see SI, as tournament host, giving up their games against Brophy Prep, an Arizona Jesuit school or, for that matter, giving up a game against San Clemente and its well regarded coach, Glen Miles. If something were to change, it would have to be SI's scheduled game against Marin Catholic, in my opinion. Of course, this is all opinion – I don't have any actual facts - but with Marin Catholic and Monte Vista being separated by only a point in LaxPower's computer rating service, what's the dif? Why change the schedule (if, in fact, the schedule is changing) to give up MC to play MV? It seems inscrutable to me. Anybody have any info? Send in a comment.

Addendum: LaxPower's scheduling lists now have both SI and MV showing a match between these two schools on 4/12. My guess would be that SI isn't happy about this. After all, they're the host and like all good hosts they try to give all the teams a shot at other strong teams at the event. SI forewent a game against Corona Del Mar, so that other Langkammerer participants would face a terrific Sea Kings team. They had planned to forego a match against Monte Vista so that other teams could play the Mustangs. You know, good manners and all....

I have a feeling this will be an "interesting" game.

Top flight teams at Langkammerer

The Jerry Langkammerer Invitational has always been a fine tournament, but this year Coach Packard has outdone himself in putting together an exceptional group of teams. In fact, 8 of the 9 teams participating have Power ratings of 90 or above, and 6 of the nine teams competing in the Langkammerer are in the top 100 teams in the country, according to LaxPower's computer ranking system.

Yes, I know that the season is young and that more East Coast schools will creep into the top 100 and that may come at the expense of some attendees at the Langkammerer, but this is today and here are LaxPower National Rankings for the top 6 teams attending the big NorCal tournament:
• #6 St. Ignatius
• #19 Monte Vista
• #24 Corona Del Mar
• #32 Brophy Prep
• #62 Marin Catholic
•#76 San Clemente

and the 3 other attending teams – Bellarmine, Menlo, and Serra aren't chopped liver. On any given day, they could give any of the top six a run for their money. This is a fabulous field of teams!

Lacrosse fans with a little flexibility in their work schedules would be well advised to head over to J.B. Murphy and Jim Lucey fields on Thursday 4/12 or Friday 4/13, and J.B. Murphy and Boxer Stadium on Saturday 4/15 to see the best aggregation of High School teams ever to play at one venue in NorCal Lacrosse history!

Langkammerer Schedule released

Pairings for the Langkammerer have been released. They are:

April 12th
10:30 Corona Del Mar v Menlo School
11:00 Monte Vista v Serra
12:30 Brophy v Bellarmine
1:00 Marin Catholic v Saint Ignatius
Tournament Dinner at 3:30PM for all teams and coaches

April 13th
10:00 Menlo v Bellarmine
10:30 Marin Catholic v Corona Del Mar
12:00 Monte Vista v Brophy
12:30 St. Ignatius v San Clemente

April 14th
9:30 Marin Catholic v San Clemente
9:30 Bellarmine v Corona Del Mar
11:30 Brophy v St. Ignatius
Monte Vista v Menlo School

Here are today's LaxPower's power ratings for participating teams - high to low:

St. Ignatius 98.88
Corona Del Mar 97.36
Brophy Prep 97.32
Marin Catholic 96.31
Monte Vista 95.10
San Clemente 94.75
Bellarmine 91.17
Menlo School 88.70
Serra 84.16

When the sixth highest rated team in a tournament has a 94.75 power rating, you've got one heck of a tournament! Can't wait to see this event.

Teams set for the 2012 Langkammerer

I understand that the teams for the 2012 Jerry Langkammerer Invitational Lacrosse Tournament have been set. The dates are April 12, 13, and 14 at J. B. Murphy Field ar Saint Ignatius.
Here are the participating teams:

NorCal:
Bellarmine College Prep
Marin Catholic
Menlo School
Monte Vista
Saint Ignatius College Prep
Serra - San Mateo

SoCal:
Corona Del Mar
San Clemente

Arizona:
Brophy Prep

Looks like a fine field of teams!

Here's the trophy for the Langkammerer: