Season Review: Men's Lacrosse showed promise with strong start to 2020 campaign
By Tim Glon
ADA — Six games into the 2020 season, Ohio Northern men's lacrosse head coach Nat St. Laurent saw his team respond very well to the most difficult schedule in the program's five-year history.
The Polar Bears were off to a 4-2 start, which included an 8-6 victory over Southern Virginia and a 10-9 win at Centre (Ky.), two teams that received votes in the national poll, a 9-5 win over Elmhurst (Ill.) and an 18-9 win over Alma (Mich.)
Northern was also competitive in a 13-7 loss at Sweet 16 team Rhodes (Tenn.) and an 11-4 loss at Nazareth (N.Y.), a program that has won three national titles in its history.
"I felt like something special was starting to happen," St. Laurent said. "We played a very difficult schedule and had a 4-2 record. We showed growth early in the season. Nazareth put it to us, but looking at the film afterwards, we were very competitive in the second half. I was excited to see how we would respond when the league schedule started."
The Ohio Athletic Conference and the NCAA canceled the season on March 12 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The OAC did not give out All-Conference awards due to the abbreviated season, but seven Polar Bears received Academic All-Conference accolades.
Seniors Tristan Hancock (Carthage, N.Y.), Cameron Marous (Brecksville/Brecksville-Bradview Heights) and John Mullin, junior Joe O'Connell (Fishers, Ind.) and sophomores Brian Dalidowicz (Dayton/Alter), Joshua Foster (Fishers, Ind./Heritage Christian) and Joe Wasik (Columbus/Worthington Kilbourne) all received the award.
Freshman Cole Zaferakis (Liverpool, N.Y.) was named to the InsideLacrosse.com All-Freshman team as the nation's top freshman goalkeeper.
In six games this season, Zaferakis had 88 saves, a 9.01 GAA and an amazing 63.3 percent save percentage.
He made his collegiate debut in style, stopping a school record 17 shots as the Polar Bears defeated Southern Virginia. He followed that up by breaking his own record with 19 saves in a win over Elmhurst the next day.
In those first two two games, the freshman stopped 36 of 47 shots on goal, an impressive save percentage of .766.
O'Connell led the team with 15 goals and 16 points and Marous was second with nine goals, 14 points and a team-best five assists.
Senior Javon Smith (Baltimore, Md.) led the squad with 21 ground balls and six caused turnovers.
In the face-off circle, junior Preston Victory was 33-of-66 and senior Chris DiMarco was 29-of-53 to lead ONU.
The NCAA has allowed all spring sports student/athletes a fifth season of eligibility, opening the door for any or all of ONU's 10 seniors to return next season.
"Every coach in America was disappointed in how the season ended," St. Laurent said. "Our senior leadership was outstanding and our young players were getting up to the speed of the collegiate game quickly. I loved the work ethic and effort from our team and am very excited about what 2021 will bring."