April 25, 2008

by Tom Borrelli, Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online

The Buffalo Bills haven't qualified for the National Football League playoffs this millennium.

A long, harsh Western New York winter was made even more intolerable when the Buffalo Sabres fell from Presidents' Trophy winners to 10th in the Eastern Conference and out of the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup playoffs.

It's been a dozen years since the Buffalo Bandits won the last of their three pro indoor lacrosse championships at old Memorial Auditorium.

Sports fans in Western New York need a quick fix. The Canisius College men's lacrosse team, led by a pair of talented freshmen, has provided a much-needed boost this spring.

The Golden Griffins (8-4 overall, 7-0 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) host a showdown for the top seed in next weekend's MAAC tournament at 11 a.m. Saturday against two-time defending champion Providence (6-7, 6-1).

"It's a really big deal," said first-year midfielder Adam Jones. "No Canisius team has done it before, and 8-0 is a lot better than 7-1. It's definitely our biggest goal and biggest game of the year so far."

Thanks in large part to Jones and classmate Nick LoCoco, the Golden Griffins are reaching goals never before thought possible on the downtown Buffalo campus.

After losing its first three games - to Princeton, Colgate and Cornell - Canisius ripped off eight consecutive victories before bowing, 10-3, to Hobart on Tuesday night.

The winning streak, which was third-best in Division I before the Statesmen came to town, doubled the previous school record, established in 2001. No Canisius team had ever won more than seven games in a single season.

"I didn't even have a clue, didn't know where we stood before," said LoCoco, a fancy-passing, first-year midfielder from Cicero in suburban Syracuse. "I didn't know who I was coming in with. But 7-0, I'll take it."

Jones and LoCoco may be the odd couple of college lacrosse, but they also conjure thoughts of Duke's dynamic Canadian-American duo of Zack Greer and Matt Danowski.

Well, that may be getting a bit carried away. But you don't have to look very hard to see the statistical impression they've made on the national landscape.

"Just from playing against them in one night, I can tell that these two freshmen are going to make a tremendous impact on their program," said Hobart sophomore defenseman Garrett O'Neill.

Jones, who is from Owen Sound, Ontario, scored at least once in his first 11 games and leads the Griffs with 27 goals to go along with eight assists. He entered this week ranked ninth in the country with 2.56 goals per contest.

LoCoco, with 10 goals and 30 assists, does most of the feeding when Jones finds the back of the net.

"I love drawing a double-team, then making the extra pass and getting an assist," he said. "For me, that's better than goals. I love to be on the other end."

LoCoco entered this week second in the nation with 2.89 assists per game, trailing only Danowski, a fifth-year senior and the reigning Tewaaraton Trophy winner. He ranked 12th in the country with 3.78 points per game, second-best among freshmen behind Stony Brook's Jordan McBride (4.3). "All of a sudden, they just had a connection," said 10th-year head coach Randy Mearns, whose only previous winning season was at 7-6 in 2001. "Adam is a great cutter, a guy that can get off of picks with great moves inside. Nick has great vision and can really feed the ball inside. All of a sudden, it ended up being that 1-2 connection. It was one of those happy surprises as to how well they have worked together."

LoCoco loves to operate from behind the opponent's goal, firing darts to cutting teammates.

"He sees the field better than I've ever seen a field lacrosse player see it before," said Jones. "His passes are so straight. It's nice having someone who is confident enough to pass the ball into the middle to me. He can find anybody."

For his part, Jones can cut and shoot with the best of them.

"We didn't know where we were going to play Adam, whether we'd put him on the attack or on the midfield," said Mearns. "He's really developed in terms of field lacrosse."

They're not exactly Oscar and Felix, but their paths to Canisius are markedly different.

Jones has been playing box lacrosse since about 4 and is already considered a prime National Lacrosse League prospect. Stony Brook was Mearns' only real competition on the recruiting trail.

"I'd heard great things about Randy," said Jones. "Plus there were a couple of Canadians down here, and I thought I'd blend in well. It's close to Canada, so that if I ever felt homesick, I knew I could just hop right over the border."

LoCoco made a verbal commitment to Georgetown during his sophomore year at Cicero-North Syracuse after being pursued by dozens of Division I programs.

"Academically, specifically in terms of SATs, I wasn't up to standards at Georgetown," LoCoco said. "I lost a lot of connections at other schools and after that, I really had nowhere else to go. My brother had come to school here. So I sent Randy an e-mail and that was that. Every school except for really Syracuse and Albany had recruited me."

It wasn't long until the pair developed a magic touch.

"They've developed that special relationship to make it work very well on their own terms," said Mearns. "To have those guys in our stable that are so young, it's like, where are they going to take it from here? Who knows? The sky is the limit."

Mearns knows that beating Providence, which has won the MAAC tournament (and NCAA tournament automatic qualifier) three times in the past four seasons, won't be easy. Preseason favorite Siena, now one of four teams vying for the final two spots, hosts the event in Loudonville, N.Y.

"We know we're coming up against a tough Providence team, and we're really going to have to work to get [the top seed]," he said. "It is important for us to reestablish some momentum going into the conference championships. But at the end of the day, our main focus is getting to the NCAAs. It's something we're going to have to take away from Providence, because they're definitely not going to give it to us."