2019 Men’s College Lacrosse Year In Review: #55 Fairfield Stags

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:

• #60 VMI
• #59 Michigan
• #58 Colgate
• #57 Monmouth
• #56 Utah

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!

#55 Fairfield Stags

Conference: CAA
2019 Record: 5-9 (0-5 in CAA)
Head coach: Andy Copelan (11th Season)

Statistical Leaders

Goals: Dylan Beckwith (28)
Assists: Dylan Beckwith (37)
Points: Dylan Beckwith (65)
Faceoffs: Frankie Labetti (114-of-214; 53.3%)
Ground balls: Frankie Labetti (74)
Caused turnovers: George Elmquist (22)
Goals against average: James Corasaniti (12.50 GAA)
Save percentage: James Corasaniti (47.3%)

Personnel Losses

Key seniors departing: M Jack Brennan (15 Gs, 2 As, 5 GBs), A Brendan Quinn (4 Gs, 10 As, 4 GBs), FOGO Liam Lynch (43.7% FOs, 19 GBs), SSDM Adam Riestis (2 CTs, 14 GBs), SSDM Samuel Murphy (3 CTs, 12 GBs), M Matt Sharpe (3 Gs, 2 As, 3 GBs)
Senior scoring departing: 38 of 242 points (15.7%)
Senior starts lost: 20 of 140 (14.3%)

Season Summary

Since losing to Towson in the 2016 CAA Championship, Fairfield has yet to return back to the CAA Tournament. And despite entering conference play with a 5-4 record, the Stags failed to record a conference win for the first time ever since they were in a conference (beginning in 1996).

Fairfield alternated between a loss and a win for the first six games of the season without any notable results outside of a 21-10 loss to Saint Joseph’s in the season opener. The overtime victory over Bryant was the start of a three-game winning streak for the Stags, one that included another overtime victory, this time against Utah, and a win over NJIT. Their nonconference finale against Villanova started out strong with Fairfield leading 8-6 with 3:45 left in the third quarter. But the Wildcats scored the game’s final six goals en route to a four-goal victory.

The CAA was going to be very competitive, and it sure was which hurt the Stags in the end. They lost their first four conference games (Delaware, Towson, Drexel, and UMass) by at least seven goals, thus being eliminated from the conference tournament as they took on Hofstra in their season finale. In a back-and-forth game, Fairfield took a one-goal lead with 5:29 left in the game, but the Pride scored three goals late to get a two-goal win.

There were some good things that happened this season as well. Dylan Beckwith recorded 65 points, good for the fourth-most in a season and the highest since Spencer Steele recorded a program-best 75 in 1999. Beckwith’s 37 assists set a Fairfield single-season record.

Beckwith was joined by Taylor Strough, Patrick Drake, and Travis Ford as Stags with at least 30 points, the first time that’s happened since 2015. Freshman Brian Reda recorded 19 points in his first season of college lacrosse.

A fairly young defense was spearheaded by sophomore George Elmquist and his team-high 22 caused turnovers. Freshman James Corasaniti started 12 games in goal and recorded a 12.50 goals against average.

Looking Ahead

The biggest change to the Stags in 2020 will be head coach. Andy Copelan stepped down earlier in the summer to take another job elsewhere. In comes former Yale defensive coordinator Andrew Baxter to lead the team into the next decade, and he has a lot to work with.

Beckwith, Strough, Drake, Ford, and Reda all come back on offense, along with Cole Barnard, Kyle Borda, and Brian Crawley.

Elmquist, Jake Tymon, Brain Cosgrove, Sean Sweeney, Andrew Murrow, and Jack Kornutik all started at least a game at close defense last season and will all be back, as will LSM Lucas Pedersen and SSDMs Tyler Wuchte, Brendan Dwyer, and Zane Friedt. Corasaniti will be back in goal, and FOGO Frankie Labetti should see more draws. If not, Will Kirshner is another option at the faceoff X.

With the disappointment of last season behind them, look for a new-look Fairfield team come 2020.