Harford Community College men’s lacrosse enters the NJCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championship in dominant fashion as it seeks a third straight national championship.
The Fighting Owls will face Onondaga Community College (Syracuse, N.Y.) in the semifinals in Bel Air on May 10 at 1 p.m. HCC beat Onondaga, 21-11, during the regular season. The winner of the May 10 matchup will face the CCBC Essex-Nassau Community College winner a day later.
The Fighting Owls enter the Onondaga contest at 12-0. HCC has outscored opponents, 258-97, on the season.
“We have a really talented team and probably the deepest team I’d say we’ve had,” HCC head coach Aaron Verardi said on Glenn Clark Radio May 7. “That means we can run more guys. I think we tire people out, to be honest with you. We have a lot of guys that are in good shape and they’re good players. It’s a really talented group that [doesn’t] really slow down. If you look at a lot of our games, the fourth quarter is usually our best quarter. We’d like to get to a point where every quarter is as good as the fourth quarter. That’s what kind of keeps us going and motivates us.”
Three returners from last year’s squad have scored 30-plus goals: sophomores Liam Forsyth (56), Kohl Wesner (41) and Kennedy Opie (31), though Opie redshirted a year ago. Returners are helping on the other side of the field as well, with sophomores Carson Crawford (43 ground balls, 13 caused turnovers) and Ryan Sweiderk (42, 21) leading the way defensively.
Freshmen have also made a big impact, highlighted by George Shonfeld (28 goals, 51 assists). Shonfeld was one of four Fighting Owls who came to HCC from England this past offseason along with Hugo Peel (17 goals), Will Goodwin (11 assists) and Daniel Goodwin (10 ground balls).
Verardi must retool the roster every year because players are done after two years at the junior college level, and the efforts made this past offseason are paying off.
“It starts with us recruiting and it goes into how we work hard in the offseason, how we prepare for the season, how we compete all season,” Verardi said. “We like to think that every year we have enough talent to get it done just because of the work that we put in to bring guys here. We know that we’re getting guys that are invested in that, so I think it’s really just about the process of getting everybody to really fully commit to this and see this as a great opportunity, which it is.”
Bel Air has been the center of the junior lacrosse world in recent years, with HCC having hosted and won the past two NJCAA Tournaments. It’s the culmination of a lot of hard work by Verardi, who is in his 11th season as the head coach of the Fighting Owls and 13th with the program.
“It’s amazing. I think back to my first day here and where we are now, it’s just grown so much,” Verardi said. “I honestly just love how much support we get and what they’re willing to do here to make this event happen. You do have to bid on this. It’s not just something the NJCAA hands out, so the support that we’ve gotten to be able to host it and then be able to win it on our home field, it just kind of feels like all those years that we had a lot of guys come through the program and build it up, you just feel that they have something to be proud of.”
For more from Verardi, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Sam Beall/Harford Athletics