College: Lacrosse weekend: watching NorCal laxers in North Carolina

Ben Krebs after his stint in cage

Just back from my 3rd NCAA DI game of the weekend! Friday night, #4 UNC defeated the Air Force Academy, 16-8. NorCal standout Mike Tagliaferri – the San Ramon Valley legend – did not play, as he is still suffering a slow-healing injury.

Saturday, #6 Duke met #8 Denver and Denver prevailed. Both Dax and Chad Cohan – former SI standouts – are on injured reserve and didn't dress. Ben Krebs, Foothill's fiery and passionate goalie and scholar-athlete, dressed but saw no action.

Today, Duke took on Jacksonville and won big. Ben Krebs played the fourth quarter, until he was pulled, allowing the last goalie on the depth chart have a shot in cage.  During Ben's time in cage he faced 5 SOG and saved 4 – for a heady 80% save percentage.^ Nicely done, Ben!

So, that's my report from the East on this very first week of the season. It was a blast!
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^ The goal Ben allowed came when Duke was 2 men down.

Michael Tags – US Lacrosse write-up

Michael Tagliaferri

It's always nice to read about Michael Tagliaferri, whether it's coming from his 2X AA San Ramon Valley days, his exploits on the USA U-19 team, or his upcoming performances with UNC. Lacrosse Magazine, the official publication of US Lacrosse has just published another article on Mike. This one reveals more details about his family, and also gives a tutorial on his dodging techniques.

For those of you who are members of US Lacrosse, you can read this story in the current issue. Non-members will have to wait a month or so until it shows up on the website. Ah, the privileges of membership!

The dodging tutorial is terrific. Be sure to see the pix and read the details. Key quote from the tutorial: "Watch the defenseman's front hip. If he opens his hip, split dodge the other way. If it stays closed, run past him."

Lacrosse Magazine ranks Western HS Lax teams

Lacrosse Magazine, the official publication of US Lacrosse, recently published their annual review of top teams around the country. In their Western rankings, the magazine named La Costa Canyon the top boys team in the region and named Michael Keasey of  Corona Del Mar the Player of the Year for the Western region.

Michael Keasey

In their listing of the top 10 teams in the Western United States, Lacrosse Magazine included two NorCal teams. Here is their commentary:

3. St. Ignatius Prep (Calif.) 21-1
The Wildcats took the West Catholic Athletic League championship with a 16-2 win over Bellarmine (Calif.). They've won the first three WCAL titles by a combined score of 526-119. JW McGovern (Yale), who coach Chris Packard called "the most complete attackman I've ever seen on the West Coast," led the way.

JW McGovern

8. San Ramon Valley (Calif.) 20-3
The Wolves won the East Bay Athletic League and North Coast Section Division I titles, ending on an 11-game win streak. Senior All-American midfielder and US U19 star Michael Tagliaferri (North Carolina) had 48 goals and 25 assists.

Mike Tagliaferri

Coincidentally, Mike Tagliaferri & JW McGovern are both two-time US Lacrosse All-Americans, while Michael Keasey and JW will both be attending Yale in the fall.

The complete article appears in the August 2012 print edition of Lacrosse Magazine.

US retains U19 Title: Defeats Canada 10-8

The United States retained its title as winner of the FIL U19 Championship, by defeating Canada 10-8. The United States is the only team to ever have won the Championship in the history of this event.

Mike Tagliaferri scored one in the US victory. Read more at:
http://insidelacrosse.com/news/2012/07/21/u19-world-championships-usa-beats-canada-keeps-gold-streak-alive

Nicely done, boys!

USA U19s are 2-2 at end of Pool Play: Tags sizzles

Amazingly, the USA U19 team, having had an unblemished record through the entire history of the U19 Worlds, has lost twice in pool play. The lost to Canada in their opener, the clobbered England and Australia and lost to the Iroquois nation 15-13 an hour ago. Shocking!

As Indian Country Media put it, "This marks the first time that Nationals have bested Team USA in international field competition (they’ve beaten Team USA in indoor matches), which, considering Team USA draws from a pool of roughly 150,000 players nationwide and is a multimillion dollar operation while the Nationals draw from a pool of about 86, is astonishing."
 You can read their article here:

Despite this, Mike Tagliaferri had 4 goals and an assist in this contest. The other big scorer for Team USA was Matt Kavanagh, with 4 goals and 2 assists. Those 8 goals were not enough to stave off a fired-up Iroquois team.

Disappointed for the USA team, but thrilled that the Iroquois are doing so well in this tournament!

Mike Tagliaferri at U19 World Championships

Mike Tagliaferri

NorCal's Mike Tagliaferri has had some nice moments at the U19 World Championships in Finland. Here's his roster page for the team, which includes some background info and a brief video:
http://laxmagazine.com/teamusa/u19men/2011-12/bios/u19/tagliaferri_michael

Mike had no statistical events in Team USA's opening loss to Canada in overtime. In their next game, the USA defeated England 20-1. Mike scored two goals and had an assist in that game. Against Australia, the USA prevailed, 24-6, but Mike didn't see much action. Interestingly, attendance at the USA v Australia was 548 spectators. NorCal got more fans than that at SRVs regular season home games against SI and DLS.

As I am writing this, team USA is playing the Iroquois National team. I'll update this entry if Mike has goals or assists.

Way to go, Mike!

Contra Costa Times names All East Bay Lax teams

The Contra Costa Times released their 2012 Boys' Lacrosse All East Bay teams. You can read the article at:

http://www.contracostatimes.com/high-school-sports/ci_20843794/all-east-bay-first-team-capsules-boys-lacrosse?source=autofeed#

Michael Tagliaferri

They also did a story about Mike Tagliaferri, which can be read at:

http://www.contracostatimes.com/high-school-sports/ci_20843443/east-bay-boys-lacrosse-player-year-san-ramon?source=autofeed#

Congratulations to all the guys named by the Contra Costa Times!

SRV v MV NCS semi-final

With two minutes left in the 3rd quarter, it's SRV 9 MV 5.

Stick penalty on SRV to start the 4th Quarter.
Still 9-5 Wolves with 9:52 left in the 4th.

SRV 10 MV 5.

With a minute left in the game, it's SRV 12 MV 6.

And that was the final. Austin French had 4 goals for the Wolves, Mike Tagliaferri had 3, Patrick Worstell had 2, and youngTags, Peter, controlled most of the face-offs. Go Wolves!

Rosters for Under Armour Senior Lacrosse All-America teams announced

Rosters for the Under Armour Senior All-America teams have been announced and can be scrutinized at:
http://insidelacrosse.com/news/2012/05/16/2012-under-armour-all-america-lacrosse-senior-teams-announced#comment-542865

As announced here earlier, Michael Tagliaferri was named to the UA North team. Other Western players making the Under Armour Senior All-America team are:

Brendan Gaughan A La Costa Canyon Michigan
Matt Florence M Kent Denver Virginia
Tanner Scales D Regis Jesuit Virginia

Neither Michael Tagliaferri nor Matt Florence will be able to play in the UA AA game, as they are both members of the USA U19 team and have conflicting schedules as part of the USA TEAM.

Congrats to all these fine Western players!

Michael Tagliaferri named to Under Armour All-American game

Today I learned that Michael Tagliaferri, San Ramon Valley Senior, Junior Year HS All-American and University of North Carolina commit, was named to play in the Under Armour All-American game in Baltimore this summer.

Only 44 graduated High School Seniors participate in this annual event – 22 on the North team and 22 on the South team. As has been the case in the past, this game will be nationally televised by one of the ESPN channels.

Corrigan Enterprises manages this event and here's what they have to say about it:

" The Top 44 senior boys and girls are selected by a committee made up of the nation's most knowledgeable figures in high school lacrosse. Only true seniors in good academic standing are considered for participation. The players will compete in separate boys' and girls' North vs. South All-Star Games during the event.

The 2012 Under Armour All-America rosters are selected byINSIDE LACROSSE and the selection committee."

Michael becomes the sixth Californian to participate in the Under Armour All-America game, joining three other NorCal guys and two from San Diego. The earlier Under Armour All-Americans are:

Casey Hingtgen 2006 La Costa Canyon Dartmouth 

Will Yeatman 2006 Rancho Bernardo Maryland 

Alex Capretta 2008 St. Ignatius Princeton 

Roy Lang 2008 St. Ignatius Cornell 

Rob Emery 2010 St. Ignatius Virginia

Congratulations to Michael, who is definitely one of the finest High School players in the United States. I look forward to watching him in this game and in games when he's wearing Carolina Blue!

NCAA DI & DIII: Happy NorCal Seniors

Several NorCal Seniors are happy tonight, as the colleges they'll be attending in the Fall have been selected to play in the 2012 NCAA DI Championships. They are:
• Chad Cohan SI (Duke commit)  Plays Syracuse in Durham, NC May 12th at noon
• JW McGovern SI (Yale commit) Plays Notre Dame in South Bend, IN May 13th at 5:15 PM
• Will McKee SI (Lehigh commit) Plays Maryland in Bethlehem, PA May 13th at 7:30PM
• Mike Tagliaferri SRV (UNC commit) Plays Denver in Chapel Hill, NC May 12th at &:30 PM

I'll be taking in both the Duke v Syracuse game and the UNC v Maryland games. Who knows, maybe I'll see some of the guys at the games!

In DIII, both Patrick Shevelson FH and Phil Aliman SI (Kenyon commits) will be interested in Kenyon's game against Dickinson on May 9th.

Complete Roster for 2012 Adrenaline All-American game

Here is the initial list of invitees to the Adrenaline All-American game:

This roster may change depending on who can attend this game.

NorCal players named to Adrenaline All-American game

Will McKee

Fifty graduating Seniors from the Western United States have been named to the Adrenaline All-American game on June 2nd, 2012 at  Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, CA. Divided into two squads of twenty-five, the North team includes six players from NorCal. They are:

Chad Cohan A St. Ignatius Duke

Michael Hernandez M Piedmont Michigan

JW McGovern A St. Ignatius Yale

Will McKee M/FO St. Ignatius Lehigh

Michael Tagliaferri M San Ramon North Carolina

Patrick Worstell M San Ramon Syracuse

The complete list of invited players was sent out this afternoon. Each player will receive Maverik gloves, a Cascade Helment with a custom All-American Head Wrap and Adrenaline Movment will be outfitting each All-American with custom uniforms and apparel packages. GameTime Footage, the offical game film and highlight provider of Adrenaline, will be providing each player with a free copy of the game and the Adrenaline All-American MVP will be awarded a free highlight reel of his performance.


I know that graduation day for the SI players occurs on June 2nd, so that's a conflict for the three of them. I do not know how they will resolve it. In any event, these six are all wonderful players and Adrenaline is, in my opinion, on the money in naming them to their Western All-American team!. Congrats to all these players!  

Lax Magazine releases West Boys' Regional Update

Lax Magazine, the official publication of US Lacrosse, released a West Boys' Regional Report yesterday. Their Top 10 Western teams include three from NorCal – SI, SRV, and MV. Coaches Chris Packard of SI and Peter Worstell of SRV are quoted in the article. Players mentioned include: Chad Cohan, Joe Lang, JW McGovern, Michael Tagliaferri, and Patrick Worstell.

You can read the whole thing at:

http://www.laxmagazine.com/high_school/boys/2011-12/news/032812_west_region_report

2012 SI v SRV game highlight reel

Here is a brief highlight vid of the Saint Ignatius v San Ramon Valley game of March 9th, 2012

http://www.laxratz.com/2012/03/st-ignatius-prep-v-san-ramon-valley-9th-march-2012/

Saint Ignatius defeats San Ramon Valley, 12-7

JW McGovern (SI) covered by Kane Franklin (SRV)

photo courtesy of Michael Ennis

In the most anticipated NorCal lacrosse game in years – maybe ever – the Saint Ignatius Wildcats boarded their yellow CYO bus at 4PM and headed off to the East Bay and Wolves' Stadium in San Ramon. Two hours later, they de-bussed, to find the largest regular season crowd in my recollection of NorCal lacrosse. The crowd was not surprising given the back story below:
• In the prior 7 seven years of this rivalry, SI had won 4 and SRV had won 3. No other team has played SI this well
• SRV had won the last two games – 10-8 in 2010 and 11-10 in 2OT during the 2011 season
• That rara avis, the Junior year US Lacrosse All-American shows up on both these squads and no others in NorCal (Michael Tagliaferri and Patrick Worstell at SRV & JW McGovern at SI)
• These two squads lead NorCal in number of NCAA DI recruits with SI having 7 and SRV having 3.
• The only West Coast member of the USA U19 team plays for SRV
• Lacrosse Magazine's top Western Player To Watch plies his trade at SI
• 7 players in this game were members of the 2008 U15 team that dominated at Vail – 4 from SI (Chad Cohan, Peter Doyle, Matt Emery, & JW McGovern) and 3 from SRV(Mike Tagliaferri, Jordan Weiss, and Patrick Worstell). That team was coached by Peter Worstell, SRV's Head Coach. The boys have known each other for years, as have the parents of those boys.
•The winner had 10 goals in 2010, and 11 goals in 2011. Would the winner have 12 goals in 2012?

It would! SI 12 and SRV 7

The game was everything it was expected to be! All seven members of that Vail U15  team scored in this game. 15 of the 19 goals came from players on that Vail team, and six of the eight assists in the game came from those self-same players! But, the key statistic of the game, for me, was that the SI defense held a powerful SRV offense to just 13 shots on cage for the entire game. Astonishing!

Here's the write-up from San Fran Preps
http://www.sanfranpreps.com/2012/03/10/prep-wrapup-st-ignatius-boys-lacrosse-wins-rivalry-game-against-srv/

Boys Lacrosse: St. Ignatius 12, San Ramon Valley 7

The Wildcats (2-0), ranked by West Side Lax as the best high school team west of the Mississippi, took down rival San Ramon Valley (1-1) on the road on Friday night, behind two goals and three assists from senior attackman JW McGovern and three goals from junior midfielder Matt Emery. Senior attackman Chad Cohan also had three goals and two assists, and SI snapped a two-game winning streak by the Wolves in the series between the two teams.

Thanks to the coaches and players of both teams for producing such high level lacrosse in this tremendous rivalry!