The St. Joe’s men’s lacrosse team is seeking redemption. After finishing the 2018-19 season with a 7-7 regular season record and going 3-3 in Northeast Conference play, the Hawks are searching for better numbers in 2020.
“Last season, it wasn’t our best season, so we all just felt super unfulfilled,” said se- nior captain and goalkeeper Mike Adler. “This season, we made a point to start it right when last season ended.”
After finishing their finals last spring, the lacrosse team returned to the grind, determined to have a better season in spring 2020.
“We’re in a great spot compared to where we were a year ago, but I still think that we have a ton of work to do, a lot to improve on,” said senior defenseman Tyler Makar. “The goal is just to be playing our best in May when it really counts.”
The Hawks began their road to re- demption on Feb. 9, with a 15-8 win against St. Bonaventure University at the Buffalo Bills ADPRO Sports Training Center in New York. The season opener marked Ad- ler’s and Makar’s third season as starting goalkeeper and defenseman, respectively. They were joined by returning talent and new faces alike on the field.
“We’re a new team with a lot of moving people and parts to it,” Adler said. “There’s been flashes of brilliance and the best lacrosse that I’ve ever been a part of, but then there’s obviously some stuff that we need to work on.”
One thing the Hawks don’t have a shortage of, however, is talent within their freshmen class, according to Makar.
“They have done a really good job of fitting in with our mentality as a program very quickly, and I think that goes a long way,” said Makar. “They have a lot of talent,
but they know that they’re not nearly where they want to be. They’ve been great and we’re looking forward to this year and what they bring.”
Twenty-six letter winners return from last season, eight of them starters, but Head Coach Taylor Wray, as he begins his ninth season as head coach for the Hawks, isn’t interested in coaching the same team from last year.
“For a team that went 7-7 the year be- fore, it doesn’t matter if we return everybody if everybody returns the same as they were,” Wray said. “I think that we’ve improved, be- cause the returning guys have gotten better, and we’ve added some talented new pieces.”
New pieces include redshirt freshmen Joe Burnham and Levi Anderson. Wray said Burnham would have been a starting freshman last season had he not taken time off to recover from an ACL injury. Ander- son, having joined the team mid-year, is still waiting to make his debut for the Hawks.
Another new piece in the Hawks’ arse- nal is volunteer coach Mike Rastivo ’17. A three-time captain for the Hawks, Rastivo holds the program record for career goals, scoring 128 goals in 59 played games.
“To have someone of his knowledge, experience and leadership ability on our staff, someone who can relate to the players, who’s been in their shoes very recently and can impart some of the knowledge he has from some of his playing days is terrific,” Wray said.
St. Joe’s will take on Pennslyvania State University on Feb. 15 and then return to Hawk Hill for their home opener on Feb. 18 against the University of Delaware.
“I’m just looking forward to playing games in the spring, there’s nothing like it,” Makar said. “We put a lot of time during the year in just for a two to three month span for our season, so it’s going to be exciting.”
