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06/29/2016 12:00 AMEven though the Guilford boys’ lacrosse team couldn’t quite get over the postseason hump and advance further than it did in recent years, the Indians still had a season that they can look back on with pride by once again playing for the conference title, while taking on some of the stiffest competition in the state.
Head Coach Brian White’s Indians notched a 12-4 record for the regular season, earning the No. 2 seeds in both the SCC Tournament and the Class M State Tournament. Guilford defeated Xavier 13-9 in the SCC semifinals to advance to a championship showdown with Fairfield Prep for the third time in four years and gave the Jesuits a great game in a 12-11 overtime loss. Then in states, defeated Masuk 20-2 in the first round prior to a taking 10-9 OT defeat to New Fairfield in the quarterfinals to finish the year at 14-6 overall.
“In terms of our goals, we try to do the same each year in getting back to the postseason and play our best versus great competition. We were hoping to get past that state quarterfinal hurdle, but we met our goals pretty well,” said Coach White. “This year’s team was a meaningful group. I spent so much time with them watching them grow up through youth lacrosse. It was good to see them progress. This was probably one of the best teams I’ve coached due to their level of commitment to the sport and talent level.”
The 2016 Indians featured a strong trio at the top with their captains in goaltender James Bright, who will play at Division I Manhattan College; attacker Rob LoRicco, who led the team in points with 64 goals and 33 assists; plus defender Nate Tepley.
“James anchored the whole team. He can do so many things on the field and he helped stop gaps on defense at times this season. He’s a talented kid,” White said. “Nate was always called upon to cover the other team’s best player, which he did very well. Rob was great for us this year and was a big-play guy for us.”
Completing a senior class that left an indelible mark on the program’s future were Will Dacey and Korey Carregal on attack, midfielders Tyler Nelson, Nick Porretta, and Stephen Page; defender Jack Jankura, along with Kurtis Castellani, Phil Steinfurth, Christian Despres, Jacob Newman, Aiden Braumann, and Nick Russello.
“This senior class was very talented; one of the best I’ve ever seen. They were extremely helpful to us with a lot of All-State and All-American kids,” said White. “They put in a lot of extra time and, hopefully, the younger kids can see and learn from that.”
In terms of postseason accolades, Guilford garnered plenty. LoRicco was named to the All-American Team, plus he and junior midfielder Shane Molloy made First Team All-State. Bright, Tepley, Loricco, Dacey, Molloy, Jankura, and Page all earned both Second Team All-State and First Team All-SCC honors this season. For team awards, Tepley was named Guilford’s Defensive Most Valuable Player, LoRicco was the Offensive MVP, and Bright was selected as the overall MVP.
The Indians always want to entrench themselves amongst the upper echelon of programs in state and so they only took on the best this spring. That resulted in Guilford facing the fifth-hardest strength of schedule, according to Coach White.
“We just want to be as competitive as we can be each year. We are allowed to have six out-of-conference games and we try to play the best,” said White. “We played teams that were a class above us and we just want to get ourselves ready for better competition.”
Despite parting ways with such a decorated senior class, Guilford will still bring back several strong underclass athletes next year, including Molloy and fellow soon-to-be-seniors Austin Wallace and Evan Hilgert, who will serve as the team captains. Coach White said that if the boys keeping honing their skills by working hard in the offseason, then the Indians will be right back in SCC and state title contention in 2017.
“We are blessed with a strong group of sophomores and juniors. We have more athletes in these classes than I’ve seen in a while,” said White. “Austin tore his ACL this year and missed the season, but he’s a talented kid. Shane really is the heart and soul of our grunt work, as well.”
• Guilford’s dozen regular season victories came against East Lyme (13-5), Branford (14-3), Cheshire (12-10), Amity (11-7), North Haven (6-2), Xavier (11-7), New Fairfield (9-7), Newtown (15-5), Hamden (17-4), Shelton (18-4), Notre Dame-West Haven (13-5), and Barlow (7-6).
• This was Brian White’s 12th season as head coach of the Indians and he was assisted by Scott Davidson, Carl Jeppesen, Jeff Sullivan, and Bob Noonan.