2019 Men’s College Lacrosse Year In Review: #61 St. John’s Red Storm

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:

• #66 Bryant
• #65 Bellarmine
• #64 Lafayette
• #63 Hartford
• #62 Furman

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!

#61 St. John’s Red Storm

Conference: Big East
2019 Record: 4-10 (0-5 in Big East)
Head coach: Jason Miller (13th Season)

Statistical Leaders

Goals: Joe Madsen (33)
Assists: Mike Madsen (22)
Points: Mike Madsen (47)
Faceoffs: Colin Bosak (89-of-194; 45.9%)
Ground balls: Luke Roediger (54)
Caused turnovers: Pat Smyth (17)
Goals against average: Brody Agres (12.84 GAA)
Save percentage: Brody Agres (48.7%)

Personnel Losses

Key seniors departing: M Declan Swartwood (26 Gs, 9 As, 17 GBs, 1 CT), LSM Luke Roediger (13 CTs, 54 GBs, 34.8% FOs, 1 G, 3 As), A Colin Duffy (25 Gs, 4 As, 22 GBs, 3 CTs), D Aidan Marron (10 CTs, 16 GBs, 1 G), M Chris Buscemi (7 Gs, 10 As, 7 GBs)
Senior scoring departing: 91 of 241 points (37.8%)
Senior starts lost: 56 of 140 (40%)

Season Summary

2019 saw a small dip in record from a 6-8 mark in 2018 to 4-10 this year. But the Red Storm also failed to win a Big East conference game for the third consecutive season.

Yet despite the small decrease in wins, the Red Storm competed very well in many games this season. Their highlight game was an upset win over ranked High Point, who may have been a cause for why the Panthers did not make the NCAA Tournament. But they did have some struggles throughout the year. Against Long Island opponents Hofstra and Stony Brook, St. John’s had leads in the third quarter before allowing the Pride and Seawolves to go on a scoring run to take the lead. The Red Storm stopped those runs in the fourth with a goal, but could never find a way to score again in defeats. In Big East play, St. John’s also lost in overtime to Providence and played hard in losses to Denver and Georgetown, while allowing an 8-0 run to Marquette in their four-goal loss to the Golden Eagles.

There were also some new players that made impacts for the team. Along with Joe and Mike Madsen, redshirt freshman Jonathan Huber scored 21 goals, one of five players who registered at least 20 tallies in 2019. Junior midfielder Matt Oehl dished out 11 assists and added a pair of goals as well. Junior Ryan Schaeffer and freshman Matt Duncan contributed in a small way at midfield.

Similar to the offense, the defense was filled with plenty of upperclassmen led by senior Aidan Marron and juniors Pat Smyth and Tim Kiel at close defense and started all 14 games this past season. LSM Luke Roediger was also a senior and led the team with 54 ground balls, while Kyle McBride and Stephen Sammartino were depth options. At short stick, Matt Stockfeder was the experienced leader as a junior and was joined alongside freshmen Matt Duncan and Dylan Willis. True freshman Brody Agres started all 14 games in goal and registered a 12.84 goals against average in his first year.

Looking Ahead

Having some young guys making immediate impacts definitely helps St. John’s as well roll into the next decade. Huber, Ages, and Duncan will certainly be looked upon to improve on their rookie performances.

But the Red Storm do have to find some new contributors on offense. Half of their starting six depart and both Madsen brothers are going to be seniors. Oehl and Schaeffer were the only other players to registered more than five points. Jason Miller’s crew will need some more guys, perhaps even more incoming freshmen, to step up immediately.

Smyth and Kiel will also be rising seniors on defense. McBride might be a possibility to fill in that third defenseman spot protecting Agres in goal. Colin Bosak and Joseph Fitzpatrick return as the team’s top faceoff takers with over a 45% faceoff win rate.

The biggest goal for St. John’s is to win a Big East conference game in 2020 and get that monkey off their backs. They also need to find a way to claim themselves as the best team on Long Island (technically they’re on the island but Long Island consists of Nassau and Suffolk counties). They don’t want to be leapfrogged by incoming program LIU next year.