The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Home-grown talent keys Wesleyan’s run
The fingerprints of Nutmeg State products could be found all over the Wesleyan men’s lacrosse team’s program-defining victory on Sunday.
Thirteen of the 19 goals scored in the Cardinals’ upset of No. 1 ranked RIT were scored by the New Canaan duo of Cole Turpin and Harry Stanton or by Glastonbury’s Zach Zavalick and Ronan Jacoby. Seven Connecticut products got into the 19-18 victory, which punched Wesleyan’s ticket into the first NCAA Division III national championship game in program history. Next up is two-time defending champion Salisbury, winners of 12 national titles since 1994 in Sunday’s 1 p.m. title matchup.
Although the leading scorer on Raba’s first Wesleyan team was New Haven’s Ethan Sack, the reality is that Wesleyan coach John Raba’s mantra in his 22 seasons is the recruit the right type of players and people regardless of where they grew up.
“Each class is a little different,” Raba said. “If you look at some of the starters of our first five midfield this year, you have a guy from Michigan (Taylor Ghesquiere), a guy from Colorado (Christian Barker). It is really hard to answer. We do focus a lot on trying to keep the kids from New England to come here and stay in this area.
“We have been winning a lot of the battles to keep the kids in state, maybe five or 10 years ago we weren’t winning some of those battles. We have a good pro-
gram, some of them are willing to stick around , we feel like we are doing the right thing by touching base with the coaches in the state and trying to find the best kids out there.”
There were never more than four Nutmeg State products on any of Raba’s first six teams at Wesleyan.
None of his first 15 squads could boost of a double digit
contingent of home-grown talent. Since 2012, however, Raba’s rosters have averaged more than 12 players from Connecticut including the 13 on this year’s squad.
It’s isn’t only about quantity. Jacoby and Stanton lead the Cardinals with 66 and 58 goals scored while Turpin has contributed 27 goals. Zavalick leads 18-3 Wesleyan with 134 ground balls while being the top faceoff man for the Cardinals. Ryan Lynch, Sean Penney and Ryan Flippin have played all 21 games in helping Wesleyan go 6-2 against ranked teams.
Wesleyan is far from the only team relying on players from Connecticut.
Salisbury junior midfielder and former Joel Barlow High School star Zach Pompea went from recording seven goals, two assists and 16 shots on goal in his first two seasons to putting up 32 goals, 20 assists and 99 shots on goal as a junior.
“He’s become a better shooter, he is a very aggressive player who is not just elusive but can put the ball in the back of the net and also has good eyes,” Salisbury coach Jim Berkman said. “He is a handful out there, he has grown a lot. When I recruited him out of high school he was only 5-11, he is probably 6-3 now. He just gets better every day and the scary part is his best days are ahead of him.”