Harford County 2023 boys lacrosse season preview: Teams ready to start season with various levels of experience
Mar. 16—There's no shortage of talent filling Harford County boys lacrosse teams with an abundance of storylines to follow.
Havre de Grace has its fair share of varsity experience despite not having a single senior on the roster. North Harford will field the opposite, leaning heavily on its 12 seniors. Joppatowne has eight players with no competitive lacrosse experience but will be thrown into the fire with its first five games fit into nine days.
Perryville has sky-high expectations. Many of the Panthers' upperclassmen were a part of back-to-back state tournament runs, including senior attackman and Florida Southern verbal commit Vinnie Muscella.
Another high-octane team to follow will be John Carroll. The Patriots graduated what coach Don Reynolds called "arguably the best class in our school's history." Reynolds feels that group set a new standard for its successors as it looks to contend in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference, arguably the toughest conference in the country.
Here's a look around the county:
Aberdeen
Coach: Trent Reynolds, first season
Last season: 8-5, regional semifinalist
Top returners: Seniors Nathan Flatau (M), Phillip Newcomer (G), Lucas Podowski (M) and Max Williams (A); sophomore Chace Allen (M).
Newcomers to watch: Senior Carter Bearinger (D); junior Chris Eichhammer (M); sophomore Elijah Gugliuzza (M).
Coach's outlook: "We are a small team in numbers but we will play like we as a team. I think we will make amazing strides this season to become one of the biggest threats in the county. Expect a high level of play and excitement."
Bel Air
Coach: Doug Testerman, seventh season
Last season: 5-9, regional semifinalist
Top returners: Seniors Tyler Davis (M), Will Entner (G), Wyatt Gesner (D), Manny Lucas (M), Dylan Foughty (A) and Nick Sorrells (M); juniors Owen Conway (D) and Devin Trzeciak (A); sophomores Ben Gaughan (D), Eli Hodgson (M) and Grant Smith (M).
Newcomers to watch: Seniors Joey Mastromanolis (A) and Gavin Harris (D); juniors Zach Kropkowski (D), Carter Muneses (M), Jonathan Vanegas (A), Brady Warble (M) and Holden Colt (D); sophomores Gus Anastasi (M) and Tyler Maxwell (G).
Coach's outlook: "We will lean on our seniors to lead a young core of players. A more mature team hoping to succeed with a difficult county schedule."
C. Milton Wright
Coach: Andy LeBrun, first season
Last season: 9-5 regular season, regional quarterfinalist
Top returners: Seniors Hudson Welsh (M) and Cody Mattox (A); juniors Hayden Goscinski (D) and Brandon Stepp (D); sophomore Dylan Sander (M).
Newcomers to watch: Sophomores Kyle Ashman (M), Gavin Morris (M) and Zachary Curry (G).
Coach's outlook: "A young team with great senior leadership, skilled on all phases, and a program that won't quit."
Edgewood
Coach: Rick Burton, eighth season
Last season: 6-6
Top returners: Seniors Demetrius Davis (G), Aaron Dykes (M), Jaiden Woodyard (A), Ayden Dykes (A), Evan Hax (A) and Tyrone Jones (M); sophomore Matthew Chambers (D)
Newcomers to watch: Freshman Jarrod Burton (D)
Coach's outlook: "We have a solid group of young men that are hungry and looking to make a few upsets while also crushing some dreams."
Fallston
Coach: Patrick Mull, third season
Last season: 15-4, state finalists
Top returners: Seniors Aiden Dixon (M), Lucas Hurlburt (M), Michael Carter (M) and Quinn McLaughlin (A); juniors Jacob MacMillan (A), Owen Karantonis (D), Gage McKenna (M), Joey Bolesta (D) and Landon Mills (G).
Newcomers to watch: Sophomores Ian Swartzendruber (M) and Owen King (D).
Coach's outlook: "We return quite a few starters from last year's state finalist team and are excited to get started again. We lost a tremendous senior class from last year and we will miss their leadership and experience and the void they left behind will need to be filled by some guys coming up that will need to step up if we're going to have similar success to the past few seasons. Our schedule is competitive and challenging again and we will need to prepare ourselves well."
Harford Tech
Coach: Kyle Funk, first season
Last season: 6-8, regional semifinalist
Top returners: Seniors Ryan Buchler (D) and Shane Eckman (D); junior Xaiver Gasdias (A).
Newcomer to watch: Sophomore Rory Jenkins (G).
Coach's outlook: "We are seasoned in the defensive category with some solid players returning. With a full season with this team, I think you'll see some more productivity out of our offense. Just excited to be coaching again and looking forward to the season."
Havre de Grace
Coach: Jason Bellamy, fourth season
Last season: 9-6, regional semifinalist
Top returners: Juniors Cole Bravo (M),Wyatt Molyneux (M), Alec Whipkey (M), Eli Teefy (D), Kyle Sullivan (D), Gavin Zellman (D) and Liam Whitehead (G); sophomores Chase Zellman (A) and Cameron Grant, (D).
Newcomers to watch: Junior Tyler Vandarwarka (A); freshmen Garrett Gladfelter (A), Mason Shevenell (M) and Logan Rogers (M).
Coach's outlook: "We are excited about coaching this group of young men. We have no seniors and no JV so we fill the varsity roster with 9-11 graders. Many of our juniors have been in the program, battling through as youngsters on varsity, playing significant minutes for a couple years, so we are excited about their experience, athleticism and lacrosse IQ.
"We are eager to throw our young talented players into the fire to get them experience. They are tough, they are competitors, and they will play significant roles for the team this year. We think we have some ability, we have high-character guys, we have some leaders, and we have competitive guys."
John Carroll
Coach: Don Reynolds, third season
Last season: 5-10
Top returning players: Seniors Josh Schrader (D), Grier Martin (D), Connor Coolahan (G/D), Frankie Smithmyer (M/A), Greg Temple (M), Michael Cox (M) and Banks Clark (M); juniors Dougie Kolb (M), Collin Thomson (A), Ryan Reynolds (D) and Logan Boltz (M); sophomores Drew Jordan (D) and Jackson Harcarik (A).
Newcomers to watch: Sophomore Owen Cheslea (D) and freshman Buster Barger (G)
Coach's outlook: "We are excited for the upcoming season and the opportunity to continue to build this program into a consistently competitive program in the MIAA A Conference. We graduated arguably the best class in our school's history last year with 10 college commits and anticipated the 2023 season being an opportunity to start truly building on the foundation that was laid by our 2021 and 2022 classes. Those classes established a new identity for our program and set a new standard for what it means to be Patriot lacrosse player in all facets of the student-athletes' life.
"From a team perspective, we feel confident in our returning defense and faceoff personnel. On the offensive side of the field, we will be young but aggressive in our style of play. We have made some key additions to our coaching staff in the offseason with the hiring of Braden Wallace, Ian Bohager and Tyrell Demby. Coach Wallace has relocated from Ontario, Canada, and will be leading our offense. Coach Bohager will be working with goalies and as a defensive assistant while Coach Demby will be an offensive assistant and run the box on game days. Recruiting has been strong and we are excited about our future both this season and into the future. We have a vision for this program that will take time, but we are confident in the process that is underway."
Joppatowne
Coach: Steve McElroy, sixth season
Last season: 0-12
Top returners: Seniors Josh Steinmiller (G), Nik Webb (D), Wyatt Smith (D), Isaiah Negron (M) and Lucas Bruns (M); sophomores Jake Steinmiller (M), Justin Craig (M) and Kolton Miller (A).
Newcomers to watch: Juniors James Liu (D) and Mason Webb (D).
Coach's outlook: "We're still a young team; fully half the squad is sophomores and eight players have no competitive lacrosse experience. But we're athletic and picking up the game quickly. Returning players have upped their game and are helping the new guys along, they'll all get exposure quickly with five games in nine days to start the season. We're looking forward to being more competitive this season."
North Harford
Coach: Rich Tabeling, 10th season
Last season: 10-6, regional finalist
Top returners: Seniors Owen Smith (A), Michael Allen (A), Brennan Leonard (M), Cruz Cespedes (M), Kian Pucher (M), Kyle Hoy (M), Wyatt Ralph (M), Mason Fried (M), Colin McDermott (M), Jaskson Beresh (M), Andrew Mohr (G) and Sean Kilduff (G); juniors Preston Webb (M) and Zac Warfield (D).
Newcomers to watch: Junior Blake Howell (G); sophomores Chase Thomas (M) and Caleb Kerr (A).
Coach's outlook: "We graduated a very talented and experienced senior class in 2022. We will look for our seniors to lead us in 2023. We also have some underclassmen motivated to fill key roles and help us compete in MPSSAA Class 2A and the UCBAC."
Patterson Mill
Coach: Ryan Arist, first season
Last season: 7-5, regional semifinalist
Top returners: Seniors Tommy Rohal (M), Fletcher Steinkraus (A), Jake Matson (A) and Josh Shores (D); juniors Drew Pape (M), Matt Bechtel (A), Adam Shefcheck (D) and Woody Wlodarczyk (D).
Newcomers to watch: Senior Albert Ancinec (G); juniors Samir Khalid-Manning (M) and Carson Geghard (M).
Coach's outlook: "I am very excited about taking over the program. We have a core group of returners on offense coming back, so just looking to replace things on the defensive side and a graduating goalie. We are hoping to compete in a challenging conference."
Perryville
Coach: Doug Savick, third season
Last season: 9-3, regional finalist
Top returners: Seniors Vinnie Muscella (A), Kurt Vaughn (D/M), Michael Young (M/A), Evan Beynon (M/A), Trevor David (D) and Anthony Thompson (D/M); juniors Zack Clarke (M/A), Dan Hickling (G), Nick Howes (M), Rowan Gatch (M/A) and Ben Clark (D).
Newcomers to watch: Senior Ty Stiffler (M); freshmen Grayson Ittner (M) and Joey Eggerling (A).
Coach's outlook: "The Panthers have won the regionals two years in a row. Most of this year's juniors and seniors were a part of these accomplishments. With this experience returning this year, the Panthers intend to go much deeper into the playoffs."
