BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- The Moravian College men's lacrosse team is slated to begin its 2019 season on Thursday, February 21 with a non-conference road match at Centenary (N.J.) University, a day later than originally scheduled due to the weather.
Fourth-year Head Coach Dave Carty, who is beginning his 16th season as a college head coach, returns 28 players from last year's squad that finished with a 7-7 record. The group includes 13 seniors that helped Moravian return to varsity status in 2016.
Coach Carty brings back most of his scoring from a year ago led by junior attack Cade Siddron, who had 25 goals and 11 assists last season while scooping up 20 ground balls and causing six turnovers. Senior attack Mark Laratta, who was named to the Landmark All-Conference Second Team, recorded 32 points last year on 21 goals and 11 assists to go with 31 ground balls and 13 caused turnovers, and Laratta enters the year eight goal shy of becoming the second player in school history to reach 100 career goals and 40 points shy of the program's career scoring mark of 169.
Junior midfielder Austin Adams had 16 goals, five assists and 10 ground balls in 2018 while senior midfielder Dominick Gurreri contributed 11 goals and seven assists a year ago. Sophomore attack Connor Hull recorded six goals, two assists and 10 ground balls in his debut season while senior midfielder Alec Oriolo added four goals and two assists. Senior midfielder/face-off specialist Rick Guerra was 100-of-219 on face-offs last season with 44 ground balls and two goals while seniors attack Jack Gozzard and midfielder Hayden DuPont each had a goal and an assist in 2018 with DuPont going 13-of-43 on face-offs with 21 ground balls. Junior midfielder Kevin Darling scored one goal last spring while sophomore midfielder Timothy Dwyer had two assists and sophomore attack Matt Comini added one assist.
Junior long stick midfielder Jimmy Schicke returns after earning All-Conference honors for the second straight year in 2018 with a spot on the Second Team after making the First Team in 2017. Schicke had a team-high 43 ground balls last spring to go with 12 caused turnovers while senior defender John Polich added 30 ground balls and 19 caused turnovers. Sophomore defender Tanner Leslie had 28 ground balls and 15 caused turnovers a year ago while senior defender Brian Biase had 11 ground balls and nine caused turnovers.
Coach Carty will also look to seniors defender Anthony Pontone and midfielder Robert Gellatly and juniors defender Brian Anthony and midfielder Peter Degnan for experience. The squad also returns senior midfielder/long stick midfielder John Kerrison, juniors defender Brian Darling, midfielder Brandon Sisk and sophomores attack Connor Sablich and long stick midfielder Trevor Green.
The Greyhounds return all three of their goalies this spring. Senior Kurt Dick recorded a 9.24 goals-against average, 85 saves, 19 ground balls and a 4-5 record in 435 minutes of action while junior MacLean Lincoln was 2-0 last year with 28 saves and an 11.18 goals-against average in 172 minutes. Sophomore Will Dadouris recorded a 9.01 goals-against average, 51 saves, 12 ground balls and a 1-2 mark in 233 minutes during his debut campaign.
Moravian has added 15 players to the squad for the 2019 season as Coach Carty looks to challenge for a Landmark Conference postseason berth.
