2023 Boys HS lacrosse outlook

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prep lost their best LSM and Face-Off guy, they will be hard to replace. Prep does have 2 of the best attackmen in the area and a bunch of other excellent players, but it will be interesting to see how they perform without winning 75%+ of all the face-offs.

I think Prep takes a dip and will come in 3rd this year-behind Bullis and St Albans.

SJC, Gonzaga, DeMatha and Paul VI will be a good battle with SJC holding a slight edge to win WCAC

Prep replaced the old LSM during the IAC Championship last spring. The new starting LSM is good and committed to Notre Dame. They will be fine and might actually play better as a team. They have the talent and depth, it’s now up to the coach and captains to bring them together as a team.

The kids playing as a team is not the problem at Prep. The issue in the games they lost was the ability to score goals versus good teams. Look at it - 6 goals against St. John’s, 2 against St. Mary’s, 5 against Landon, 7 against Bullis, and 4 against Loyola in an overtime win. It is really hard to win games now scoring 5-7 goals. Prep also had the ball most of the time with their incredible Faceoff guy and had a lot of talent on attack. Something is off with their offense as those same kids score a ton for their club teams. Hopefully they try something new.

Agree Prep is not perfect and may have some coaching issues as their depth of talent beats out all other DMV schools, but to claim their issue is not scoring enough goals against good schools and then listing the examples above is twisting the truth. Besides the scrimmage against SJC and their first real game of the year against St. Mary's when they had a largely new and young team after loosing 13 or 14 seniors, the remaining games you mentioned were games they lost by one point. Meaning both teams scored low and games were largely a defensive battle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. Bullis
2. SJC
3. Prep
4. Albans
5. DeMatha
6. Gonzaga
7. Landon
8. PVI
9. Heights
10. SSSAS


Bullis undoubedtly the top team in the area, SJC can play them close. Prep top 2 attack are hard to handle. Albans turns some heads. Dave leads an admirable 2nd season at DeMatha. Gonzaga + Landon struggle. PVI poorly coached. Heights finally has the talent to cause some impact. SSSAS weak as theyve been for years!

Heights was better last year Albans is way too high. SSSAS is down this year.

All of this wrong.

Guess we'll start finding out in a month at NHSLS but SSSAS will be much better than people think. Definitely not StJ, but ahead of Landon and StA. IAC will still be a fight between Bullis and Prep. GZ will be down too, as we saw what last year's reliance on 1 or 2 good players does to a team when they go down. PVI v StJ for the WCAC, and Heights will surprise people with their athletes who are probably a year away.

How many guys did Heights graduate? I know they lost their goalie who was 1st team WCAC, but past that...?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prep lost their best LSM and Face-Off guy, they will be hard to replace. Prep does have 2 of the best attackmen in the area and a bunch of other excellent players, but it will be interesting to see how they perform without winning 75%+ of all the face-offs.

I think Prep takes a dip and will come in 3rd this year-behind Bullis and St Albans.

SJC, Gonzaga, DeMatha and Paul VI will be a good battle with SJC holding a slight edge to win WCAC

Prep replaced the old LSM during the IAC Championship last spring. The new starting LSM is good and committed to Notre Dame. They will be fine and might actually play better as a team. They have the talent and depth, it’s now up to the coach and captains to bring them together as a team.

The kids playing as a team is not the problem at Prep. The issue in the games they lost was the ability to score goals versus good teams. Look at it - 6 goals against St. John’s, 2 against St. Mary’s, 5 against Landon, 7 against Bullis, and 4 against Loyola in an overtime win. It is really hard to win games now scoring 5-7 goals. Prep also had the ball most of the time with their incredible Faceoff guy and had a lot of talent on attack. Something is off with their offense as those same kids score a ton for their club teams. Hopefully they try something new.

Agree Prep is not perfect and may have some coaching issues as their depth of talent beats out all other DMV schools, but to claim their issue is not scoring enough goals against good schools and then listing the examples above is twisting the truth. Besides the scrimmage against SJC and their first real game of the year against St. Mary's when they had a largely new and young team after loosing 13 or 14 seniors, the remaining games you mentioned were games they lost by one point. Meaning both teams scored low and games were largely a defensive battle.

Scrimmage against St. John’s?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prep lost their best LSM and Face-Off guy, they will be hard to replace. Prep does have 2 of the best attackmen in the area and a bunch of other excellent players, but it will be interesting to see how they perform without winning 75%+ of all the face-offs.

I think Prep takes a dip and will come in 3rd this year-behind Bullis and St Albans.

SJC, Gonzaga, DeMatha and Paul VI will be a good battle with SJC holding a slight edge to win WCAC

Prep replaced the old LSM during the IAC Championship last spring. The new starting LSM is good and committed to Notre Dame. They will be fine and might actually play better as a team. They have the talent and depth, it’s now up to the coach and captains to bring them together as a team.

The kids playing as a team is not the problem at Prep. The issue in the games they lost was the ability to score goals versus good teams. Look at it - 6 goals against St. John’s, 2 against St. Mary’s, 5 against Landon, 7 against Bullis, and 4 against Loyola in an overtime win. It is really hard to win games now scoring 5-7 goals. Prep also had the ball most of the time with their incredible Faceoff guy and had a lot of talent on attack. Something is off with their offense as those same kids score a ton for their club teams. Hopefully they try something new.

Agree Prep is not perfect and may have some coaching issues as their depth of talent beats out all other DMV schools, but to claim their issue is not scoring enough goals against good schools and then listing the examples above is twisting the truth. Besides the scrimmage against SJC and their first real game of the year against St. Mary's when they had a largely new and young team after loosing 13 or 14 seniors, the remaining games you mentioned were games they lost by one point. Meaning both teams scored low and games were largely a defensive battle.

Scrimmage against St. John’s?

Maybe it was a first game vs a scrimmage. Whatever, that’s not the point.

[Anonymous]

Bullis 13 Prep 8

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bullis 13 Prep 8

Huh? This from last season

[Anonymous]

The criticism was that Prep had trouble scoring in 2022, not winning. Losing low scoring games still reflects a team having trouble scoring. The poster’s point is valid. For all of Prep’s supposed firepower, goal production was anemic. And that was with a possession advantage they won’t enjoy this year.

And most of the “6” goals against St John’s came against backup goalie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The criticism was that Prep had trouble scoring in 2022, not winning. Losing low scoring games still reflects a team having trouble scoring. The poster’s point is valid. For all of Prep’s supposed firepower, goal production was anemic. And that was with a possession advantage they won’t enjoy this year.

And most of the “6” goals against St John’s came against backup goalie.

I think Prep has another FOGO transfer in from Richmond for his junior year... not sure how good he is but the FOGO from last year was probably the best in the nation.

Given how much time of possession Prep had in their favor last season, their offense should have been able to put up more points.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The criticism was that Prep had trouble scoring in 2022, not winning. Losing low scoring games still reflects a team having trouble scoring. The poster’s point is valid. For all of Prep’s supposed firepower, goal production was anemic. And that was with a possession advantage they won’t enjoy this year.

And most of the “6” goals against St John’s came against backup goalie.

I think Prep has another FOGO transfer in from Richmond for his junior year... not sure how good he is but the FOGO from last year was probably the best in the nation.

Given how much time of possession Prep had in their favor last season, their offense should have been able to put up more points.

Isn't the Prep issue more that the coaches want the offense run through their O-Mids and not their Attack? Seems like that is where much of the problem stems from.

[Anonymous]

Prep's offense over the years seems to initiate from the midfielders, but with the attackman they currently have, that may change.

[Anonymous]

This needs to be on the front page.

[Anonymous]

What teams will make the biggest gaps from last year and/or pull off some big upsets?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What teams will make the biggest gaps from last year and/or pull off some big upsets?

St Albans.

I truly believe this is the year they actually make a run in the IAC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What teams will make the biggest gaps from last year and/or pull off some big upsets?

St Albans.

I truly believe this is the year they actually make a run in the IAC.

Did someone answer their own questions? The STA hype machine in full effect.

[Anonymous]

STA's starters can run with any team in the area (including Bullis and SJC).

The Bulldogs lack depth and historically all it takes is 1 - 2 injuries in a season to rerail the positive momentum.

My sleeper pick in the WCAC will be the Heights. I do think this is finally the year, they crack the top 4 of the WCAC. They won't win the league but I think they are going to surprise a lot of area teams this spring.