2019 Men’s College Lacrosse Year In Review: #31 Stony Brook Seawolves

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:

• #36 Canisius
• #35 Detroit Mercy
• #34 Villanova
• #33 North Carolina
• #32 Mount St. Mary’s

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!

#31 Stony Brook Seawolves

Conference: America East
2019 Record: 9-6 (5-1 in America East)
Postseason: Lost to UMBC in America East Semifinals
Head coach: Jim Nagle (7th Season)

Statistical Leaders

Goals: Tom Haun (34)
Assists: Jack Walsh (22)
Points: Tom Haun (46)
Faceoffs: Nolan Enneguess (99-of-192; 51.6%)
Ground balls: Ryland Rees (40)
Caused turnovers: Ryland Rees (16)
Goals against average: Michael Bollinger (10.97 GAA)
Save percentage: Michael Bollinger (50.9%)

Personnel Losses

Key seniors departing: LSM Ryland Rees (16 CTs, 40 GBs, 39.1% FOs, 4 Gs, 2 As), LSM Justin Pugal (14 CTs, 27 GBs, 33% FOs, 4 Gs, 1 A), FOGO Chris Pedone (47.7% FOs, 14 GBs, 3 CTs), M Owen Daly (5 Gs, 3 As, 5 GBs)
Senior scoring departing: 20 of 241 points (8.3%)
Senior starts lost: 28 of 150 (18.7%)

Season Summary

The America East wasn’t all Albany in 2019. In fact, the Great Danes weren’t the dominant team in the conference for the first time in a long time. The fight to the top featured a handful of teams, but Stony Brook came out on top in the regular season.

The Seawolves began the season winning two of their first three games with close victories over Brown and Hofstra. But the team’s next two games against Marist and Sacred Heart were tough defeats. Stony Brook was even in three quarters of scoring with the Red Foxes except in the third quarter when Marist scored all five goals as part of a 6-0 run. And against the Pioneers, the Seawolves had a one-goal lead late before Sacred Heart tied it with 36 seconds left and won it in overtime. They did rebound with a one-goal win against Bryant thanks to a Chris Pickel goal with 16 seconds left in regulation.

America East play began with the team’s third straight one-goal game, a loss against Hartford. But that would be the team’s lone loss in conference play in the regular season as the team took care of UMBC and Binghamton before holding on for a one-goal win over St. John’s. After getting dominated by Princeton, Stony Brook finished the regular season with three challenging conference games. It began with the Seawolves going on a 3-0 run to end their game against UMass Lowell after allowing the River Hawks to make a comeback in the final quarter. The following week, Stony Brook overcame a 7-1 first half deficit and scored nine of the final 11 goals to get a big win over Vermont. And to cap things off, the Seawolves held off an Albany second half rally to take the regular season conference title and the right to host the conference tournament.

This looked like it would be Stony Brook’s year to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012. But UMBC, the fourth seed that got in on the last day of the season, had other plans and had a lot of momentum on their side, taking an 8-1 lead at halftime and upsetting the top-seeded Seawolves 14-8. Stony Brook’s season once again ended early.

Tom Haun was the team’s top offensive player in 2019 with 46 points. Jack Walsh, Layton Harrell, and Patrick Kaschalk usually accompanying him at attack. Chris Pickel was second on the team with 27 points, 23 of them goals, and was the number one option up top at midfield. Mike McCannell, Connor Grippe, Cory VanGinhoven, and Owen Daly also played big roles at the position.

Stony Brook’s top two defenders were their senior LSMs, Justin Pugal and Ryland Rees. Rees was named the America East Defensive Player of the Year, the first Stony Brook player to receive that honor. Along with being stingy defenders at LSM and sometimes close, both of them took a hand full of faceoffs and even racked up a few points along the way. Danny Cassidy and CJ Trenkle were the two primary starters on close defense with Devin O’Leary also getting time as a pole. Tom Dugan, Harrison Matsuoka, Jimmy Morrell, and David Estrella were the primary short stick defenders. Five players took at least 15 faceoffs with Nolan Enneguess taking the most at 192. Chris Pedone was next with 88 for a unit that went 49.3% from the X. Michael Bollinger once again started in goal and has been the starter at Stony Brook for all three of his seasons.

Looking Ahead

After the season ended, the Seawolves parted ways with Nagle as head coach and hired former Towson assistant Anthony Gilardi as their next boss. He recently completed his new coaching staff with Mike Chanenchuk and J.P. Brazel as assistants. Both assistants faced Stony Brook last season with their respective teams, Sacred Heart and Hofstra.

Gilardi inherits a lot of returning players, especially on offense. Seven of the team’s top eight scorers all of whom scored over 10 points, return for another season. Walsh has transferred to Sacred Heart. Wayne White, a midfield starter who played in only one game last season, also returns.

The defense loses their two top guys in Pugal and Rees, so finding LSMs will be big come the fall. So will a primary faceoff man as Enneguess transferred to UMass over the summer. Rising sophomore Austin Deskewicz is the team’s top returning draw specialist, going 24-of-36 (66.7%) in five games in 2019. Tristan Dowd is another returning option.

Expect the Seawolves to once again compete for an America East title, and it would not surprise many people if they were pegged as preseason favorites.