Preview: Loyola
To say the defending national champions are a talented team would be to completely sell the Greyhounds short.
This is as talented team as there is in the country with All-Americans at every position.
While most people remember Eric Lusby’s historic NCAA tournament run, Mike Sawyer, who was a 2012 Tewaaraton Trophy finalist, spearheaded Loyola’s offense most of the season. All Sawyer did last season was finish with 52 goals and 10 assists. (For what it’s worth – the last time a Maryland player had 52 goals in a season was 1991 when Mark Douglas scored 52.)
The Greyhounds also bring back their offensive catalyst in Justin Ward, who had 31 assists last season.
The newcomer to the starting attack unit (based upon the starters from the season-opener at Delaware) is sophomore Nikko Pontrello. He played in 17 of Loyola’s 19 games last season and finished with four goals and six assists.
The entire first midfield of Davis Butts (21-14=35), Sean O’Sullivan (16-11=27) and Chris Layne (11-14=25) also return.
The Greyhound defensive midfield is one of the best in the nation. Do-everything long pole Scott Ratliff is mentioned along with Terp Jesse Bernhardt as the two best long poles in the nation. Watching those two go for groundballs from the wings on faceoffs could be worth the price of admission alone.
Only time will tell if short-stick superman Josh Hawkins, who missed the Delaware game and will be out at Towson on Tuesday (according to the Baltimore Sun), will play, but when he’s on the field he’s a game-changer simply because the Greyhounds trust him enough that they don’t slide to him when he’s one-on-one with a ball-carrier.
Those defenders can make life easy for goalie Jack Runkel, who uses excellent positioning and his big 6-foot-3, 240-lb. frame to make the target small for opposing shooters.
As I mentioned above, the biggest factor in the game could be the faceoff X. The Greyhounds struggled in their season-opener at Delaware, winning just 7-of-21 draws. But then again, the Terps dominated faceoffs last May, but Loyola still won the game.
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