Fletcher, Ratliff Lead Seven Greyhounds With All-America Honors

BALTIMORE – Loyola University Maryland men’s lacrosse defender Joe Fletcher became the first Greyhounds player to earn United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association All-America First Team honors since 2001 on Thursday morning when he was one of seven Loyola players named to the various All-America teams.

Long-stick midfielder Scott Ratliff earned Second Team recognition, while attackers Mike Sawyer and Justin Ward, midfielders Davis Butts and Josh Hawkins and defender Reid Acton earned honorable mention.

Loyola’s seven honorees match Duke University and the University of Maryland for the most from any NCAA Division I school this year. It also matches the program high that was set in 1998 and matched in 1999 and 2012.

All but Ward are repeat All-Americans after earning the honors last year, and Sawyer is the school’s first three-time All-American since David Metz received honors from 1999-2001.

Fletcher cemented his status as one of the top defenders in the nation this year by continuing to be among the best one-on-one defenders in the game. He led all ECAC Lacrosse League close defenders in ground balls with 64, and he was also credited with 17 caused turnovers.

An honorable mention All-American and member of the NCAA All-Tournament team last year, Fletcher continued his momentum this year by picking up at least two ground balls in all 16 of the Greyhounds contests. Fletcher is also recognized as a leader on the Loyola campus outside of lacrosse; he was recently named one of 14 members of the 2013-2014 Green and Grey Society, a group of student leaders that excel inside and out of the classroom who are student liaisons to the Loyola administration.

Ratliff garnered Second Team recognition this year after earning Third Team honors last season. A USILA Scholar All-American this year, Ratliff led Loyola in two defensive and possession categories, picking up 77 ground balls while causing 29 turnovers.

He continued to make his mark on the offensive end, as well, as he broke his own school record for goals in a season by a long-pole player, scoring 14 this year after tallying 12 in 2012. Ratliff set the modern-day collegiate record for goals in a game by a long-pole with four against Fairfield. He wrapped up his career with 30 goals and 14 assists, and he is second all-time at Loyola with 88 career caused turnovers and seventh with 217 ground balls.

Sawyer earned All-America honors for the third-straight year after leading the Greyhounds with 36 goals this year; he added seven assists for 43 points. Sawyer concluded his Loyola career with 128 goals, the second-most in school Division I history, and his 154 points are eighth in that category.

Ward had a breakout season on attack for the Greyhounds and was the team’s leading point-scorer with 62. He led the team in assists with 35 while also scoring 27 goals. In a late February game against UMBC, Ward became the first Loyola player since Tim Goettelmann in 2000 to score 10 points in a game, and he also had seven goals in the contest, the most by a Greyhound since Gavin Prout had that many in a 2001 outing.

Butts was the primary focus of opponent defensive midfields during the season, routinely drawing the long-pole assignment while leading the Greyhounds’ first midfield. He finished the year with eight goals and 11 assists, and he finished with 43 career goals and 30 assists.

Hawkins continued to be one of the best short-stick defensive midfielders in the game, recording 25 ground balls and 13 caused turnovers in just nine games this season. He also had a career-best season in transition scoring, posting 11 goals and two assists in those nine contests. During his four years at Loyola, Hawkins posted 26 goals and nine assists for 35 points; his 172 ground balls are 14^th in school Division I history, and his 34 caused turnovers are tied for fifth.

Acton was a three-year starter on defense and two-time All-American for Loyola as a premier inside defender for the Greyhounds. He totaled 22 ground balls and 18 caused turnovers this season. In his career, he finished with 85 ground balls and 53 caused turnovers, the third-most in school history.

Game Data

Loyola will make its 21 all-time appearance in the NCAA Championships and 19th at the Division I level when it takes on Duke University in the First Round on Sunday, May 12, 2013.

The game is slated for a 5:15 p.m. start from Koskinen Stadium in Durham, N.C.
Watch The Action

The ESPN family of networks will televise all 15 games of this year’s NCAA Championships, and Sunday’s Loyola-Duke game will air live on ESPNU.

Mike Corey will call the play-by-play action, and Ryan Flannigan will provide color analysis.

The game can also be seen on the WatchESPN mobile platform.
Series History

Sunday will be the 26th meeting all-time between the Blue Devils and the Greyhounds, with Duke holding a 15-10 advantage in the series.

Including this year, the teams have played during the regular-season for 14-straight seasons (since 2000). Sunday’s game will be the second time the programs have met in the NCAA Tournament. Duke defeated Loyola, 12-7, in the 2008 NCAA First Round in Durham.

The Blue Devils won this year’s regular-season meeting, 9-8, outscoring Loyola 5-3 in the fourth quarter. Josh Offit’s goal with 12:26 left in regulation gave Duke its first lead since the second quarter, 6-5, but Sean O’Sullivan struck on an extra-man opportunity for Loyola, and the Greyhounds tied the game less than two minutes later.

Offitt and Christian Walsh, however, scored back-to-back goals to put the Blue Devils in front for good.

Justin Ward had two goals and an assist for Loyola and was the Greyhounds’ only multi-point scorer in the game. Offitt, Josh Dionne, Case Matheis and Jordan Wolf all scored twice, while Wolf added two assists.

Scott Ratliff had seven ground balls and four caused turnovers on the defensive end for Loyola.

Duke had won five-straight over Loyola and eight of nine, before the Greyhounds defeated the Blue Devils, 13-8, on March 10, 2012, in Baltimore.

The series dates back to 1946.
In The Polls

Loyola enters the NCAA Championships ranked ninth in both the USILA coaches poll and in the Inside Lacrosse media ranking.

Duke is fourth in the coaches version, eighth in the media’s.
Last Time Out

Ohio State scored with 1:33 to play in the third quarter, opening an 8-0 run that closed the game, and the Buckeyes defeated Loyola, 18-11, on Thursday, May 2, in the ECAC Semifinals.

Mike Sawyer and Chris Layne scored at 6:49 and 3:59 in the third quarter to break a 9-9 tie and give the Greyhounds a 11-9 advantage, but the Buckeyes tied the game on a Logan Schuss goal 51 ticks into the fourth, and he added another goal 55 seconds later to put Ohio State up for good.

Schuss scored five goals and added an assist, while Jesse King tallied four goals and an assist and Dominique Alexander scored once and had five assists for the Buckeyes.

Sawyer scored four to lead Loyola, while Nikko Pontrello tallied two goals and two assists, and Davis Butts and Justin Ward each had a goal and two assists.

Scott Ratliff picked up eight ground balls for Loyola, helping the Greyhounds win 18-of-33 faceoffs in the game.
NCAA Championships History

Loyola is making its 21st all-time appearance in the NCAA Championships, 19th in Division I history (since 1982). The Greyhounds are 12-19 all-time in the tournament, 12-17 at the Division I level.

The Greyhounds won the first NCAA Division I Championship, in any sport, last season, when they defeated Maryland, 9-3, on Memorial Day. The win completed an 18-1 season for the Greyhounds in which they tied the NCAA Division I record for wins in a season, matching the 18-2 Duke team from 2008. Loyola entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed and defeated Canisius, Denver and Notre Dame en route to the title game.
Two Tewaaraton Nominees

The Greyhounds one of five programs nationwide with five men’s nominees for the 2013 Tewaaraton Award, and Loyola is one of six schools with at least one man and one woman nominated.

Scott Ratliff and Mike Sawyer were named Tewaaraton Award nominees for the second-straight season, as was Marlee Paton from the Loyola women’s team.

Ratliff enters NCAA Championships play as one of the top long-stick midfielders in the game. He has 75 ground balls and 29 caused turnovers, both tops among players in the ECAC, and he has some of the top offensive numbers for long-stick players in the game’s history with 13 goals and four assists this year.

Sawyer has been on a hot streak of late (more later) and now leads the Greyhounds with 34 goals. He is second on the team with 40 points, as well.
ECAC Honors

Scott Ratliff became the first player in ECAC Lacrosse League history to earn an end-of-the-year award from the conference in a different category. The senior long-stick midfielder was named the 2013 ECAC Specialist of the Year in unanimous fashion after earning ECAC Defensive Player of the Year in 2012.

Joe Fletcher was named the 2013 ECAC Defensive Player of the Year, and both he and Ratliff earned All-ECAC First Team honors.

Mike Sawyer, Justin Ward, Davis Butts and Reid Acton were named to the All-ECAC Second Team, while Zach Herreweyers and Justin Verratti claimed ECAC All-Rookie Team laurels.
Sawyer Keeps Scoring

Mike Sawyer recorded his fourth-straight hat trick in the ECAC Semifinals against Ohio State, the second time in his career he’s accomplished that feat. He previously scored three or more goals in five-consecutive games from March 7-21, 2012.

In the Greyhounds’ last four games, Sawyer has scored 15 goals while assisting on four. In his first nine this year, he tallied 19 goals and two assists. He has three four-goal games to go with a three-goal outing against Johns Hopkins.

Sawyer put up his best offensive numbers of the season on April 13 against Denver, scoring four goals and recording two assists for six points, season-highs in all categories.

The senior attacker quickly replicated that effort on April 20 at Hobart, posting the same numbers in each category.

With his 15 goals in three games, Sawyer has leapt into the team lead for goals scored with 34 this season. He finished the regular-season as the ECAC leader in goals per game during conference games (2.47).

In 57 career games, Sawyer has scored 126 goals and has 25 assists for 151 points.

Earlier this year, against UMBC, he became the eighth player in school Division I history to reach 100 goals, and his 126 total place him are second-most on the program’s Division I career chart. He is seven back of Pat Lamon in first. Sawyer’s 151 points rank eighth in school Division I history.
Fletcher Continues Consistent Performance

Joe Fletcher earned ECAC Defensive Player of the Week honors for the third time this season on May 7 after a standout performance on close defense against Johns Hopkins.

The junior picked up five ground balls and helped start Loyola’s transition game that cleared the ball successfully all 20 times it attempted clears.

He was matched up against the Blue Jays’ leading scorer, Wells Stanwick, who entered the game averaging 4.0 points per game. Fletcher held Stanwick to just one point on an assist that came in transition off a Johns Hopkins faceoff win. Stanwick, who had 23 goals entering the game, managed just three shots against Fletcher.

This season, Fletcher has picked up 57 ground balls and caused 17 turnovers.
Second Half Defensive Success

Loyola’s defense held Johns Hopkins to just one goal in the second half and none in the game’s final 29 minutes, 18 seconds. The Blue Jays’ final 18 shots of the second half were either saved or went off target.

Jack Runkel made six of his 10 saves in the second half, four during the fourth quarter.

Johns Hopkins also turned the ball over 10 times in the final 30 minutes, 16 times in all during the game.

Loyola also shutout the Blue Jays on extra-man opportunities Saturday, holding them scoreless on three attempts, two in the fourth quarter.
Defending The Midfield

Loyola did not allow an offensive midfielder to score for Johns Hopkins in 23 shot attempts when entering the game, the seven players that ran on the two midfield lines had combined for 69 goals and 43 assists.

The Greyhounds’ defensive midfield kept the Blue Jays middies from dodging to space and forced outside shots, keeping 17-of-23 shots off cage. The six that were on goal were all saved by Jack Runkel in goal.
Hawkins On The Fly

In just eight games this year, Josh Hawkins has already eclipsed his previous high in goals, scoring 10 this season to beat his total of six from last season and his 2010 freshman campaign. He also has two assists this season.

Prior the Ohio State game in the ECAC Semifinal, the defensive midfielder had scored at least two points in each of Loyola’s last four games and has at least one goal in every game he’d played this year. He scored twice against Fairfield, Denver and Hobart and registered a goal and an assist versus Johns Hopkins.

He has put 17-of-28 shots on goal and scored on 35.7-percent of his total shots.

In 48 career games, Hawkins has scored 25 goals and has nine assists as a short-stick defender.
O’Sullivan Shooting On Target

Sean O’Sullivan has scored eight goals in the Greyhounds’ last five games, nearly doubling his output of nine in the team’s first 10 outings this season. He is currently third on the team with 17 goals and fifth with 20 points.

He matched his career-high with four goals against Denver, and his final goal of the game tied the score with just over two minutes remaining in regulation, forcing overtime. O’Sullivan needed just four shots in the game against the Pioneers to score his four goals.

On April 20 at Hobart, he scored twice on four shots, and he added a goal on his only shot and an assist at Johns Hopkins.

This season, he has scored his 17 goals on just 43 shots (.398 shot percentage), and he is putting 69.8-percent of his total shots on goal (30-of-43). His four extra-man goals in conference play led the ECAC in that category.
Rookie Production

Zach Herreweyers recorded his fourth hat trick of the season at Hobart in just his seventh game of the season.

The freshman from London, Ontario, posted three goals and two assists against the Statesmen, and with a goal at Johns Hopkins, he raised his first-year total to 16 goals and three assists in eight contests.

Herreweyers, who had hat tricks against Air Force, Georgetown, Michigan and Hobart, leads ECAC Lacrosse League freshmen with 2.0 goals per game and 2.4 points per contest.

Against Air Force, Herreweyers became the first Loyola freshman to score three times in a game since current senior Patrick Fanshaw scored five goals and assisted on another on March 20, 2010, also against Air Force.
Ratliff Sets Record

Scott Ratliff did something believed to be a first in the modern era of college lacrosse  (circa 1971) on April 6 in the Greyhounds’ win over visiting Fairfield. The senior long-stick midfielder scored four goals, becoming the first player with a pole to do so.

Ratliff scored once off a Loyola faceoff win, a second time on a give-and-go in transition with Pat Laconi and twice more off set plays in settled offense with feeds from Justin Ward and Nikko Pontrello.

In recent years, at least two long-sticks, Duke’s C.J. Costabile and Bryant’s Mason Poli, have recorded hat tricks.
Multi-Point Ventures For Ward

Johns Hopkins All-American defender Tucker Durkin held Justin Ward to just one assist on April 27, the first time this season the junior attacker was held to less than two points. He rebounded, though, with a goal and two assists versus Ohio State for his 14th multi-point game in 15 games this year.

He has now tallied at least two points in all but one games this season, and he has three or more in 10 of those outings.

In the Georgetown game, he became the 10th player in the program’s Division I history (since 1982) to log 50 or more assists in his career. With 62 career assists, Ward is in seventh place on the school’s Division I career chart; he is now 10 away from tying Kevin Beach and Tim O’Shea for fifth place.

Ward put up his second game with seven or more points on March 16 against Air Force, logging seven with two goals and five assists in the win over the Falcons. His five assists tied his career-high, set twice in 2012 against Towson and Fairfield.

On February 26, against UMBC, as the junior finished with seven goals and three assists for 10 points. His goal and point outputs were career-highs. He became the first player to score at least seven goals in a game since Gavin Prout tallied eight in a 19-11 win at Hobart on April 28, 2001.

Ward’s 10-point effort was the first 10-point game for a Greyhound since Tim Goettelmann tallied the same amount in a 19-9 win on March 25, 2000, against Fairfield. In that game, Goettelmann scored four goals and had six assists. Later that season, he would score seven goals on May 16 in the NCAA First Round against Notre Dame.

Through 13 games this year, Ward leads the team with 30 assists and 57 points. His 30 assists are tied for seventh in school single-season history.
CLASSy Senior Candidate

Three weeks ago, Scott Ratliff was named one of 10 finalists for the prestigious Senior CLASS Award, an honor given yearly to a NCAA Division I senior who has notable achievements in four areas of excellence – community, classroom, character and competition

Ratliff has continued his high production on defense, transition and offense that helped him earn USILA All-America Third Team and ECAC Defensive Player of the Year honors a year ago when he led the team last year in ground balls (88) and caused turnovers (37), was fifth in goals (12) and seventh in assists (7).

His career totals now stand at 29 goals and 14 assists, and his 43 career points are second-most among active long-poles to Bryant’s Mason Poli. Last year, he set the school’s single-season long-pole scoring record with 12 goals and seven assists, eclipsing the previous high of 16 points on 11 goals and five assists set in 1995 by current Loyola assistant coach Matt Dwan.

Additionally, Ratliff is now seventh in school Division I history in career ground balls (216) and he is second in caused turnovers (88). His caused turnovers are two shy of tying the school record set by P.T. Ricci.
Crane A Finalist For Yeardley Love Unsung Hero Award

Freshman Jason Crane is one of five men’s players nationally to be a finalist for the Yeardley Love Unsung Hero Award. In January, Crane led a group of 13 of his teammates to Newtown, Conn., to put on a youth lacrosse clinic for members of the town affected by the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Crane and his teammates have kept up the connection with the Newtown Youth Lacrosse players, hosting them and their families at the April 13 game against Denver.
Pontrello Keeps Tallying Points

Nikko Pontrello tallied two goals and two assists in the ECAC Semifinal against and Ohio State, coming up with his fourth multi-goal game of the season in addition to three hat tricks (UMBC, Air Force, Ohio State regular-season).

In his first season as a starter, Pontrello has scored 15 goals while assisting on 19 for 34 points, third-most on the team. As a freshman in 2012, he scored four goals and assisted on six.

He posted his second six-point game this season March 16 against Air Force, scoring a career-high four goals to go with two assists. He scored in the first quarter, tallied a pair during Loyola’s 4-0 third-quarter run and added his fourth in the final frame. Earlier this year against UMBC, Pontrello posted three goals and three assists for six points against the Retrievers.
Helmet Stickers

Loyola players are wearing three stickers on their helmets this season to remember those who have passed away. The stickers are in memory of Adam Pomper, a member of the 2012 team who passed away on June 12, 2012, Mandy O’Sullivan, mother of current players Sean and Ryan O’Sullivan who died in March 2012 from pancreatic cancer, and the 26 victims of the Newtown, Conn., shooting in December 2012 where Loyola put on a youth lacrosse clinic in January.
Well-Represented In MLL Draft

Five members of the Loyola men’s lacrosse team were selected in the top 26 of the January 11 Major League Lacrosse draft. The Greyhounds tied Virginia for the most draft picks in the selection process.

Josh Hawkins and Mike Sawyer were both taken in the first round, going fifth and eighth overall to the Hamilton Nationals and Charlotte Hounds, respectively.

Scott Ratliff was the first pick of the second round, going ninth to the Boston Cannons, and Davis Butts was taken early in the third round, 19th overall to the Denver Outlaws. Joining Hawkins in Hamilton will be Reid Acton, the team’s fourth round pick, 26th overall.
Big Runs

Last season, runs of three-plus goals were critical in the Greyhounds success, as they had runs of 3-0 or better in all 19 games. In all, Loyola scored three or more in a row on 37 occasions last year.

The Greyhounds have continued the trend this year, scoring three or more in a row 21 times and have had runs of 3-0 or better in every game but one (Maryland).
Second-Half Success

Last season, the Greyhounds outscored opponents 66-22 in the third quarters of games, and 123-63 overall in the second half (including overtime). The second-half scoring continued a trend from 2011 when Loyola outscored opponents, 69-52, after halftime (including two overtime goals), and 77-56.

This year, Loyola is outscoring opponents 58-29 in the third quarter and 81-69 overall after halftime.

Solid Second Half Gives Men’s Lacrosse 8-4 Win At Johns Hopkins

BALTIMORE – Loyola University Maryland held Johns Hopkins University scoreless for the final 29-minutes, 18-seconds of regulation on Saturday afternoon at Homewood Field, and the Greyhounds snapped a 13-game losing skid to the Blue Jays with an 8-4 victory to close the regular-season.

Loyola’s last victory in the series came in 1999 when the Greyhounds beat the host Blue Jays, 14-5. The previous seven games, however, had been decided by only 13 goals with Johns Hopkins winning four times by a single tally.

The seventh-ranked Greyhounds opened the second half on a man-advantage that carried over from late in the second quarter, and after the teams returned to even strength, Justin Ward skipped a pass to Sean O’Sullivan at the top of the offense, and the midfielder scored on a low shot from 13 yards out 36 ticks into the half.

O’Sullivan’s goal put Loyola (11-3 overall) in front 5-3, but the 11^th-ranked Blue Jays (8-5) pulled back within a goal just five seconds later when they won the faceoff on a Greyhounds’ violation. Mike Poppleton ran the ball into the offensive zone and snuck a shot into the top right corner at 14:19.

That, however, was the last goal Johns Hopkins would score in the game. Greyhounds’ goalkeeper Jack Runkel made six of his 10 saves in the final half, and the rest of the Blue Jays’ 11 shots went off goal.

Johns Hopkins also committed 10 turnovers in the second half, and the Greyhounds had just eight in the entire game.

Mike Sawyer scored his third of the day, rolling off a short-stick defensive midfielder and slinging a sidearm shot into the net with 6:10 to go in the third quarter, pushing Loyola out to a two-goal advantage for the third time in the game.

The score remained 6-4 Loyola until nearly six minutes had passed in the fourth quarter. Davis Butts beat a short-stick from below goal-line extended on the right side and bounced a shot past Johns Hopkins goalkeeper Pierce Bassett.

Loyola tacked on its eighth and final goal with 3:13 remaining on a man-up possession. O’Sullivan faked a pass to the right and doubled back with one to Kevin Ryan on the left side of the crease, and Ryan finished past Bassett.

The Greyhounds opened scoring in the game early in the first quarter after Scott Ratliff picked up a ground ball off a Blue Jays’ turnover and sent the ball to Ryan who carried it into the offensive half for Loyola. He then sent a pass to Josh Hawkins who scored from 10 yards out at the 12:20 mark.

Johns Hopkins, however, tied the game 2:25 later when John Kaestner scored on a fading jumper after running from ‘X’. The Blue Jays took a 2-1 lead at 7:23 when Brandon Benn ripped a high-to-low shot off a John Ranagan pass.

The Blue Jays held the lead for nearly five minutes until Zach Herreweyers rolled from behind the cage and snuck a no-look underhand shot into the net, tying the score at 2-2- with 2:24 left in the second quarter.

Less than a minute later, Sawyer struck with his first of the game with a sidearm shot after Harry Kutner rolled back to the middle and passed it to Sawyer.

Sawyer then scored his second of the game with 13:54 to go in the second quarter, finishing the end of a transition run for Loyola. Runkel started the sequence with a save, and Joe Fletcher picked up one of his team-high five ground balls. Hawkins ran the clear and threw a pass to Sawyer who finished with a high shot.

The goal made it 4-2 Greyhounds, but Poppleton won the faceoff for Johns Hopkins, sent a pass to Wells Stanwick who got the ball to Benn for a goal six seconds after Sawyer’s at 13:48 in the second half.

Neither Loyola, nor Johns Hopkins scored after that point in the half, and the teams went to the locker room with the Greyhounds in front, 4-3.

The Blue Jays outshot Loyola 36-28 in the game, but the Greyhounds held them to a .111 shooting percentage in the game.

On the defensive end, Fletcher led the team with five ground balls, while Pat Frazier, Ratliff and Hawkins each had three. Reid Acton and Pat Laconi both picked up a pair, while Laconi and Frazier each caused six turnovers, and Acton and Hawkins had one apiece.

The Greyhounds open play in the third-annual ECAC Lacrosse League Championships on Thursday, May 2, as the No. 2 seed. They will take on No. 3-seed Ohio State Unviersity at Hobart College in Geneva, N.Y. at a to be determined time.

Paton, Ratliff, Sawyer Named Tewaaraton Candidates

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Three Loyola University Maryland lacrosse players – junior Marlee Paton of the women’s team and seniors Scott Ratliff and Mike Sawyer from the men’s side – were named candidates for their respective Tewaaraton Awards, an honor that recognized the best men’s and women’s players in collegiate lacrosse.

The Tewaaraton Foundation announced Friday night 25 men’s and 25 women’s nominees for the awards.

All three are repeat nominees after also being up for the award last season. Sawyer was one later one of five finalists on the men’s side.

Loyola is one of six schools to have players nominated for both the men’s and women’s awards, joining Johns Hopkins, Maryland, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Penn State and Syracuse. Loyola is also one of five men’s teams to have two players on the list, along with Albany, Cornell, Maryland and Syracuse.

Paton, an Inside Lacrosse Women Preseason All-American and unanimous preseason All-BIG EAST pick, leads the Greyhounds with 46 points this year on a team-best 28 goals and 18 assists. She also has 31 ground balls, 22 draw controls and 21 caused turnovers.

A 2012 IWLCA first-team All-American and the BIG EAST Midfielder of the Year, the Seaholme, Australia native recently cracked into Loyola’s top-10 program records for career points, currently sitting ninth with 184. She is also just the ninth Greyhound in program history to notch both 100 goals and 50 assists and only the second player to reach those numbers in their junior season.

Ratliff and Sawyer have helped the Greyhounds men’s team to a 10-3 record heading into Saturday’s regular-season finale at Johns Hopkins.

Sawyer has continued to be one of the top attack players in the nation this season after earning USILA All-America Second Team honors and finishing as a finalist for the 2012 Tewaaraton. This season, he has scored 27 goals and has 33 points through 11 games for the Greyhounds.

In each of his last two contests – against the Denver and Hobart–  the senior from Waxhaw, N.C., has scored four goals and assisted on two, season-highs in both categories. He is tied for the lead in the ECAC Lacrosse League with 2.83 goals per game in conference games.

After earning USILA All-America Third Team honors a year ago as a long-stick midfielder, Ratliff has continued to be one of the best at his position. He leads the Greyhounds in both ground balls (64) and caused turnovers (29), and with 88 career caused turnovers, he is two away from tying the school career record set by P.T. Ricci.

Ratliff has continued to be a scoring threat in both transition and settled offense for the Greyhounds. This season, he has set a school record for single-season goals by a long-pole player, scoring 13 to increase his record from a year ago by one. Earlier this year against Fairfield, he became what is thought to be the first player in modern lacrosse history to score four goals in a game with a long-stick. He also has assisted on four goals this season, and in his four-year career, he has scored 29 goals and assisted on 14.

The 13^th-annual Tewaaraton Award winners will be announced on Thursday, May 30, at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

Game Data

The 2013 regular-season comes to an end for Loyola men’s lacrosse on Saturday, April 27, 2013, when they make the short trip down Charles Street to face Johns Hopkins University.

Face-off is slated for 1 p.m. at Homewood Field.

Watch The Action

Saturday’s game will be the Old Spice College Lacrosse Game of the Week on ESPNU. Booker Coorigan will call the play-by-play, while Mark Dixon handles color analysis. The game can also be viewed on ESPN Mobile and WatchESPN platforms.

Series History

The Greyhounds and Blue Jays will be meeting for the 51st time in series history on Saturday when they take the field. Johns Hopkins holds a 47-3 advantage in the all-time series and is currently on a 13-game winning streak.

Loyola’s last win against the Blue Jays came on March 12, 1999, when the Greyhounds took a 14-5 decision on the road.

Last year, the Blue Jays held the Greyhounds scoreless for the game’s first 18-plus minutes and scored the first five goals en route to a 6-3 halftime advantage. Johns Hopkins eventually went ahead 9-5 on a Rob Guida goal with 14:13 left in regulation, but Loyola rallied to score four in a row.

Pat Laconi’s first career goal, in transition with 3:04 remaining, pulled Loyola within a goal, and Justin Ward dodged from X, scoring just off the left side of the crease with five seconds to play, sending the game to overtime.

With less than 10 seconds remaining, a Josh Hawkins trail-check sent a John Ranagan shot high and wide right, but the ball went right to the stick of Zach Palmer. He hit Guida with a pass on the doorstep, and Guida one-timed a shot into the net for the game-winner with 2.3 ticks left in overtime.

When the teams play for the 51st time, Johns Hopkins will overtake Penn State as Loyola second most-played in school history. Towson is the Greyhounds’ most-played opponent at 55 meetings.

In The Polls

Loyola moved up to seventh the USILA coaches poll while staying steady at eighth in the Inside Lacrosse media ranking.

Last Time Out

Loyola scored the first six goals of the game and then used a 7-0 run after Hobart closed the gap to one in the second quarter. The latter Greyhounds’ run broke open the game, and Loyola closed its ECAC Lacrosse League regular-season schedule with a 19-11 victory over the host Statesmen.

Justin Ward scored all three of his goals in the opening quarter, and the Greyhounds were ahead 5-0 on his final tally, a man-up strike with 1:23 on the first-quarter clock.

Hobart, however, scored the first five goals of the second quarter and drew within a point, 6-5, at 4:24 on an Alex Love score. Scott Raltiff scored in transition at 3:18, however, sparking three goals before the end of the half at the beginning of a 7-0 Greyhounds’ run.

Mike Sawyer was involved in the scoring of the first five goals of the run, scoring three and assisting on Ratliff’s goal and one by Zach Herreweyers. Sawyer finished with a game-high four goals and six points, while Herreweyers chipped in three goals and two assists, and Ward scored three with one assist.

Ratliff tallied two goals and an assist, while Sean O’Sullivan and Josh Hawkins each scored twice.

Back-To-Back Six-Point Games

Mike Sawyer put up his best offensive numbers of the season on April 13 against Denver, scoring four goals and recording two assists for six points, season-highs in all categories.

The senior attacker quickly replicated that effort on April 20 at Hobart, posting the same numbers in each category.

With his eight goals in two games, Sawyer has leapt into the team lead for goals scored with 27 this season. In seven ECAC Lacrosse League games this season, Sawyer leads the conference with 2.83 goals per game.

In 55 career games, Sawyer has scored 119 goals and has 25 assists for 144 points.

Earlier this year, against UMBC, he became the eighth player in school Division I history to reach 100 goals, and his 119 total place him are third-most on the program’s Division I career chart. He is one behind Gewas Schindler in second and 14 back of Pat Lamon in first. Sawyer’s 139 points rank 11th in school Division I history.

Hawkins On The Fly

In just six games this year, Josh Hawkins has already eclipsed his previous high in goals, scoring nine this season to beat his total of six from last season and his 2010 freshman campaign.

The defensive midfielder has scored twice in each of Loyola’s last three games and has at least one goal in every game he’s played this year.

He has put 13-of-20 shots on goal and scored on 45.0-percent of his total shots.

In 46 career games, Hawkins has scored 24 goals and has eight assists as a short-stick defender.

ECAC Weekly Honors For Ratliff

Scott Ratliff earned ECAC Lacrosse League Specialist of the Week honors on Monday, his third weekly award of 2013 from the conference office.

The long-stick midfielder posted another all-around performance at Hobart Saturday, scoring twice in transition and adding another assist on a Mike Sawyer goal in the third-quarter.

Defensively, Ratliff posted seven ground balls and three caused turnovers, while he and his teammates in the defensive midfield held the Statesmen’s starting midfield to three goals. Ratliff did not allow a goal against a player he was matched up against in the game.

He now has scored 13 goals this season, eclipsing his 2012 school record for scoring by a long-pole player.

Ratliff, who was the 2012 ECAC Defensive Player of the Year and 2013 ECAC Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, has earned seven weekly awards from the league. Earlier this season, he was named Defensive Player of the Week twice.

O’Sullivan Shooting On Target

Sean O’Sullivan’s game-tying goal with 2:11 to play in the third quarter against Denver gave him four for the game, tying his career-high set on February 25, 2012, against Towson. The senior needed just four shots against the Pioneers to score his four goals.

On Saturday at Hobart, O’Sullivan scored twice on four shots, and this season, he has scored his 16 goals on just 39 shots (.410 shot percentage), and he is putting 74.4-percent of his total shots on goal (29-of-39). His 16 goals rank third on the team this season, and his six extra-man tallies lead the team. O’Sullivan’s four extra-man goals in conference play lead the ECAC in that category.

Attack Stats

Loyola’s starting attack against Hobart – Mike Sawyer (four goals, two assists), Zach Herreweyers (three, two) and Justin Ward (three, one) – represented 10 of the Greyhounds’ 19 goals and 15 of the team’s 31 points against the Statesmen.

Ward and Sawyer are first and second, respectively, on the team in scoring this season with 53 and 33 points. Herreweyers, in just seven games, is fifth with 18. Nikko Pontrello, who started 10 games on attack this season, is third on the team with 30 points, 13 coming from goals.

Rookie Production

Zach Herreweyers recorded his fourth hat trick of the season Saturday at Hobart in just his seventh game of the season.

The freshman from London, Ontario, posted three goals and two assists against the Statesmen, raising his first-year total to 15 goals and three assists.

Herreweyers, who has hat tricks against Air Force, Georgetown, Michigan and Hobart, leads ECAC Lacrosse League freshmen with 2.14 goals per game and 2.6 points per contest.

Against Air Force, Herreweyers became the first Loyola freshman to score three times in a game since current senior Patrick Fanshaw scored five goals and assisted on another on March 20, 2010, also against Air Force.

Ratliff Sets Record

Scott Ratliff did something believed to be a first in the modern era of college lacrosse  (circa 1971) on April 6 in the Greyhounds’ win over visiting Fairfield. The senior long-stick midfielder scored four goals, becoming the first player with a pole to do so.

Ratliff scored once off a Loyola faceoff win, a second time on a give-and-go in transition with Pat Laconi and twice more off set plays in settled offense with feeds from Justin Ward and Nikko Pontrello.

In recent years, at least two long-sticks, Duke’s C.J. Costabile and Bryant’s Mason Poli, have recorded hat tricks.

Another Multi-Point Venture For Ward

With three first-quarter goals against Hobart, Justin Ward had his 13th multi-point effort in as many games this season. He has now tallied at least two points in all 13 games this season, and he has three or more in nine of those outings.

In the Georgetown game, he became the 10th player in the program’s Division I history (since 1982) to log 50 or more assists in his career. With 59 career assists, Ward is tied for eighth in school Division I history with Pat Lamon, one shy of Gewas Schindler in seventh.

Ward put up his second game with seven or more points on March 16 against Air Force, logging seven with two goals and five assists in the win over the Falcons. His five assists tied his career-high, set twice in 2012 against Towson and Fairfield.

On February 26, against UMBC, as the junior finished with seven goals and three assists for 10 points. His goal and point outputs were career-highs. He became the first player to score at least seven goals in a game since Gavin Prout tallied eight in a 19-11 win at Hobart on April 28, 2001.

Ward’s 10-point effort was the first 10-point game for a Greyhound since Tim Goettelmann tallied the same amount in a 19-9 win on March 25, 2000, against Fairfield. In that game, Goettelmann scored four goals and had six assists. Later that season, he would score seven goals on May 16 in the NCAA First Round against Notre Dame.

Through 13 games this year, Ward leads the team with 26 goals and 27 assists for 53 points. His 27 assists are ninth-most in school Division I single-season history.

CLASSy Senior Candidate

Two weeks ago, Scott Ratliff was named one of 10 finalists for the prestigious Senior CLASS Award, an honor given yearly to a NCAA Division I senior who has notable achievements in four areas of excellence – community, classroom, character and competition

Ratliff has continued his high production on defense, transition and offense that helped him earn USILA All-America Third Team and ECAC Defensive Player of the Year honors a year ago when he led the team last year in ground balls (88) and caused turnovers (37), was fifth in goals (12) and seventh in assists (7).

His career totals now stand at 29 goals and 14 assists, and his 43 career points are second-most among active long-poles to Bryant’s Mason Poli. Last year, he set the school’s single-season long-pole scoring record with 12 goals and seven assists, eclipsing the previous high of 16 points on 11 goals and five assists set in 1995 by current Loyola assistant coach Matt Dwan.

Additionally, Ratliff now stands 10th in school Division I history in career ground balls (204) and second in caused turnovers (88). His caused turnovers are two shy of tying the school record set in 2008 by P.T. Ricci.

Defensive Midfield Production

Loyola’s defensive midfield had a productive game against Fairfield, finishing the outing with six goals, an assists, six caused turnovers and six ground balls.

The unit posted another solid outing on both sides of the field with four goals and two assists at Hobart on April 20.

This season, long-stick midfielder Scott Ratliff has posted 13 goals and four assists, good for sixth on the team with 17 points, while short-stick Josh Hawkins has nine goals and an assist, and fellow short-stick Pat Laconi has four goals and six points. Kyle Duffy scored his first point of the season with an assist at Hobart.

Pontrello Keeps Tallying Points

Nikko Pontrello notched his third hat trick of the season on March 30 at Ohio State, scoring a game-high three against the Buckeyes. He also had three-goal outings against UMBC and Air Force earlier this year.

In his first season as a starter, Pontrello has scored 13 goals while assisting on 17 for 30 points, third-most on the team. As a freshman in 2012, he scored four goals and assisted on six.

He posted his second six-point game this season March 16 against Air Force, scoring a career-high four goals to go with two assists. He scored in the first quarter, tallied a pair during Loyola’s 4-0 third-quarter run and added his fourth in the final frame. Earlier this year against UMBC, Pontrello posted three goals and three assists for six points against the Retrievers.

Fletcher Turns Up ‘D’

Joe Fletcher earned ECAC Defensive Player of the Week honors on March 18 after picking up three ground balls and causing a turnover against Air Force. More impressive was the defense Fletcher played on Air Force’s offensive quarterback, preseason All-American Keith Dryer.

Dryer entered the game with four goals and a team-leading 10 assists, but Fletcher held him without a point.

This season, Fletcher, who was a Preseason All-America First Team honoree, has 49 ground balls and 17 caused turnovers, numbers that are second and third, respectively, on the team.

ECAC Championships Approaching

After Loyola plays at Johns Hopkins to wrap up its 2013 regular-season on Saturday, the Greyhounds will embark on a return trip to Hobart College in Geneva, N.Y., where they will play in the 2013 ECAC Lacrosse League Tournament.

Loyola, at 6-1 in conference play, is guaranteed no lower than the No. 2 seed in the tournament. Denver, which enters this weekend at 5-1, can earn the top seed with a win Saturday at Michigan by virtue of its head-to-head win against Loyola.

Fairfield and Ohio State have also qualified for the ECAC Championships and play this weekend. If Fairfield wins and Denver loses, the Stags will be the No. 2 seed. If Denver wins, the winner of Fairfield-Ohio State will be the third seed, and the loser will be the fourth.

Helmet Stickers

Loyola players are wearing three stickers on their helmets this season to remember those who have passed away. The stickers are in memory of Adam Pomper, a member of the 2012 team who passed away on June 12, 2012, Mandy O’Sullivan, mother of current players Sean and Ryan O’Sullivan who died in March 2012 from pancreatic cancer, and the 26 victims of the Newtown, Conn., shooting in December 2012 where Loyola put on a youth lacrosse clinic in January.

Well-Represented In MLL Draft

Five members of the Loyola men’s lacrosse team were selected in the top 26 of the January 11 Major League Lacrosse draft. The Greyhounds tied Virginia for the most draft picks in the selection process.

Josh Hawkins and Mike Sawyer were both taken in the first round, going fifth and eighth overall to the Hamilton Nationals and Charlotte Hounds, respectively.

Scott Ratliff was the first pick of the second round, going ninth to the Boston Cannons, and Davis Butts was taken early in the third round, 19th overall to the Denver Outlaws. Joining Hawkins in Hamilton will be Reid Acton, the team’s fourth round pick, 26th overall.

Preseason Accolades

Six Loyola players were named to the Inside Lacrosse Face-Off Yearbook Preseason All-America teams: defender Joe Fletcher and short-stick midfielder Josh Hawkins (first team); attackman Mike Sawyer and long-stick midfielder Scott Ratliff (second); midfielder Davis Butts (third); and, defender Reid Acton (honorable mention).

All six earned All-America honors last season with Sawyer earned Second Team honors and Ratliff was named to the Third Team. Acton, Butts, Fletcher and Acton earned Honorable Mention along with graduate student Eric Lusby.

Toomey Receives Morris Touchstone Award

Loyola Head Coach Charley Toomey was named the ECAC Coach of the Year for the third time in his seven-year career, and in December, he received the coaches association’s Morris Touchstone Award as the national coach of the year.

The Greyhounds became the second team in USILA Coaches Poll history to start a season unranked and ascend to the No. 1 spot in the rankings. The only other team was Duke in 2007 – a year after the Blue Devils had their season suspended in March – which accomplished the feat after being unranked in the first poll, moving to second in the next version and first in the third. Duke was knocked from its perch as No. 1 that season when it lost to the Greyhounds at the First Four in San Diego.

The win over Georgetown this was the 70th victory of his coaching career, becoming the second coach in Loyola history to win 70 or more, joining – Dave Cottle (181-70, 1983-2001).

Big Runs

Last season, runs of three-plus goals were critical in the Greyhounds success, as they had runs of 3-0 or better in all 19 games. In all, Loyola scored three or more in a row on 37 occasions last year.

The Greyhounds have opened the 2013 season in similar fashion as they scored three-straight in the second quarter to take a 4-2 lead against Delaware after trailing, 2-1. They then had two runs of 3-0 or better at Towson.

Against UMBC, Loyola had a 3-0 first-half run before putting together a 10-0 stretch in the third and fourth quarters. The Greyhounds then had a 4-0 run that spanned both halves to help beat Bellarmine, and they runs of 3-0 and 4-0 to beat Air Force.

In the Georgetown game, Loyola had its longest run of the year, scoring eight straight.

At Ohio State, the Greyhounds went on a 6-0 run that spanned the final three quarters to take control of the game. A 5-0 first-quarter run spurred the win over Fairfield.

The game against Hobart saw the Greyhounds go on a pair of major runs en route to the win. Loyola scored the game’s first six goals and, after the Statesmen went on a 5-0 run to pull within a goal in the second quarter, the Greyhounds used a 7-0 run that spanned both halves to break open the game.

Second-Half Success

Last season, the Greyhounds outscored opponents 66-22 in the third quarters of games, and 123-63 overall in the second half (including overtime). The second-half scoring continued a trend from 2011 when Loyola outscored opponents, 69-52, after halftime (including two overtime goals), and 77-56.

This year, Loyola is outscoring opponents 52-24 in the third quarter and 83-56 overall after halftime.

GENEVA, N.Y. – Loyola University Maryland men’s lacrosse used runs of six and seven unanswered goals to win its ECAC Lacrosse League regular-season finale on Saturday, 19-11, at host Hobart College.

Loyola (10-3 overall, 6-1 ECAC) scored the first six goals of the game, and after Hobart (6-7, 2-4) reeled off the next five, the Greyhounds strung together a 7-0 run that spanned both halves to take control of the game.

The Greyhounds’ starting attack of Mike Sawyer (four goals, two assists), Zach Herreweyers (three, two) and Justin Ward (three, one) combined to score 10 goals and finish with 15 points, and Loyola’s defensive midfield tallied four goals and two assists. Scott Ratliff recorded a pair of goals and an assist, while Josh Hawkins carded his third-straight two-goal game. Kyle Duffy added an assist for Loyola.

Ratliff also led the Greyhounds with seven ground balls and three caused turnovers.

It took Loyola just 150 seconds to score its first three goals of the game. Herreweyers scored the first and drew a slash on Hobart, giving a man-up opportunity on which Sean O’Sullivan scored from at 13:05.

A Sawyer shot was saved, but Ward picked up the ground ball and scored his first of the game at 12:30 to put Loyola in front, 3-0.

Loyola did not score for nearly nine minutes, but it was Ward again who scored for Loyola at 3:50. More than a minute later, O’Sullivan ran right-to-left and dumped a pass to Davis Butts who used a face-dodge to beat his defender and score from seven yards out at 2:12.

Ward then tallied his third of the quarter, taking a Harry Kutner feed to score on an extra-man opportunity at 1:23, pushing the Greyhounds’ advantage to 6-0 before the end of the first quarter.

Hobart, however, controlled possession early in the second frame and scored five-straight goals in a span of less than 10 minutes.

Cam Stone put the first point on the board at 14:09, and Branden Kessler made it 6-2 at 11:36. Jake McHenry shoveled in a loose ball from just outside the crease at 10:59 before Alex Love scored back-to-back goals for the Statesmen at 8:19 and 4:24.

Love’s final goal cut the Greyhounds’ lead to 6-5, but a Jack Runkel save started a transition opportunity for Loyola, and Sawyer fed Ratliff for his first goal of the game at 3:18.

Ratliff’s first sparked a 7-0 run that would see Loyola go up 10-5 at the half and 13-5 late in the third quarter.

Sawyer scored his first of the game shortly after Ratliff’s goal, taking a Ward feed from behind for a high-to-low shot, and he scored his second with 39.7 ticks left in the first half after Ward shot a pass out to Herreweyers on the top right, and the freshman quickly got a pass to Sawyer for a goal.

After scoring the first goal of the first half, Herreweyers repeated the feat in the second, scoring at 11:56 off a Sawyer assist, and Sawyer scored his second of the day, in transition 15 seconds later after a give-and-go with Ratliff.

Ratliff caused a turnover and executed a clear with Duffy, taking a pass and scoring at 6:50 to put Loyola up 12-5, and Hawkins capped the run with a goal at 4:38. He used a fake-flip to Sawyer, keeping the ball while running in from the left to score.

Hobart got a pair of goals back at 3:29 and 3:08 as McHenry scored on a man-up possession, and Jake Silberlicht tallied his first of two.

Loyola returned to the scoring column with 2:29 left in the third quarter when Butts raced past his man on the right side and fed O’Sullivan who scored his second of the game.

Love bounced a goal in with just over 32 seconds left in the third quarter, pulling the Statesmen within six, 14-8, entering the final quarter.

The Greyhounds stretched their advantage back to seven 3:11 into the fourth quarter when Herreweyers came up with a groundball in an unsettled situation behind the cage and fed Sawyer who whipped a 13-yard sidearm shot for his game-high fourth goal.

Silberlicht scored one for Hobart at 8:58 before Herreweyers caught a hard Nikko Pontrello pass and used a multiple shot-fake to score his third of the afternoon.

Loyola scored two goals with the 30-second timer on, wrapped around a Hobart goal. Kevin Ryan scored unassisted at 5:20, and Chris Layne used a Brian Schultz in-stride feed to tally one at 2:26.

After the Greyhounds killed a penalty late, Hawkins tallied his second after caused turnover by Joe Fletcher. Patrick Fanshaw assisted on the Hawkins’ score.

Loyola outshot Hobart, 49-35, and the Greyhounds cleared the ball successfully in all 27 of their attempts.

Jack Runkel made 10 saves in three quarter of action in goal for the Greyhounds, allowing eight goals. Pat Frazier caused a career-high three turnovers, while Fletcher and Hawkins each caused two.

The Greyhounds close the 2013 regular-season on Saturday, April 27, at 1 p.m. when they travel down Charles Street to face Johns Hopkins University.

Game Data

Loyola University Maryland wraps up ECAC Lacrosse League regular-season play on Saturday, April 20, when it travels to Geneva, N.Y., for a conference game at Hobart College.

Faceoff is set for 1 p.m. at Boswell Field.

Series History

The Greyhounds will meet Hobart for the 16th time in series history when the teams take the field on Saturday and the ninth time as ECAC foes. Both programs joined the league for the 2005 season.

Loyola holds a 12-3 advantage in the previous 15 games that have been played between the teams, including a 17-6 victory last season on April 21 in Geneva.

Mike Sawyer scored four goals and assisted on another, while Davis Butts and Scott Ratliff each added three points – Butts had two goals and an assist, while Ratliff tallied a goal and two assists.

In The Polls

Loyola checks in as the No. 8 team in both the USILA coaches and Inside Lacrosse media polls.

Last Time Out

Denver took five goals leads on two occasions, 8-3 just before halftime and 9-4 in the third quarter, but Loyola scored eight of the final 11 goals in regulation, tying the score at 12-12 on a Sean O’Sullivan strike with just over two minutes remaining.

Both teams had offensive possessions in the final minute, but neither scored and the game went to overtime. The Pioneers’ Cameron Flint picked up the ground ball off the opening faceoff of extra time and scored 16 seconds in to lift Denver to a 13-12 victory last Saturday.

Flint matched O’Sullivan and Mike Sawyer for game-high honors with four goals. Sawyer’s four were a season-best for him, and he added a pair of assists for six points.

Josh Hawkins scored twice in transition for the second game in a row, and Davis Butts and Zach Herreweyers each scored once. Justin Ward and Nikko Pontrello joined Sawyer with two assisted each.

Hawkins On The Fly

In just five games this year, Josh Hawkins has already eclipsed his previous high in goals, scoring seven this season to beat his total of six from last season and his 2010 freshman campaign.

The defensive midfielder has scored twice in each of Loyola’s last two games and has at least one goal in every game he’s played this year.

He has put 10-of-16 shots on goal and scored on 43.8-percent of his total shots.

In 45 career games, Hawkins has scored 22 goals and has eight assists as a short-stick defender.

O’Sullivan Shooting On Target

Sean O’Sullivan’s game-tying goal with 2:11 to play in the third quarter against Denver gave him four for the game, tying his career-high set on February 25, 2012, against Towson.

The senior needed just four shots against the Pioneers to score his four goals. This season, O’Sullivan has scored his 14 goals on just 35 shots (.400 shot percentage), and he is putting 74.3-percent of his total shots on goal (26-of-35). His 14 goals rank third on the team this season.

Sawyer Has Season-Best Game

Mike Sawyer put up his best offensive numbers of the season last Saturday against Denver, scoring four goals and assisting on two for six points. All of those represented season-highs in the respective categories.

Sawyer is tied with Justin Ward for the team lead with 23 goals this season, and his 2.3 goals per game lead the team.

He scored the game’s first goal against Denver 32 seconds into the contest, picking up a ground ball at midfield and racing down the right side for a goal, and he added his second with 4:22 left in the fourth quarter. Sawyer then tallied two in a row within 26 seconds of each other late in the fourth quarter to draw the Greyhounds within a goal.

In 54 career games, Sawyer has scored 115 goals and has 23 assists for 139 points.

Earlier this year, against UMBC, he became the eighth player in school Division I history to reach 100 goals, and his 115 total place him in a tie for third with Tim O’Shea on the Division I career chart. He is five behind Gewas Schindler in second and 18 back of Pat Lamon in first. Sawyer’s 139 points rank 11th in school Division I history.

Ratliff Sets Record

Scott Ratliff did something believed to be a first in the modern era of college lacrosse  (circa 1971) on April 6 in the Greyhounds’ win over visiting Fairfield. The senior long-stick midfielder scored four goals, becoming the first player with a pole to do so.

Ratliff scored once off a Loyola faceoff win, a second time on a give-and-go in transition with Pat Laconi and twice more off set plays in settled offense with feeds from Justin Ward and Nikko Pontrello.

In recent years, at least two long-sticks, Duke’s C.J. Costabile and Bryant’s Mason Poli, have recorded hat tricks.

Defensively Speaking

Loyola allowed just 22 goals over a four-game stretch from March 20-April 6, an average of 5.5. In the first two games, at Georgetown and Michigan, the Greyhounds gave up just one goal before halftime, and they then allowed only one after the break at Ohio State.

In those four games, Loyola’s opponents have made just 19.8-percent of their shots, converting on 22-of-111 attempts.

The Greyhounds forced 67 turnovers in the games, as Georgetown committed 20, Michigan had 18, Ohio State, 16 and Fairfield, 13. Of those 67 turnovers, Loyola was credited with 44 caused turnovers.

The 17 caused at Georgetown were the most this season by Loyola and the most by a Greyhounds’ team since they posted 19 in back-to-back games against St. John’s and Massachusetts in March 2009.

CLASSy Senior Candidate

Last week, Scott Ratliff was named one of 10 finalists for the prestigious Senior CLASS Award, an honor given yearly to a NCAA Division I senior who has notable achievements in four areas of excellence – community, classroom, character and competition

Ratliff has continued his high production on defense, transition and offense that helped him earn USILA All-America Third Team and ECAC Defensive Player of the Year honors a year ago when he led the team last year in ground balls (88) and caused turnovers (37), was fifth in goals (12) and seventh in assists (7).

He had one of his stat-sheet filling games against Air Force, scoring a goal and assisting on another while picking up five ground balls and causing three turnovers, and he turned in another with a goal, four ground balls and two caused turnovers while going 4-of-4 on faceoffs against Georgetown. Ratliff came one shy of his career-high with eight ground balls at Michigan.

His career totals now stand at 27 goals and 13 assists, and his 40 career points are second-most among active long-poles to Bryant’s Mason Poli. Last year, he set the school’s single-season long-pole scoring record with 12 goals and seven assists, eclipsing the previous high of 16 points on 11 goals and five assists set in 1995 by current Loyola assistant coach Matt Dwan.

Additionally, Ratliff now stands 10th in school Division I history in career ground balls (197) and second in caused turnovers (85). His caused turnovers are five shy of tying the school record set in 2008 by P.T. Ricci.

Defensive Midfield Production

Loyola’s defensive midfield had a productive game against Fairfield, finishing the outing with six goals, an assists, six caused turnovers and six ground balls.

This season, long-stick midfielder Scott Ratliff has posted 11 goals and three assists, good for fifth on the team with 14 points, while short-stick Pat Laconi has four goals and five points, and fellow short-stick Josh Hawkins has five goals and an assist.

Another Multi-Point Venture For Ward

With two assists against Denver, Justin Ward had his 12th multi-point effort in as many games this season. He has now tallied at least two points in all 12 games this season, and he has three or more in eight of those outings.

In the Georgetown game, he became the 10th player in the program’s Division I history (since 1982) to log 50 or more assists in his career. With 58 career assists, Ward now stands ninth in school Division I history, one shy of Pat Lamon’s 59 in eighth place.

Ward put up his second game with seven or more points on March 16 against Air Force, logging seven with two goals and five assists in the win over the Falcons. His five assists tied his career-high, set twice in 2012 against Towson and Fairfield.

On February 26, against UMBC, as the junior finished with seven goals and three assists for 10 points. His goal and point outputs were career-highs. He became the first player to score at least seven goals in a game since Gavin Prout tallied eight in a 19-11 win at Hobart on April 28, 2001.

Ward’s 10-point effort was the first 10-point game for a Greyhound since Tim Goettelmann tallied the same amount in a 19-9 win on March 25, 2000, against Fairfield. In that game, Goettelmann scored four goals and had six assists. Later that season, he would score seven goals on May 16 in the NCAA First Round against Notre Dame.

Through 10 games this year, Ward leads the team with 21 goals and 22 assists for 43 points.

Pontrello Keeps Tallying Points

Nikko Pontrello notched his third hat trick of the season on March 30 at Ohio State, scoring a game-high three against the Buckeyes. He also had three-goal outings against UMBC and Air Force earlier this year.

In his first season as a starter, Pontrello has scored 13 goals while assisting on 14 for 27 points, second most on the team. As a freshman in 2012, he scored four goals and assisted on six.

He posted his second six-point game this season March 16 against Air Force, scoring a career-high four goals to go with two assists. He scored in the first quarter, tallied a pair during Loyola’s 4-0 third-quarter run and added his fourth in the final frame. Earlier this year against UMBC, Pontrello posted three goals and three assists for six points against the Retrievers.

Fletcher Turns Up ‘D’

Joe Fletcher earned ECAC Defensive Player of the Week honors on March 18 after picking up three ground balls and causing a turnover against Air Force. More impressive was the defense Fletcher played on Air Force’s offensive quarterback, preseason All-American Keith Dryer.

Dryer entered the game with four goals and a team-leading 10 assists, but Fletcher held him without a point.

This season, Fletcher, who was a Preseason All-America First Team honoree, has 37 ground balls and 13 caused turnovers.

Offensive Addition

Freshman Zach Herreweyers made his first career start on March 16 against Air Force on attack for the Greyhounds, and he made his debut to the opening 10 an impressive one.

Herreweyers scored his first collegiate goal with 12.3 seconds left in the first quarter, and he finished with a hat trick, tallying goals for Loyola in the third and fourth quarters, as well. He also picked up three ground balls.

He followed that game with a four-goal outing Wednesday at Georgetown, a hat trick at Michigan and a goal and an assist at Ohio State.

The freshman from London, Ontario, made his collegiate debut against Duke on March 8. In five games played, he is tied for fourth on the team with 11 goals.

Herreweyers became the first Loyola freshman to score three times in a game since current senior Patrick Fanshaw scored five goals and assisted on another on March 20, 2010, also against Air Force.

Helmet Stickers

Loyola players are wearing three stickers on their helmets this season to remember those who have passed away. The stickers are in memory of Adam Pomper, a member of the 2012 team who passed away on June 12, 2012, Mandy O’Sullivan, mother of current players Sean and Ryan O’Sullivan who died in March 2012 from pancreatic cancer, and the 26 victims of the Newtown, Conn., shooting in December 2012 where Loyola put on a youth lacrosse clinic in January.

Well-Represented In MLL Draft

Five members of the Loyola men’s lacrosse team were selected in the top 26 of the January 11 Major League Lacrosse draft. The Greyhounds tied Virginia for the most draft picks in the selection process.

Josh Hawkins and Mike Sawyer were both taken in the first round, going fifth and eighth overall to the Hamilton Nationals and Charlotte Hounds, respectively.

Scott Ratliff was the first pick of the second round, going ninth to the Boston Cannons, and Davis Butts was taken early in the third round, 19th overall to the Denver Outlaws. Joining Hawkins in Hamilton will be Reid Acton, the team’s fourth round pick, 26th overall.

Sawyer will be joined in Charlotte by former teammate Eric Lusby who was the top waiver pick after the NCAA season ended in early June. After missing the majority of the MLL season with an injury, the NCAA Championships Most Outstanding Player made his MLL debut on July 28 at Long Island and scored a goal. He then tallied three goals  in an August 11 win over Rochester.

Preseason Accolades

Six Loyola players were named to the Inside Lacrosse Face-Off Yearbook Preseason All-America teams: defender Joe Fletcher and short-stick midfielder Josh Hawkins (first team); attackman Mike Sawyer and long-stick midfielder Scott Ratliff (second); midfielder Davis Butts (third); and, defender Reid Acton (honorable mention).

All six earned All-America honors last season with Sawyer earned Second Team honors and Ratliff was named to the Third Team. Acton, Butts, Fletcher and Acton earned Honorable Mention along with graduate student Eric Lusby.

In his first year as a starter, Fletcher was named to the NCAA and ECAC Championships All-Tournament Teams and earned a reputation as one of the top defenders in the nation. In 19 games as a sophomore, Fletcher caused 26 turnovers, second most on the team, and had 41 ground balls.

Hawkins has continued to be one of the top defensive midfielders in the nation and garnered considerable respect nationally for his play during the NCAA Championships. He earned NCAA All-Tournament honors and helped the Greyhounds limit Notre Dame and Maryland to a combined eight goals on Championships weekend. In addition to his six goals and two assists in 15 games last year, Hawkins was second on the team with 63 ground balls.

Sawyer was a finalist for the Tewaaraton Award as the nation’s top player last season when he scored 52 goals and assisted on 10 more and was named the team’s Offensive Most Valuable Player. During the regular-season, he led the ECAC in goals and goals per game while earning All-ECAC First Team honors. He became the second player to score 50 or more goals in a season and was joined by a third on last year’s team.

Ratliff continued to be one of the top long-stick midfielders in the nation and set a Loyola scoring record for the position last year. He finished with 12 goals and seven assists, exceeding current Loyola Assistant Coach Matt Dwan’s previous record for a long-stick midfielder set in 1995. In addition to his scoring, he tallied 88 ground balls and 37 caused turnovers while earning ECAC Defensive Player of the Year, ECAC Championships Most Valuable Player, NCAA All-Tournament Team and team co-defenisve player of the year honors.

Butts was a first-line midfielder for the Greyhounds for the second year in a row. He excelled as a dodger and finisher and ranked fourth on the team in points (35) and third in goals scored (21). A versatile player, Butts also saw plenty of action on the wings of faceoffs and in the defensive midfield where he picked up 40 ground balls.

Acton will enter 2013 having started on the Greyhounds’ defense each of the last three years. He finished the 2012 season with 44 ground balls and 20 caused turnovers, while helping Loyola record a 7.21 goals allowed per game average, the fifth-best mark in Division I. The Greyhounds set a pair of defensive records during Championship Weekend, holding Notre Dame and Maryland to a combined eight goals in the two games and allowing the Terrapins just three in the title match.

Toomey Receives Morris Touchstone Award

Loyola Head Coach Charley Toomey was named the ECAC Coach of the Year for the third time in his seven-year career, and in December, he received the coaches association’s Morris Touchstone Award as the national coach of the year.

The Greyhounds became the second team in USILA Coaches Poll history to start a season unranked and ascend to the No. 1 spot in the rankings. The only other team was Duke in 2007 – a year after the Blue Devils had their season suspended in March – which accomplished the feat after being unranked in the first poll, moving to second in the next version and first in the third. Duke was knocked from its perch as No. 1 that season when it lost to the Greyhounds at the First Four in San Diego.

The win over Georgetown this was the 70th victory of his coaching career, becoming the second coach in Loyola history to win 70 or more, joining – Dave Cottle (181-70, 1983-2001).

Big Runs

Last season, runs of three-plus goals were critical in the Greyhounds success, as they had runs of 3-0 or better in all 19 games. In all, Loyola scored three or more in a row on 37 occasions last year.

The Greyhounds have opened the 2013 season in similar fashion as they scored three-straight in the second quarter to take a 4-2 lead against Delaware after trailing, 2-1. They then had two runs of 3-0 or better at Towson.

Against UMBC, Loyola had a 3-0 first-half run before putting together a 10-0 stretch in the third and fourth quarters. The Greyhounds then had a 4-0 run that spanned both halves to help beat Bellarmine, and they runs of 3-0 and 4-0 to beat Air Force.

In the Georgetown game, Loyola had its longest run of the year, scoring eight straight.

At Ohio State, the Greyhounds went on a 6-0 run that spanned the final three quarters to take control of the game. A 5-0 first-quarter run spurred the win over Fairfield.

Second-Half Success

Last season, the Greyhounds outscored opponents 66-22 in the third quarters of games, and 123-63 overall in the second half (including overtime). The second-half scoring continued a trend from 2011 when Loyola outscored opponents, 69-52, after halftime (including two overtime goals), and 77-56.

This year, Loyola is outscoring opponents 47-21 in the third quarter and 73-50 overall after halftime.

Denver Scores 16 Seconds Into Overtime To Edge Men’s Lacrosse

BALTIMORE – Cameron Flint picked up a ground ball off the opening faceoff of overtime, ran the length of the field and scored 16 seconds into overtime to lift visiting University of Denver to a 13-12 victory over Loyola University Maryland in front of 3,285 at Ridley Athletic Complex in an ECAC Lacrosse League game.

The Greyhounds (9-3 overall, 5-1 ECAC) trailed by as many as five goals twice during the game, at halftime when Denver’s Eric Law scored with five seconds to go in the second quarter, and late in the third quarter when Sean Cannizzaro tallied an unassisted goal at 4:01.

Canizzaro’s goal from just in front of the crease pushed the Pioneers’ lead to 9-4, but Loyola reeled off three goals in the quarter’s final three minutes to pull within a pair, 9-7.

Zach Herreweyers started the run when Pat Laconi came into the box on transition and sent a pass to goal-line extended on the right side where Herreweyers got to the crease and used a shot-fake to score at 3:54.

Sean O’Sullivan, who tied Mike Sawyer and Flint for game-high honors with four goals, scored his second extra-man goal of the game at 1:57 off a Sawyer assist.

After Jack Runkel made a save for Loyola and sent an over-the-top outlet pass to Josh Hawkins, the defensive midfielder scored on an overhand seven-yard try to make it 9-7 Denver with 16 ticks left in the third.

The Pioneers (10-2, 5-0), however, scored the first two of the final period in regulation as Eric Adamson tallied one by rolling off a check and shooting form the left side 1:58 into the quarter. Gordie Koerber then scored 58 seconds later off a Garrett Holst assist in transition, and Denver’s lead was back to four, 11-7.

O’Sullivan recorded his third of the game at 10:50, scoring after Nikko Pontrello reversed the ball from right-to-left, creating space for O’Sullivan.

Denver took possession after the faceoff following O’Sullivan’s goal – the Pioneers won 18-of-28 restarts – but Reid Acton caused a turnover and picked up the ground ball for Loyola. He got an outlet pass to Hawkins who again cleared it himself, scoring with another overhand shot at 9:20.

Adamson momentarily stopped the Loyola run for the Pioneers, scoring his second of the quarter with 8:40 remaining to make it 12-9 Denver.

Sawyer restarted the rally for Loyola, tallying a pair within 26 seconds. His first was a behind-the-head highlight reel shot from the right side of the crease after Justin Ward threaded a pass in front of the crease to Sawyer’s stick.

His second came unassisted as he ran from right to left, burying the shot at 6:03 to draw the Greyhounds within a goal, 12-11.

O’Sullivan tied it with his career-high tying fourth of the game at 2:11, whipping a sidearm show from 12 yards out after a Pontrello pass. It marked the game’s first tie since Eric Law gave the Pioneers a 2-1 lead at 11:02 of the first quarter.

Denver had an offensive possession in the final minutes thwarted when Scott Ratliff caused a turnover by Adamson and picked up the ground ball. Loyola cleared it to its offensive end, but a Sawyer shot sailed wide and the teams headed to overtime.

The Pioneers used a 10-3 advantage in faceoff wins in the first half to build its five-goal halftime advantage, scoring four unanswered in the first quarter after Sawyer tallied the game’s first score just 32 seconds in.

Sawyer finished with a season-high six points on four goals and two assists. O’Sullivan scored four time, and Hawkins tallied two, while Herreweyers and Davis Butts each added goals for the Greyhounds. Pontrello, Sawyer and Justin Ward each had two assists, and Laconi added another.

Ratliff posted four ground balls and three caused turnovers, and Jack Runkel made 13 saves on defense for the Greyhounds.

The loss snapped a 13-game ECAC winning streak for the Greyhounds, dating back to March 2011.

Game Data

Loyola University Maryland plays its final regular-season home game of the 2013 season on Saturday, April 13, when it host the University of Denver at Ridley Athletic Complex.

Faceoff is slated for 1 o’clock. The Greyhounds will celebrate Senior Day, beginning at approximately 12:40 p.m. and will honor their 14 players who will take the field at Ridley for the final time in regular-season action: Reid Acton, Michael Bonitatibus, Davis Butts, Phil Dobson, Patrick Fanshaw, Tyler Foley, Will Fredericks, T.J. Harris, Josh Hawkins, Harry Kutner, Chris Layne, Sean O’Sullivan, Scott Ratliff, and Mike Sawyer.

Series History

Loyola and Denver will meet for the sixth time in series history when the teams take the field on Saturday. The Greyhounds hold a 3-2 lead in the all-time series with all three of those victories coming last season.

The Greyhounds won all three games last year, but by just five combined goals.

Loyola used a 5-1 run to close the game, overcoming an 8-7 third-quarter deficit on April 14, 2012, in Denver to beat the Pioneers, 12-9, in last year’s regular-season meeting.

The teams met again with Loyola as the No. 1 seed, and Denver the fourth, in the ECAC Semifinals on May 2, again in Denver. Loyola opened up a 13-6 lead with 13:14 left in regulation before the Pioneers scored seven-straight to tie the game at 13-13 with 3:30 remaining on the clock. Scott Ratliff picked up the ground ball to start overtime, and he scored eight seconds later, lifting Loyola to the ECAC title game.

Last year’s final meeting came at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Md., in the NCAA Quarterfinals. The Greyhounds built a 10-6 lead early in the fourth quarter and held off a Pioneers’ charge to win 10-9 and advance to the NCAA Semifinals. Eric Lusby had five goals and two assists in the win.

In The Polls

Loyola remained at No. 5 in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse media poll this week while checking in at No. 6 in the USILA Coaches rankings.

Denver enters Saturday’s game third in the media version, fourth in the coaches’.

Last Time Out

Loyola’s defensive midfield combined for six goals and an assist, as the Greyhounds raced out to a 6-2 first-quarter lead and finished with a 13-7 victory on Saturday over Fairfield University.

The Stags scored the game’s first goal 4:28 in, but Kevin Ryan scored on an extra-man possession at 8:44, and nine seconds later, Scott Ratliff ripped a 12-yard shot after a face-off win, and Loyola was in front for good.

Ratliff finished with four goals, and Josh Hawkins added two from the defensive midfield, while their running mate Pat Laconi assisted on a Ratliff goal. Justin Ward added two goals and two assists, and Mike Sawyer scored twice.

Ryan and Ratliff’s goals were the first two of a 5-0 run that the Greyhounds extended to 7-1 in the second quarter.

Ratliff Sets Record

Scott Ratliff did something believed to be a first in the modern era of college lacrosse  (circa 1971) on Saturday in the Greyhounds’ win over visiting Fairfield. The senior long-stick midfielder scored four goals, becoming the first player with a pole to do so.

Ratliff scored once off a Loyola faceoff win, a second time on a give-and-go in transition with Pat Laconi and twice more off set plays in settled offense with feeds from Justin Ward and Nikko Pontrello.

In recent years, at least two long-sticks, Duke’s C.J. Costabile and Bryant’s Mason Poli, have recorded hat tricks.

Hawkins, Ratliff Earn ECAC Honors

After the standout performance by the Loyola defensive midfield, short-stick Josh Hawkins and long-stick midfielder Scott Ratliff were named the ECAC Specialist and Co-Defensvie Players of the Week, respectively on Monday.

Ratliff scored four goals, had four caused turnovers and three ground balls, while Hawkins posted two goals, two ground balls and a caused turnover.

The award is the first of Hawkins’ career, while Ratliff earned his sixth (four defensive, two specialist).

During the last six weeks, Jack Runkel, Scott Ratliff (twice), Joe Fletcher (twice) and Reid Acton have been named the week’s top defender. Also, during that stretch, Justin Ward and Zach Herreweyers were named Offensive Players of the Week.

Defensively Speaking

Loyola has allowed just 22 goals over its last four games, an average of 5.5. In the first two games, at Georgetown and Michigan, the Greyhounds gave up just one goal before halftime, and they then allowed only one after the break at Ohio State.

In the four games, Loyola’s opponents have made just 19.8-percent of their shots, converting on 22-of-111 attempts.

The Greyhounds have forced 67 turnovers in the games, as Georgetown committed 20, Michigan had 18, Ohio State, 16 and Fairfield, 13. Of those 67 turnovers, Loyola was credited with 44 caused turnovers.

The 17 caused at Georgetown were the most this season by Loyola and the most by a Greyhounds’ team since they posted 19 in back-to-back games against St. John’s and Massachusetts in March 2009.

Entering the game against Fairfield, Loyola is fifth in Division I with 10.0 caused turnovers per game. Four players – Scott Ratliff (14th, 2.09), Pat Laconi (36th, 1.55), Joe Fletcher (65th, 1.27) and Reid Acton (70th, 1.2) – are ranked among the nation’s top 70 in caused turnovers per game.

CLASSy Senior Candidate

Earlier this week, Scott Ratliff was named one of 10 finalists for the prestigious Senior CLASS Award, an honor given yearly to a NCAA Division I senior who has notable achievements in four areas of excellence – community, classroom, character and competition

Ratliff has continued his high production on defense, transition and offense that helped him earn USILA All-America Third Team and ECAC Defensive Player of the Year honors a year ago when he led the team last year in ground balls (88) and caused turnovers (37), was fifth in goals (12) and seventh in assists (7).

He had one of his stat-sheet filling games against Air Force, scoring a goal and assisting on another while picking up five ground balls and causing three turnovers, and he turned in another with a goal, four ground balls and two caused turnovers while going 4-of-4 on faceoffs against Georgetown. Ratliff came one shy of his career-high with eight ground balls at Michigan.

His career totals now stand at 27 goals and 13 assists, and his 40 career points are second-most among active long-poles to Bryant’s Mason Poli. Last year, he set the school’s single-season long-pole scoring record with 12 goals and seven assists, eclipsing the previous high of 16 points on 11 goals and five assists set in 1995 by current Loyola assistant coach Matt Dwan.

Additionally, Ratliff now stands 10th in school Division I history in career ground balls (193) and second in caused turnovers (82). His caused turnovers are eight shy of tying the school record set in 2008 by P.T. Ricci.

Defensive Midfield Production

Loyola’s defensive midfield had a productive game against Fairfield, finishing the outing with six goals, an assists, six caused turnovers and six ground balls.

This season, long-stick midfielder Scott Ratliff has posted 11 goals and three assists, good for fifth on the team with 14 points, while short-stick Pat Laconi has four goals and five points, and fellow short-stick Josh Hawkins has five goals and an assist.

Another Multi-Point Venture For Ward

With two goals and two assists against Fairfield, Justin Ward had his 11th multi-point effort in as many games this season. He has now tallied at least two points in all 11 games this season, and he has three or more in eight of those outings..

In the Georgetown game, he became the 10th player in the program’s Division I history (since 1982) to log 50 or more assists in his career. With 56 career assists, Ward now stands ninth in school Division I history, three shy of Pat Lamon’s 59 in eighth place.

Ward put up his second game with seven or more points on March 16 against Air Force, logging seven with two goals and five assists in the win over the Falcons. His five assists tied his career-high, set twice in 2012 against Towson and Fairfield.

On February 26, against UMBC, as the junior finished with seven goals and three assists for 10 points. His goal and point outputs were career-highs. He became the first player to score at least seven goals in a game since Gavin Prout tallied eight in a 19-11 win at Hobart on April 28, 2001.

Ward’s 10-point effort was the first 10-point game for a Greyhound since Tim Goettelmann tallied the same amount in a 19-9 win on March 25, 2000, against Fairfield. In that game, Goettelmann scored four goals and had six assists. Later that season, he would score seven goals on May 16 in the NCAA First Round against Notre Dame.

Through 10 games this year, Ward leads the team with 21 goals and 22 assists for 43 points.

Pontrello Keeps Tallying Points

Nikko Pontrello notched his third hat trick of the season on March 30 at Ohio State, scoring a game-high three against the Buckeyes. He also had three-goal outings against UMBC and Air Force earlier this year.

In his first season as a starter, Pontrello has scored 13 goals while assisting on 14 for 27 points, second most on the team. As a freshman in 2012, he scored four goals and assisted on six.

He posted his second six-point game this season March 16 against Air Force, scoring a career-high four goals to go with two assists. He scored in the first quarter, tallied a pair during Loyola’s 4-0 third-quarter run and added his fourth in the final frame. Earlier this year against UMBC, Pontrello posted three goals and three assists for six points against the Retrievers.

Fletcher Turns Up ‘D’

Joe Fletcher earned ECAC Defensive Player of the Week honors on March 18 after picking up three ground balls and causing a turnover against Air Force. More impressive was the defense Fletcher played on Air Force’s offensive quarterback, preseason All-American Keith Dryer.

Dryer entered the game with four goals and a team-leading 10 assists, but Fletcher held him without a point.

This season, Fletcher, who was a Preseason All-America First Team honoree, has 37 ground balls and 13 caused turnovers.

Offensive Addition

Freshman Zach Herreweyers made his first career start on March 16 against Air Force on attack for the Greyhounds, and he made his debut to the opening 10 an impressive one.

Herreweyers scored his first collegiate goal with 12.3 seconds left in the first quarter, and he finished with a hat trick, tallying goals for Loyola in the third and fourth quarters, as well. He also picked up three ground balls.

He followed that game with a four-goal outing Wednesday at Georgetown, a hat trick at Michigan and a goal and an assist at Ohio State.

The freshman from London, Ontario, made his collegiate debut against Duke on March 8. In five games played, he is tied for fourth on the team with 11 goals.

Herreweyers became the first Loyola freshman to score three times in a game since current senior Patrick Fanshaw scored five goals and assisted on another on March 20, 2010, also against Air Force.

Eighth To 100

With his goal at 9:25 in the third quarter against UMBC, Mike Sawyer became the eighth player in Loyola men’s lacrosse history to score 100 in his career, the seventh in the program’s Division I history.

Sawyer joined a list that includes Gary Hanley (151), Pat Lamon (133), Gewas Schindler (120), Tim O’Shea (115), Kevin Beach (114), John Carroll (112) and Chris Colbeck (108).

Layne Keeps Tallying Points

Chris Layne had his fifth multi-point game of the season against Ohio State, recorda goal and two assists. He has scored at least one point in all 10 of the Greyhounds’ games this year.

Through 10 games this season, Layne has scored 12 goals and has eight assists.

Last season, he had a total of five multi-point games while finishing with 11 goals and 14 assists. With his two goals against Delaware, Maryland and UMBC, Layne has more than doubled his multi-goal games during his time at Loyola to five. He also had one as a sophomore in 2010 for North Carolina.

Helmet Stickers

Loyola players are wearing three stickers on their helmets this season to remember those who have passed away. The stickers are in memory of Adam Pomper, a member of the 2012 team who passed away on June 12, 2012, Mandy O’Sullivan, mother of current players Sean and Ryan O’Sullivan who died in March 2012 from pancreatic cancer, and the 26 victims of the Newtown, Conn., shooting in December 2012 where Loyola put on a youth lacrosse clinic in January.

Well-Represented In MLL Draft

Five members of the Loyola men’s lacrosse team were selected in the top 26 of the January 11 Major League Lacrosse draft. The Greyhounds tied Virginia for the most draft picks in the selection process.

Josh Hawkins and Mike Sawyer were both taken in the first round, going fifth and eighth overall to the Hamilton Nationals and Charlotte Hounds, respectively.

Scott Ratliff was the first pick of the second round, going ninth to the Boston Cannons, and Davis Butts was taken early in the third round, 19th overall to the Denver Outlaws. Joining Hawkins in Hamilton will be Reid Acton, the team’s fourth round pick, 26th overall.

Sawyer will be joined in Charlotte by former teammate Eric Lusby who was the top waiver pick after the NCAA season ended in early June. After missing the majority of the MLL season with an injury, the NCAA Championships Most Outstanding Player made his MLL debut on July 28 at Long Island and scored a goal. He then tallied three goals  in an August 11 win over Rochester.

Preseason Accolades

Six Loyola players were named to the Inside Lacrosse Face-Off Yearbook Preseason All-America teams: defender Joe Fletcher and short-stick midfielder Josh Hawkins (first team); attackman Mike Sawyer and long-stick midfielder Scott Ratliff (second); midfielder Davis Butts (third); and, defender Reid Acton (honorable mention).

All six earned All-America honors last season with Sawyer earned Second Team honors and Ratliff was named to the Third Team. Acton, Butts, Fletcher and Acton earned Honorable Mention along with graduate student Eric Lusby.

In his first year as a starter, Fletcher was named to the NCAA and ECAC Championships All-Tournament Teams and earned a reputation as one of the top defenders in the nation. In 19 games as a sophomore, Fletcher caused 26 turnovers, second most on the team, and had 41 ground balls.

Hawkins has continued to be one of the top defensive midfielders in the nation and garnered considerable respect nationally for his play during the NCAA Championships. He earned NCAA All-Tournament honors and helped the Greyhounds limit Notre Dame and Maryland to a combined eight goals on Championships weekend. In addition to his six goals and two assists in 15 games last year, Hawkins was second on the team with 63 ground balls.

Sawyer was a finalist for the Tewaaraton Award as the nation’s top player last season when he scored 52 goals and assisted on 10 more and was named the team’s Offensive Most Valuable Player. During the regular-season, he led the ECAC in goals and goals per game while earning All-ECAC First Team honors. He became the second player to score 50 or more goals in a season and was joined by a third on last year’s team.

Ratliff continued to be one of the top long-stick midfielders in the nation and set a Loyola scoring record for the position last year. He finished with 12 goals and seven assists, exceeding current Loyola Assistant Coach Matt Dwan’s previous record for a long-stick midfielder set in 1995. In addition to his scoring, he tallied 88 ground balls and 37 caused turnovers while earning ECAC Defensive Player of the Year, ECAC Championships Most Valuable Player, NCAA All-Tournament Team and team co-defenisve player of the year honors.

Butts was a first-line midfielder for the Greyhounds for the second year in a row. He excelled as a dodger and finisher and ranked fourth on the team in points (35) and third in goals scored (21). A versatile player, Butts also saw plenty of action on the wings of faceoffs and in the defensive midfield where he picked up 40 ground balls.

Acton will enter 2013 having started on the Greyhounds’ defense each of the last three years. He finished the 2012 season with 44 ground balls and 20 caused turnovers, while helping Loyola record a 7.21 goals allowed per game average, the fifth-best mark in Division I. The Greyhounds set a pair of defensive records during Championship Weekend, holding Notre Dame and Maryland to a combined eight goals in the two games and allowing the Terrapins just three in the title match.

Toomey Receives Morris Touchstone Award

Loyola Head Coach Charley Toomey was named the ECAC Coach of the Year for the third time in his seven-year career, and in December, he received the coaches association’s Morris Touchstone Award as the national coach of the year.

The Greyhounds became the second team in USILA Coaches Poll history to start a season unranked and ascend to the No. 1 spot in the rankings. The only other team was Duke in 2007 – a year after the Blue Devils had their season suspended in March – which accomplished the feat after being unranked in the first poll, moving to second in the next version and first in the third. Duke was knocked from its perch as No. 1 that season when it lost to the Greyhounds at the First Four in San Diego.

The win over Georgetown this was the 70th victory of his coaching career, becoming the second coach in Loyola history to win 70 or more, joining – Dave Cottle (181-70, 1983-2001).

Big Runs

Last season, runs of three-plus goals were critical in the Greyhounds success, as they had runs of 3-0 or better in all 19 games. In all, Loyola scored three or more in a row on 37 occasions last year.

The Greyhounds have opened the 2013 season in similar fashion as they scored three-straight in the second quarter to take a 4-2 lead against Delaware after trailing, 2-1. They then had two runs of 3-0 or better at Towson.

Against UMBC, Loyola had a 3-0 first-half run before putting together a 10-0 stretch in the third and fourth quarters. The Greyhounds then had a 4-0 run that spanned both halves to help beat Bellarmine, and they runs of 3-0 and 4-0 to beat Air Force.

In the Georgetown game, Loyola had its longest run of the year, scoring eight straight.

At Ohio State, the Greyhounds went on a 6-0 run that spanned the final three quarters to take control of the game. A 5-0 first-quarter run spurred the win over Fairfield.

Second-Half Success

Last season, the Greyhounds outscored opponents 66-22 in the third quarters of games, and 123-63 overall in the second half (including overtime). The second-half scoring continued a trend from 2011 when Loyola outscored opponents, 69-52, after halftime (including two overtime goals), and 77-56.

This year, Loyola is outscoring opponents 43-20 in the third quarter and 64-45 overall after halftime.