2020 Buccaneer Men’s Lacrosse Preview
BUZZARDS BAY, Mass – After a 7-8 finish, 1-6 in conference, in their final season in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference, head coach Rick Bagby and the Buccaneer men's lacrosse team is preparing for their 2020 campaign and first season in the Little East Conference with the likes of Keene State, UMass Dartmouth and UMass Boston to name a few. In the LEC men's lacrosse preseason poll the Bucs have been picked to finish 5th in their first season in their new conference after a sixth place finish in the NEWMAC last season. The playoff format for the Little East Conference puts six of ten teams in to post season play.
The Buccaneers return 27 players from the 2019 season including team captains Benjamin Avakian (Bourne, Mass), Tommy Modula (Vernon, N.J.) and Sean Smialek (Dartmouth, Mass). Avakian was the top goal scorer on the team last season with 48 goals while Modula and Smialek held things down defensively in the midfield. Joining the 27 returners are 20 newcomers including 17 freshman.
Notable players who have left the team are attacker Ted Powers, defenseman Kenneth Parnell and Eli DeTullio and goalkeeper Michael Dolan who have all graduated and were integral parts of the 2019 roster. Powers finished second on the teams last season in goals scored with 33 and Dolan was a three year starter between the pipes for the Buccaneers.
Head Coach Rick Bagby will look to junior Alexandre Lucas (Walpole, Mass), sophomore Spencer Jones (Hyannis, Mass) and freshman Mitchell Maida (Burlington, Mass) to make up the difference offensively. Last season, Lucas finished third on the team in goals scored with 26 with jones finished fourth with 20. With the loss of Dolan, senior goalkeeper Matthew Pierson (Longmeadow, Mass) will assume the role of starting keeper. In two seasons, Pierson has seen time in 12 games allowing 7.74 goals per game with a 56.5 save percentage. In the faceoff circle, senior Michael Sharry (Briantree, Mass) and junior Colby Unterstein (Ellington, Conn) return for the Bucs and coach Bagby expects the duo, as well as others, to get the Bucs the ball off the faceoff. Last season, Sharry won 48.3% of the faceoffs he took with Unterstein winning 47.4% of his faceoffs taken.
"Coming out of the NEWMAC and in to a very competitive Little East Conference is great for our program." Said Head Coach Rick Bagby. "We are looking forward to playing against good opponents and having a successful season in a conference we know we can compete in right away." Added Bagby.
With a conference switch the Buccaneer's schedule look very different in 2020. They will open up with Wentworth on the road. The Bucs have not faced the Leopards since 2015 when they fell on the road 13-9. The team will open the home portion of their schedule on Wednesday, March 11th against the Norwich University Cadets at 5pm at Clean Harbors Stadium. A matchup that has become an annual staple in the schedule for the two programs, the Buccaneers dropped the 2019 matchup 12-10 at home.
The Norwich game will be followed by two road games with Gordon and Salve Regina before the Buccaneers open Little East Conference play at home against Plymouth State on Saturday, March 21st at 5pm. The last time the Buccaneers and Panthers met was in 2017 with Plymouth getting the better of the Bucs 11-9 in Plymouth, N.H.
Following the conference opener at home the Buccaneers will take a trip to Maine for rare back-to-back games on March 28th and 29th. On Saturday the 28th the team will take on Southern Maine at 1pm. The Huskies hosted the Buccaneers in 2019 for a non-conference matchup which Maritime won 13-11 on the back of a nine-goal performance from Avakian. On the 29th the Buccaneers find themselves in Castine, Maine to take on the Maine Maritime Mariners in the team's final non-conference game of the season and final game of March on the schedule. In 2019, the Buccaneers sank the Mariners 19-3 at Clean Harbors Stadium, a game which Avakian scored four goals and had an assist and Michael O'Brien (Marshfield, Mass) scored twice from his midfield position.
Following the road trip north, Bagby's Bunch returns home for a pair of LEC games in a four-day span. The first of which is with defending champions Keene State on Saturday, April 4th at 12pm. The game between the Bucs and Owls will be the first time the two teams have met. Then, on Tuesday, April 7th, last year's last place LEC team, the Salem State Vikings, come to Taylor's Point for a 7pm faceoff. The two teams met last season in Salem in a game the Academy won handily, 20-5.
The Buccaneers are back on the road for their next two games against Castleton and UMass Dartmouth. The Buccaneers and Castleton Spartans have not met since 2004 when the Bucs won 27-4 at home. Now 16 years later, the two teams meet in conference play in Castleton, Vermont on Saturday, April 11th at 1pm. The Buccaneers are much closer to home for a midweek matchup with the Corairs on Wednesday, April 15th at 7pm in Dartmouth. The two teams met in Dartmouth last season in a non-conference game which went down to the wire with Maritime taking the win, 7-6.
The Bucs come back to Buzzards Bay on Friday, April 17th for their Senior Day game against UMass Boston at 7pm. The Beacons and Bucs have not met since 2011 in a game Boston won 8-4. Maritime stays in the comfort of their own home for their next game, and final home game of the 2020 season, taking on Eastern Connecticut on Tuesday, April 21st at 7pm. The Bucs opened the 2019 season with the Warriors losing 14-11 at home.
The Buccaneers finish off their regular season schedule with a trip to Danbury, Connecticut to take on West Conn on Friday, April 24th at 7pm. This will be the first meeting between the two programs.
To see the full preseason poll for the Little East Conference go to our social media pages on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
