2019 Men’s College Lacrosse Year In Review: #44 Ohio State Buckeyes

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:

• #49 Siena
• #48 Navy
• #47 Saint Joseph’s
• #46 Princeton
• #45 Cleveland State

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!

#44 Ohio State Buckeyes

Conference: Big Ten
2019 Record: 8-4 (1-4 in Big Ten)
Head coach: Nick Myers (11th Season)

Statistical Leaders

Goals: Tre Leclaire (34)
Assists: Jack Myers (20)
Points: Tre Leclaire, Jackson Reid, and Jack Myers (37)
Faceoffs: Justin Inacio (181-of-284; 63.7%)
Ground balls: Justin Inacio (120)
Caused turnovers: Matt Borges (16)
Goals against average: Josh Kirson (10.56 GAA)
Save percentage: Josh Kirson (50.2%)

Personnel Losses

Key seniors departing: D Matt Borges (16 CTs, 35 GBs), M Jack Jasinski (21 Gs, 11 As, 14 GBs), SSDM Logan Maccani (1 CT, 12 GBs, 2 As)
Senior scoring departing: 34 of 212 points (16%)
Senior starts lost: 24 of 120 (20%)

Season Summary

You could not have wanted a better start to the season for Ohio State. The Buckeyes finished nonconference play at 7-0, and the first time the team finished undefeated in games outside their conference. Wins included Boston University, UMass, Marquette, and Notre Dame in a thrilling overtime finish. That also gave Nick Myers his 100th career victory, the only Ohio State coach to reach that mark.

They originally had eight games on their schedule, with the game against Denver being postponed as the Pioneers were unable to fly out of Denver due to the bomb cyclone in the area. Not playing that game may have hurt the team later on in the season.

The Buckeyes looked solid entering Big Ten play with their undefeated mark. But Big Ten play is always competitive from the top to bottom. And Ohio State was a victim of that competitiveness with a surprise loss to Rutgers before falling to top-ranked Penn State. Needing a win, the Buckeyes used a big second half comeback to defeat Johns Hopkins on the road by a goal for their first ever away victory over the Blue Jays.

The team hoped that comeback would help fuel them to another win over Maryland after back-to-back seasons with victories over the Terrapins. Yet again, the Buckeyes mounted a second half comeback to take a one-goal lead late in the fourth. But the Terps found the back of the net with 23 seconds left in regulation to tie the game before a controversial Jared Bernhardt dive goal gave Maryland the win, and perhaps ended Ohio State’s chances of reaching the postseason. The team’s season came to a brutal end, losing to archrival Michigan for the first time in program history without leading scorer Tre Leclaire. After the highest of highs against Notre Dame, this was the team’s lowest of lows on the year.

Leclaire, Jackson Reid, and freshman Jack Myers each finished with a team-high 37 points. Leclaire reached the 100 career goal mark during his junior season, while Myers’ team-high 20 assists were the most by a freshman since Logan Schuss’ 25 in 2010. Senior Jack Jasinski also reached the 30-point mark with 32. Colby Smith and Lukas Buckley reached over 10 points as well.

Defensively, Matt Borges was the only Buckeye with double-digit turnovers at 16, more than double that of Jeff Henrick’s seven. Freshman Buchanan Dunavant started the team’s first three games of the season before completely going away from the team. Junior Joey Salisbury started eight of the team’s 12 games as the third defenseman. Ryan Terefenko and Logan Maccani were the two primary SSDMs with Evan Riss as the main LSMs that helped protect Josh Kirson in goal. Justin Inacio was the Big Ten’s co-Specialist of the Year after going 63.7% from the faceoff X.

Looking Ahead

2020 should have some high expectations for the Buckeyes, who don’t lose a lot from a year ago. Jasinski, Borges, and Maccani are their three main losses, but they should not be hard to fill.

On the offense, look for Johnny Wiseman, Nick Musci, JT Bugliosi, and Colby Barker to take steps forward. Wiseman’s three goals and one assist against Johns Hopkins saw what his potential could be for the Buckeyes at midfield.

With Borges gone, Caleb Maloney or Jed Manning are players that could fill that third spot, while Omari DeBerry began to be a regular contributor as a shortie in his sophomore season. If Ohio State can play a solid 60 minutes for the entire regular season and postseason, there’s no doubt they will be able to return to Championship Weekend for the second time under Myers.