2009 Season in Review

The Elmira College Men’s Lacrosse Team wrapped up its season under Head Coach Preston Chapman with a 1-13 record. The Soaring Eagles’ season was plagued with close defeats, losing six games by four goals or less.

EC defeated Wheaton College 13-12 on March 15 at Campus Field for their only win of the season. Brad Levick ’09 (Newmarket, ONT -- St. Andrews College) lead the Soaring Eagles that day with a career-best nine-goal performance.

For the season, Levick led all Soaring Eagles with 53 points and 39 goals while also coming in second on the team with 14 assists and 31 groundballs. Kenny Keirstead ’11 (Waltham, MA -- Waltham) had a career year with 15 goals in 14 games played. In addition to his team-best 23 assists,

Brandon Youngstrom ’12 (Vestal, NY -- Vestal),TJ White ’12 (Collegeville, PA -- Methacton) and Rick Acorn ’12 (Barrie, ONT -- Innisdale) wasted no time establishing themselves as three of Elmira College’s most dangerous goal scorers. White had 18 goals, Acorn scored 12 times and Youngstrom had 14 scores to go a long with a team-high 23 assists in their first years wearing Purple and Gold.

Four players ended their ended their time at Elmira College this season. Dave Beriau ’09 (East Sandwich, MA – Sandwich) totaled four goals and 1 0 assists, Phill Hill ’09 (Syracuse, NY -- Corcoran) played through injuries to finish with eight goals, Justin Rodis ’09 (Sudbury, MA -- Lincoln-Sudbury) had a career-year with six goals and four assists and John Dean ’09 (North Massapequa, NY -- Farmingdale) helped out on defense causing four turnovers and bringing in seven groundballs in 11 games.

Goalies Ryan Miller ’12 (Fairport, NY -- Kiski School) and Geoffrey Lane ’10 (Pennington, NJ -- Pennington School) split time this year as the Soaring Eagles’ last line of defense. Miller, who made five starts in nine games, picked up the groups only win by making 11 saves. For the season, Miller made 79 stops. Lane led EC with 93 saves and a .489 save percentage in 10 games, eight of which were starts. In the season’s opening game, Lane came up with a season-high 11 saves.

Brandon Saylor ’10 (Cleveland Heights, OH -- Cleveland Heights) acted as the team’s defensive anchor this past season putting together a season of 77 groundballs and 13 caused turnovers, both team-highs. Saylor’s best performance of the season came March 7 against Lycoming College where he came away with 11 groundballs and two caused turnovers.

Helping Saylor and the goalies out defensively were Paul Schwartz ’11 (Allison Park, PA -- Kiski School and Vinnie Anastasi ’10 (Syracuse, NY – Corcoran). Schwartz and Anastasi finished the season tied with seven caused turnovers each. The pair also rounded up 29 and 25 groundballs respectively. Barrett Gast ’12 (Orchard Park, NY -- Orchard Park) chipped in 20 groundballs and six caused turnovers in his first go around at Elmira College.

Other contributors that will be back next include Dan Frost ’10 (Bow, NH -- Bow), who had six assists and Jordan Gray ’11 (Gibsonia, PA -- Deer Lakes), who finished the year with 10 groundballs and two caused turnovers.

The Soaring Eagles will lose Beriau, Hill, Rodis, and Dean to graduation.