Walpole’s Izzo a big boon to Cannons
Boston Cannons midfielder Ryan Izzo has been a good fit in a spot he feels most comfortable.
Izzo will play in his eighth Major League Lacrosse game as a short-stick defensive midfielder when the Cannons (4-5) host the Chesapeake Bayhawks (4-3) tonight at 7:30 at Harvard Stadium.
Izzo began his ascent to the pros at Walpole High, where he was an AllScholastic in two sports (lacrosse and football), followed by four years at UMass. Izzo believes the Cannons are a great third act for his athletic career.
“I couldn’t have worked out any better in terms of location and they are the ideal team I wanted to play for,” Izzo said. “Growing up, I watched the Cannons play and always dreamed of getting to this level.
“Just to play in this league is something and playing in this league for the Cannons is great.”
The 5-foot-9, 170-pound Izzo was initially drafted 27th overall by the Ohio Machine in 2015. But he missed his rookie season, rehabilitating a knee injury he suffered while playing at UMass.
Izzo made the Machine’s 23-man 2016 roster in early April, but was traded to the Cannons for a 2017 fourthround draft pick and a fourth-round supplemental draft pick prior to the season opener. Izzo welcomed the change of scenery for two reasons. He got the opportunity to work with first-year coach Sean Quirk on a team in transition while also laboring in the family construction business in North Attleboro.
“When started training camp with the Machine, it was obviously a fantastic opportunity getting drafted by them,” Izzo said. “But then when I got the news I was being traded to Boston, I was through the roof excited.”
Izzo’s college career began in the same place as his pro career, on the sidelines. He had to redshirt his freshman season after suffering a season-ending torn ACL. He made up for the lost time as a four-year player and was named third-team All-America his senior year.
“It was definitely frustrating and a little bit of deja vu for me,” Izzo said. “But the same time that’s sports and sports are full of adversities and if there weren’t any everybody would be playing them.
“When that adversity hit me again and I knew what it entailed and what kind of effort I would had to put in.”
Izzo’s specialty is converting groundball turnovers in the defensive end into transition dashes over the midfield against a gauntlet of angry, stick-wielding opponents. His experience as a running back at Walpole aids in that endeavor. Crashing the midfield in lacrosse is like tailback breaking into the secondary.
One of the finest breakaway ballcarriers in Massachusetts history, Izzo scored 101 touchdowns and a staterecord 722 points while rushing for 6,316 yards in four years as a Rebel.
Izzo complemented that effort by scoring 131 career goals with 49 assists in lacrosse at Walpole. While there was recruiting interest in him in both sports during his senior year, Izzo elected to stick with lacrosse and enroll at UMass.
Quirk and the Cannons are glad he did.