Knights Men's Lacrosse Season Recap
Rosedale, Md. -- The Knights ended the season with 235 goals scored this season, which ranked fourth in the nation. Their 18.08 goals per game average ranked third.
A huge part of this success was Kollin Vaught (Central York).
Saying that he set the tone for the Knights' offense is an understatement.
The freshman specialist led the nation, winning 81.3% of his face-offs. Vaught had two perfect games at the "X" and two more of 90 percent or more.
Vaught was named NJCAA Men's Lacrosse Player of the Week (April 22-28) after winning 44-of-53 face-offs against Howard Community College and Suffolk County. He also collected 29 ground balls off those face-offs.
He also finished the season with 10 goals and four assists, on his way to being named first team All-Maryland Juco and All-Region XX, and is all but a shoe-in to be an NJCAA All-American.
Vaught set the table and scorers like T.J. Ross (Central York), Kyle Guenther (Patriot) and Mitchell Foard (Archbishop Curley) ate hardily.
Ross led the team with 40 goals and 26 assists (66 points), tallying multiple goals in eight of the 11 games he played.
The sophomore scored seven goals and had six assists to open the season against nationally ranked Mercer County. He was rewarded with NJCAA Men's Lacrosse Player of the Week (February 25-March 3) honors for his effort. On April 6, he scored a season-high eight goals and had three helpers against Potomac State.
Ross earned All-Maryland Juco First Team and All-Region XX Honorable Mentions honors.
Guenther finished with 30 goals and 17 assists this season. He played in all 13 of the Knights' games and had multiple goals in seven.
He scored a career-high six goals in the opener against Mercer and followed that up with five goals a week later against Genesee. Guenther earned All-Maryland Juco Second Team and All-Region XX Honorable Mentions honors.
Foard finished third on the team with 27 goals and 13 assists. In 13 games played, he had six multi-goal performances, including his career-high six on March 19 against College of Southern Maryland.
Sophomore Greg Johanning (Tiverton) and freshman Noah Park (Westminster) had 15 and 14 goals scored, respectively.
Johanning was limited to seven games played due to injury, but collected double-digit goals in four games. The Knights were 4-3 with him in the line-up and 3-1 when he scored multiple times.
Park had five multi-goal games, including two hat tricks. Essex went 4-2 when Park scored two or more goals.
The Other Side of the Field
The Knights allowed 147 goals (11.3/game), which ranked tied for ninth in the nation.
Coming into the season, sophomore transfer Travis Pereira (Tiverton) was expected to be the starting net minder. Unfortunately, Pereira played in just seven games due to injuries.
He still posted a 9.52 goals against average and had 45 saves in 239:27 played.
In Pereira's absence, freshman Dillon Fahey was thrust into action. The Parkville graduate was the unsung hero on defense, posting a 12.44 goals against average, in nearly 526 minutes played, and had 99 saves.
His best performance of the regular season came on March 30 at Anne Arundel. While the Knights would ultimately lose the game 13-9 against the Riverhawks, Fahey did his part, registering 15 saves on 51 total shots.
Just one week prior, Fahey made 14 saves in a 30-3 shellacking of Finger Lakes.
Noah Stecher (Calvert Hall) and Austin Evans (North County) were important two-way players for the Knights.
As defensive midfielders, the pair "played most of the games in between the lines, and still had as much offensive production as our other midfielders," King said.
Stetcher finished the season with 11 goals, nine assists and 47 groundballs, while Evans had 12 goals, 10 assists and 12 groundballs.
King also said that Hunter Privette (Merritt Island) was the team's top "on-ball" defenseman and that Graham Sevy (Towson) was the glue and enforcer.
Privette led the team with seven caused turnovers and had nine groundballs and Sevy had five caused turnovers and 12 ground balls.
Nate Downey (Dallastown Area) and Chris Anderson (Sparrows Point) were key defensive players at long stick midfield for the Knights. The two combined for 11 caused turnovers and 18 ground balls.