2019 Men’s College Lacrosse Year In Review: #67 Dartmouth Big Green

With the 2019 college lacrosse season complete, it’s time to look back at how all 73 teams did during the season, along with an early look at each squad for 2020.

Note: These are not end of season rankings.

Here’s our last five Year In Review posts we’ve done:

• #72 St. Bonaventure
• #71 Mercer
• #70 NJIT
• #69 Wagner
• #68 Binghamton

To see all of our posts, check out the 2019 Year In Review section on the site.

Let’s continue our 2019 Year In Review!

#67 Dartmouth Big Green

Conference: Ivy League
2019 Record: 2-11 (0-6 in Ivy League)
Head coach: Brendan Callahan (5th Season)

Statistical Leaders

Goals: Ben Martin (27)
Assists: Ben Martin (15)
Points: Ben Martin (42)
Faceoffs: Kiernan Gunn (62-of-167; 37.1%)
Ground balls: Daniel Hincks (39)
Caused turnovers: Peter Rizzotti (27)
Goals against average: Daniel Hincks (12.51 GAA)
Save percentage: Daniel Hincks (53.4%)

Personnel Losses

Key seniors departing: FOGO Tucker Brown (38.1% FOs), D Austin Meacham (14 CTs, 39 GBs, 35.7% FOs, 1 G in 2018)
Senior scoring departing: 0 of 156 points (0%)
Senior starts lost: 1 of 130 (0.8%)

Season Summary

It was yet another tough season for Dartmouth lacrosse, registering a 2-11 mark for the third consecutive year. It feels like a generation ago the team went 5-8 in 2015 before going to 1-13 in 2016.

For this year, the Big Green once again had some wins, some close losses, and some big defeats. They didn’t win an Ivy League game for the fourth straight season to remain in the bottom of the conference. But there were some signs of promise in a couple of their games, their first and final games of the conference schedule.

The team hosted Harvard in late March to kick off Ivy League play and entered halftime with a 5-4 lead. After a Myles Hamm goal for the Crimson, Dartmouth saw goals from Ben Martin and Matt Paul to take a two-goal lead. But things went downhill from there as Harvard managed to go on a momentum-changing 6-0 run to eventually win by three goals.

A little over a month later in their season finale, the Big Green hosted Brown that started very similar to the Harvard game. Dartmouth entered halftime with a 5-3 lead thanks to a 4-0 run to end the half. But after Mike Connolly scored on the man-up to put the Big Green ahead 6-4, it was all Brown from there as the Bears outscored the Big Green 7-1 in the final 20:43 of the game to take a four-goal win. Those two games were Brown’s closest conference games of the year.

Dartmouth was involved in a couple of other close games outside of the Ivy League. Jack Richardson’s goal early in the fourth quarter against Bryant closed the Bulldog lead to a goal, but could not score in the final 11:23 of the game. And in a very snowy affair against Hartford, the Hawks scored two goals in the final 1:07 to steal a one-goal win on the road.

There are pieces there for the Big Green that can help the program down the line. Six freshman played in over 10 games this season, including defenseman Peter Rizzotti and goalie Daniel Hincks, who was the only first-year to start in at least 10 games. Foster Burnley and Drake Schaffner also played important roles on the defense throughout the season.

Looking Ahead

The really good news for Dartmouth is pretty much everyone comes back. They lose zero points from last season and lose just one start. That should mean progress, or so we hope.

Whereas the Big Green should have a very good outlook on defense with the guys they currently have, there should be some concern on offense. Out of the 14 players that recorded at least a point, nine of them recorded five or fewer. Trevor Ballantyne had 11 points, Harlan Smart had 19, Paul had 29, and George Prince had 30 before getting to Martin’s team-high of 42. It could have been a reason why Dartmouth’s scoring offense was 70th in the nation at 7.77 goals per game.

There’s plenty of work and development needed on the offensive side of the ball. Maybe a player like Henry Stites breaks through for the Big Green. And along with offense, faceoffs will need some work. Kiernan Gunn’s 37.1% from the faceoff X won’t be enough to help Dartmouth steal some games. The pieces have to come together soon in order for the Big Green to earn their first Ivy League conference win since 2015.