The Mohawk Valley Hawks Men's Lacrosse team has just wrapped up their 2019 season. Though the 0-7 record may not reflect it, the team made tremendous strides this year according to first year Head Coach Nick Evanoff. Three players were lost for the season due to injuries early on which shortened the bench and had many guys playing all 60 minutes of each game.
"We battled in every game, and just came up short. We struggled to stay healthy and keep guys on the field, which makes it even more difficult when you have lower numbers. The character and work ethic of this team is unmatched. They never gave up and got better every single day." said Evanoff.
There were a lot of positives from this season. Offensively, the team saw an improvement in number of total goals scored on the season while playing less games than were played last season. The main offensive contributors this season were Savion Williams who finished the season with a team high 12 goals and one assist, freshman captain Adam Clemons who had seven goals and two assists, and Justin Haas who finished the season with seven goals and one assist including a career high four goal performance against Jefferson Community College. Savion Williams also set a program record with 18 groundballs on 26 of 30 face-off wins against Jefferson.
Defensively, there was a core unit that worked hard every day. The defense was made up of sophomore Brandon Gowans, freshman captain Justin Pianella, and freshman George Picente. The three of them worked hard as a group all season developing very good skills that will help the defense moving forward into next season. The duties in goal were split by freshman Nate Newman and freshman Tucker Garrett. Newman was in net for the first three games of the season before Garrett joined the team and took over goal keeping duties while Newman moved to defense to add another defender for the Hawks.
The Men's Lacrosse program is looking forward to the upcoming 2020 season, and wishes the best of luck to the four sophomores that will be leaving the team after this semester, Brandon Gowans, Cody Jones, Joe LaGuardia, and Keyshawn Barksdale.
The team will start their fall ball season in early September and finish it up with a six-team scrimmage at Finger Lakes Community College on Saturday, October 5th.