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Here's the first preseason poll that all three of you have been waiting for.
Preseason - 2023 VA Boys 6A Rankings 1. Madison Analysis: Defending state champs bring back a significant portion of the team, including all three attackmen, two of whom made the all-state teams. Addition of Robinson’s D1 FOGO through the transfer portal makes Madison the preseason #1. After some tough scrimmages, including PVI, the first game matchup with Robinson should show us how good Madison is this year, and the game with Landon will really test them. Tough schedule will have Madison battle-tested for the postseason and they will have a shot at repeating, but it won’t be easy. 2. Lake Braddock Analysis: Four D1 commits (and rumors of a potential fifth), including two of the best offensive players in the state, make Lake Braddock the best team on paper. They don’t seem to play together as much as some other teams in the off-season, and the lingering question is whether they have enough team chemistry to capitalize on their obvious talent. As some have noted, they have no private school games scheduled, but they still have to face Madison, Battlefield, and Robinson in the regular season, so they will get tested. 3. Battlefield Analysis: Battlefield returns an all-state midfielder, a strong FOGO and an excellent goalie, and is generally solid across the board. Scheduled a regular season game with St. Mary’s Annapolis, so they must think they have something good this year. Unlike prior seasons, only one regular season matchup with Patriot this year, and they could go undefeated but for the St. Mary’s game. Heavy favorite to win Region B, and a near-lock to make states. 4. Robinson Analysis: Robinson lost some important players to graduation and their top-notch FOGO to Madison. Still, they have a ton of athletes, are well coached, and seem to reload year after year. They have a tough out of conference schedule (Madison, Yorktown, Georgetown Prep) and we shouldn’t expect a 12-0 start like last season, but Robo should be in the mix when it comes playoff time. They need a good showing against Madison in the opener to prove they are still one of the teams to beat. 5. Yorktown Analysis: Yorktown has a tough midfield and returns a stud attackman who had 97 points last season, but lost some serious talent on defense and will need some younger guys to step up on the back end. The program is well-coached and should be one of the stronger teams in the area again. Look for Yorktown to fight with Langley for districts and make a run in regionals. Tough start to the season with opening games against The Heights and Robinson. 6. Langley Analysis: The Langley team is mostly intact from last year except for the graduation of their All-American FOGO, but that will be a major loss. They will need to learn how to play without dominating possession and score more efficiently. Returning all-region midfielder and lefty attackman should lead the offense again. Opening game with Oakton should be a good one, as these teams always play each other tight. 7. Oakton Analysis: Scrappy team is led by their big defender and VMI commit who likes to push the ball in transition. Graduated some talent at midfield but looked solid at Turkey Shootout with aggressive play and some middies who could score on step down shots. Tough schedule with Langley, Yorktown, Robinson, Lake Braddock, and Madison all on tap. 8. Patriot Analysis: Patriot graduated three All-Region players including the Class 6 player of the year and the stud transfer attack from PVI. Patriot returns a first-team all-state midfielder and some complementary pieces, but it could be a bit of a down year for Patriot. Although Freedom and John Champe will be looking to steal the second Region B spot, we will give Patriot the benefit of the doubt for now. 9. Westfield Analysis: Big, physical team that gets by more on athletic ability than pure lacrosse talent. Aggressive midfield and defense and a strong lefty attack who puts in a lot of goals (54 last season) will keep Westfield in many games. 10. Centreville Analysis: Seeing a trend here at the bottom of the top-10, Centreville is another athletic, physical team that can harass other more skilled teams but lacks a bit of the pure lacrosse talent to compete with the top dogs. Defense and midfield driven, with a speedy lefty midfielder who can take over games at times. Honorable Mention: Freedom South Riding (all six losses last season were to Battlefield and Patriot), John Champe (only lost to Battlefield, Patriot, Freedom and Riverside) |
| Looks great! Did anyone catch the Lake Braddock/Yorktown scrimmage yesterday? |
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Count me among the three(!). Excellent pre-season analysis as always. Madison adding former Robinson FOGO seems unfair - particularly with their stellar attack group. Agree they're going to be tough to beat again this year.
Great to have weekly rankings back - and great to get season started! |
It's on NHFS Network. Looked like a Yorktown demolition first half. |
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OP, fantastic analysis. Did you use ChatGPT? It was professionally done!
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I wish. ChatGPT said it didn’t have access to local lacrosse rankings and to check DCUM for the most up to date information. |
| Nice summaries, as usual. |
| Just scrimmages but Robinson/Riverside tonight and Madison/PVI tomorrow should be interesting. |
| How was Robo game? |
Curious too. I saw it was on NFHS but only with a paid subscription. |
| Ended 6-6. 2-2 after 1, 3-3 at half, 5-4 Robo after 3. Both teams sloppy on the clear. RS fogo dominated posession. Robo D was tough forcing a lot of turnovers. Good test for both squads. |
| Thanks for the update. No surprise Robo is hurting on faceoffs after their top guy transferred. Sounds about as expected with tough and aggressive defense. |
Was curious how this works as also tried to watch on NFHS. Thought most/all high school games were available on NFHS at no charge (do have to have login/password but thought has always been free). Is paid subscription needed just to watch Live Events (versus On Demand later)? Or is everything now requiring paid subscription? |
Battlefield plays Riverside this week as well |
I think FCPS pays for the subscription but Loudoun county does not, so if the game was at a Fairfax County school it would have been free. The Lake Braddock/Yorktown game at Lake Braddock was available for free. |