Weekly Notebook: It Goes To 11 In Week 1

Teams did not waste time getting their seasons cranked to 11, despite being in the first week of some of their seasons. 

Around the nation, there were plenty of meetings between inter-state and intra-state powers, including Florida and Georgia. 

This week’s notebook looks at some of the players and teams off to a hot start towards the end of winter. 

Sharknado

Andrew Ewalt from Ponte Vedra (Fla.). Photo by Mark Calvin.

Ponte Vedra (Fla.) is off to a 5-0 start and is looking good on both ends of the field. The defense has held its five opponents to 15 total goals while the offense has scored 90. The Sharks played the first of four out-of-state opponents this week with a 19-7 win over Woodward Academy (Ga.) on Friday.

Tony Rossi scored four goals, and Dylan Hess scored three in the win over Nease (Fla.). Rossi scored four goals and two assists in the 13-3 win over Gulf Breeze. 

The combination of Jimmy Burns and Andrew Ewalt have been dominating the faceoff as well. 20-of-22 against Nease and 25-of-26 against Mandarin (Fla.). Burns went 12-of-13 against Fleming Island (Fla.) and 19-of-22 in the win over Woodward.

Georgia Rule

There’s a host of players in Georgia that are rewriting the state’s record book. Last week, two of those reached significant milestones.

Ryan Siracusa from Centennial (Ga.).

Ryan Siracusa from Centennial (Ga.) came closer to 400 career points by scored the 200th goal of his career in the team’s season-opening game. Siracusa is a Maryland commit who has 328-points. 

“I had no idea I was close to 200 career goals,” Siracusa said. “It means something to me.”

Siracusa took on a different role for the Knights this season after playing with Nicky Solomon and Colin Hall the previous three years. 

“I’m pretty much running the entire offense. I get the ball every possession,” Siracusa said. “It’s different from last year. Nicky would have the ball at X, and we’d be cutting. I didn’t realize how big of an adjustment it would be. I’ve been so tired after these games, but it’s a lot of  fun because I love scoring.”

Ben Hull from Kennesaw Mountain (Ga.).

Michigan commit Ben Hull from Kennesaw Mountain (Ga.) scored the 300th point of his career with a 10-goal, four-assist game. Hull is coming off a sophomore year in which he scored 138 points, including 78 goals. 

“We had a week off before that game and I was aware of it [how close he was to 300], but once I stepped on the field that stuff just slipped to the back of my mind,” Hull said. “I came off the field and somebody was like, ‘you just got your 300th career point’. I didn’t realize it until someone mentioned it.”

The next player on deck is Brooks Baro from McIntosh (Ga.) who has 258-career points. Baro already has 34 points through five games this season.

La La Land

Will Parducci from Loyola-Los Angeles (Calif.).

Loyola-Los Angeles (Calif.) is the MaxLaxLA No. 1 team and they’ve gotten off to a 3-0 start. Goalie Will Parducci was Honorable Mention Player of the Week last week, and the defense has been stout so far. They held the first three opponents of the year to just 12 goals total, which includes holding Santa Margarita (Calif.) - the No. 4 team in MaxLaxLA.com’s poll to only two goals. Senior Kaiser Fry scored five points, and sophomore Owen Gaffney added five of his own in that win.

Congratulations!

Providence School (Fla.) Head coach Brian Theiss won the 200th game of his career last night with a 23-0 win over Atlantic Coast (Fla.) on Thursday. Theiss has been the Stallions head coach since 2015 and coached at Lake Brantley (Fla.) and Winter Springs (Fla.) previously.