SI Alum Alex Capretta scores game winner in 5th OT

Alex Capretta

SI alum Alex Capretta scored the game winner in the 5th OT, as Princeton defeated Yale,10-9. It was the ninety-fourth lacrosse game between these two Ivy League schools.
Including the OT game-winner, he had 3 goals and an assist in the game. It is his second hat trick of the season. You can watch a video of his goal at: http://www.goprincetontigers.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?SPSID=46871&SPID=4265&DB_OEM_ID=10600&id=856926&db_oem_id=10600

and read Princeton's game write-up at:
http://www.goprincetontigers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=46871&SPID=4265&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205403155&DB_OEM_ID=10600

Congratulations to this fine NorCal player!

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.

Casey Hock goes 1and 1 versus Catawba

Casey Hock

Queens College, NC

Catawba took on Queen's in a big NCAA DII matchup held at Catawba. Catawba is an historic DII powerhouse. Queen's is an up-and-comer.  Catawba won its home game, 13-12, but Queen's was undaunted. Ranked 14th in DII, Catawba heard footsteps all game long.

Casey Hock, Queen's nasty Frosh Attack and former Monte Vista standout, went 1 and 1 in the game, scoring on his only shot!

Congrats to Casey!
 You can view the Box Score at:
http://www.queensathletics.com/custompages/2012%20MLAX/3-21-12_MLAX_BOX_CATAWBA.htm

Way to go, Casey!

SI 17 Tampa Jesuit 5

Phil Alimam (SI) scores one of his two goals against Andrew Ina (Tampa Jesuit)
Photo courtesy of Dave Hilbe

After knocking off the top rated team in Texas, St. Ignatius took on a top team from Florida - Tampa Jesuit. The result was the same - an SI victory, by a score of 17-5.

The real story of the afternoon was SI's depth. I won't give a stat report here, but I will tell you how long the lines played:

1st Attack line - played 8 minutes of the first quarter and were not seen again, save for EMO

1st Close D line - played the first quarter and were not seen again, save for MDD

1st and 2nd Middie lines played the first quarter and were not seen again, save for MDD

FO WIll McKee took faces in the first quarter, but rarely after that

Cyrus Scott, SI's starting Goalie played the first Quarter, Cole Priest, SI's backup goalie played the second and third quarters, and Billy Sullivan, SI's third goalie, played the 4th quarter.

With the score at the end of the first quarter SI 8 - Tampa Jesuit 3, the coaches made a decision to remove starters the rest of the game. Their confidence in the rest of the squad was merited! There was a game to be won, and the coaches believed non-starterss could win it. They did! Final score was SI 17, Tampa Jesuit 5. This is a testament to the depth of the SI team and the quality that SI has throughout the roster. Saint Ignatius is 33 strong and coaches expect everyone to stand ready to contribute when called upon. That hypothesis was tested on Saturday and was found to be correct. Way to go, SI!

Photos of this game, courtesy of Dave Hilbe, can be seen at:

http://www.pbase.com/dhilbe/sisfvstampa

Saint Ignatius defeats Dallas Jesuit, 7-6

JW McGovern (SI) up against Mike McCarney (DJ)

photos courtesy of Dave Hilbe

I've been looking forward to this game since the schedule was released! Dallas Jesuit is the top team in Texas this year, according to almost all the rating services. SI is, arguably, the top team in California. Intersectional battles don't get any better than this. Both teams have a number of commited DI players and StickStar Lacrosse, a website focusing on Texas High School lacrosse lists Dallas Jesuit as having the #1 Faceoff guy and the #1 close D in the State of Texas.

The SI boys got up at 3:30 AM yesterday, got to SFO at 4:30 AM and took a 4 and a 1/2 hour flight to Houston today. Then, after spending another two hours collecting their bags and bussing to their hotel, they headed off to Strake Jesuit for a game against Dallas Jesuit, the top-rated team in Texas. The game started at 7PM. They defeated a very, very good Dallas Jesuit team, 7-6.

Saint Ignatius was, decisively, the better team in the first half. They led, 5-1 after two quarters. Dallas Jesuit owned the second half, 5-2. Final score: Saint Ignatius 7, Dallas Jesuit 6.  I believe some of that second half was due to SI's travel weariness, but most of the 2H results came about because a very good Dallas Jesuit team fought back from adversity and almost pulled out the victory. Congrats to both teams on a well-played, exciting game!

SI Offense:
JW McGovern 4G 0A 4P
Joe Lang 1G 2A 3P
Chad Cohan 1G 0A 1P
Peter Doyle 0G 1A 1P
Matt Emery 1G 0A 1P

FO: Rare off night at the X for Will McKee. He went up against the top face-off guy in Texas. On any given night, odd things can happen! Will's a tremendous asset for SI lacrosse.

SI Defense:
Jack McGovern with numerous CTs. An outstanding on-ball defender
Cyrus Scott exceptional night in the cage
Cullen Vincellette excellent night at D mid by this high-speed player

More of Dave Hilbes's photos may be seen at:

http://www.pbase.com/dhilbe/12sisfvsdj

Another highlight vid of SI v SRV

If you can't get enough - here's another highlight of the great Si v SRV game. This one's by lax.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL3DUhGvy9U

Can't help but comment that the best goal of the game, in my opinion, isn't included on either vid. Here's the story: Will McKee was dominant at the FO X all night and he won several draws forward. As y'all know, winning 'em forward is good - very, very good! On Will's first forward win, he scooped it up, roared down the field, passed it to the Point and JW McGovern ripped it in from 14 yards. Nice goal, but merely the set-up for the second act. Later, Will wins it forward again, scoops it up, roars down the field, passes it to the Point... but keeps running! In one of the sweetest give-and-goes in my memory, JW slams it back to Will, who is now bearing down on the goalie unimpeded. I would not have wanted to be that goalie! Will takes it on the run, loads up, and RIPS IT for a superbly coordinated goal. In those two plays – two goals, two assists. Will with the assist on the first and the goal on the second. JW with the goal on the first and the assist on the second. Basically, both goals started out with the forward win, and looked like the same play, but this SI team has many variations on the same theme. Great goal, Will, and great work at the FO X!

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/

SI Alum Billy Mattimore scores game winner for Bucknell

Billy Mattimore

Billy Mattimore, former SI standout and HS All-American, scored the game winner in Bucknell's 12-11 victory over Drexel.
Read the article at:
http://www.bucknellbison.com/sports/m-lacros/recaps/031312aaa.html

UHS alum Parker Brown goes 1 & 2 in win over St. Joseph's

Parker Brown

Former NorCal standout and UHS alum, Parker Brown, continued his heady pace in the Bears' recent win over St. Joseph's, 11-3. Parker and a goal and 2 assists in this game. You can see the Box Score at:
http://www.brownbears.com/sports/m-lacros/2011-12/files/Brown-SJ_Lax.htm

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!

SRV alum Jordan LaTendresse - a change in plans

Jordan LaTendresse

I recently learned that former San Ramon Valley standout, Jordan LaTendresse, has made a change in college plans. He was a heavily recruited Close D from the Class of 2011 - big, fast, skilled, smart - all in the package of a giant.

He'll be playing for Coach Jeff Tambroni and the Nittany Lions at Penn State. He'll be entering PSU this Fall along with his former teammate, Jordan Weiss, who has also committed to Penn State.

SI alums Lang & Emery score as UVA defeats Cornell in OT

Roy Lang

Rob Emery

Former SI alums Roy Lang and Rob Emery, opposing middies in an OT victory by UVA over Cornell, scored one goal and two, respectively, as the Wahoos won in a 9-8 OT thriller. You can read a write-up at: http://games.insidelacrosse.com/game/recap/6403/2012-03-10/cornell-big-red--virginia-cavaliers

SI alum Alex Caprette nets Hat Trick & assist against UNC

Alex Capretta

Former SI standout, now of Princeton,  Alex Capretta punished the net today in a valiant effort against UNC. Princeton fell a goal short in a 9-8 battle between two fine teams. With his assist, Alex tallied four points on the day. You can see the box score at:
http://www.goprincetontigers.com/fls/10600/statistics/mlax/mlax12/prin-unc.htm

Thus, Mr. Capretta was involved in 50% of the goals Princeton generated. In an earlier game this season, Alex had the hat trick in assists. Quite the versatile offensive player!

Miramonte 18 Tamalpais 8

I drove up to Marin yesterday to take in an early season match between Miramonte and Tam High. In particular, I wanted to see Chase Hildeburn, a player I've watched for years – and coached for a few years. Chase took a year off from school to join his parents on a round-the-world tour several years ago and missed some recruiting opportunities. He'll graduate this Spring and will likely play MCLA lacrosse. I believe he could have played NCAA lacrosse, but who wants to pass  up a trip around the world!

This is supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Mats – and I guess that's right – but they have several fine players on this year's squad, including Chase, Ben Sappio and several other players whose names I don't know. The Mats were never behind in this game and looked competent throughout.

Here's a pic of Chase during the game:

Any colleges out there looking for a fast, skilled, HIgh Lax IQ guy would do well to take a look at Chase!

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: