By Dave Stewart
MaxPreps.com
FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Winning back-to-back state Class L boys’ lacrosse championships hasn’t been easy for Fairfield Prep. First there was a 13-12 victory in four overtimes against Norwalk in 2006, and that was followed by a come-from-behind 10-9 win over Greenwich in 2007.
The celebrations were well-deserved for the Jesuits, but senior co-captain Spenser Parnell admits that they came with a cost.
“Since we’ve won back-to-back years, there’s an expectation there,” Parnell said. “I just feel that there’s no other way for us except to win it. If we don’t win it, people are just going to look at us like, they blew it.”
The 2008 Prep roster is chock full of senior veterans — from a defense led by co-captains John Cunningham and Jimmy Doyle, to the midfield with co-captains Parnell and Rob Rotanz, along with Paul Tropsa, Peter Gruppo and Paul Tortora, and the attack featuring Paul Finlay.
Mix in a few underclassmen in starring roles — junior Chase Bailey and sophomore Brendan Rotanz on attack, junior Tucker Shanley at midfield and junior Will Lomas in goal — and it’s been a recipe for success.
The Jesuits are 10-3 heading into the final week of the regular season, with a SCC road at Guilford and home non-conference games against Simsbury and Brewster, N.Y., remaining.
They’ve played an impressive schedule, with their only losses coming against Greenwich, St. Anthony’s and Chaminade, teams with a combined record of 37-6.
Even with a veteran squad which has seen its fair share of heated battles, coach Chris Smalkais was quick to point out that “each year is different.
“You always graduate a number of kids,” Smalkais said. “That was brought up when we played Greenwich early in the year and I don’t think you have any revenge games. You prepare for each game and each season differently. Next time, if we have the opportunity to play Greenwich, it will be a different game.”
Both Parnell and Rob Rotanz pointed to the team’s speed and the ability to move the ball upfield quickly as the keys to Prep’s success.
“The strength of the team is our ability to get the ball up the field because we have so many good athletes,” Rob Rotanz said.
“And once we’re on offense, being able to dodge and re-dodge. When we’re moving the ball, there’s really nothing that a defense can do. We have so many threats that can dodge and shoot and score, they have to respect that. When we move the ball and we hit those open guys, it’s going to be a long day for a defense.”
“We have some good moments on both offense and defense, but I think our strength is our athleticism — the ability to run up and down the field and not stop,” Parnell said. “We just try to ‘out-athlete’ other teams.”
Speed was of the essence in the Jesuits’ 15-8 win over New Canaan on May 1 at Dunning Field, where Prep scored seven goals in the first quarter and led 11-3 at halftime en route to the victory.
Prep scored on four of its first five shots, as Rob Rotanz scored first, Finlay added the second and Brendan Rotanz then scored twice. Shanley finished with seven points on two goals and five assists; Brendan Rotanz added four goals and one assist and Finlay and Rob Rotanz each had a hat trick and an assist.
Much more the Jesuits’ satisfaction, the game helped erase two years of bad memories against the Rams.
“Last year was bad,” Rob Rotanz said. “We lost to them in overtime sophomore year and last year, we thought we were going to roll over them and they came up and beat us 6-4 in our house. (New Canaan goalie) Fergie Campbell had an awesome, awesome game last year. We had a little bad taste in our mouth from that and we wanted to turn it around. It was nice to get revenge, especially on their own field.”
“We really moved the ball well and shared the ball offensively,” Smalkais said. “The scoring was pretty evenly distributed, so we had contributions from everybody and in order to be successful in the game of lacrosse, you have to play as a team and share the ball. We’re starting to do that. I’m really proud of the way our players prepared this week to play New Canaan.”
The win was also big in terms of perception, as Parnell said the Jesuits made a statement.
“We hadn’t really won any of our biggest games this year — we lost to Greenwich and St. Anthony’s and Chaminade,” Parnell said. “We wanted to come in, step up and get a quality win. They’re all important games, but this was the last big FCIAC team we’re going to play so we wanted to make a statement and say we’re one of the best teams in the state.”
Although the Jesuits have stumbled three times this season, there are few teams in Connecticut that have performed as well in big games as Prep over the past two seasons.
In 2006, they played through four overtimes with Norwalk before then-sophomore Rob Rotanz scored the game-winner for the Class L championship.
Last year’s final was equally compelling, as the Jesuits rallied to beat a favored Greenwich team by one goal.
Turn the pages back a little further, long before the current crop of players had reached high school age, and Prep fell to New Canaan, 6-5 in three overtimes in the 2001 Division I final — Prep’s only other appearance in a State title tilt.
This year’s Jesuits have offensive weapons all over the field, with five players having racked up 30 or more points and three others with better than 20 points.
Finlay leads the group with 39 points on 18 goals and a team-high 21 assists, followed by Bailey with 38 (25 goals, 13 assists); Rob Rotanz with 36 (25-11); Brendan Rotanz with 33 (26-7); Parnell with 31 (20-11); junior defenseman Brendan Nizolek with 24 (14-10); Shanley with 23 (14-9); and junior Ward Gruppo with 23 (14-9).
Cunningham leads the team in ground balls with 53, with Finlay (39), Parnell (37), Doyle (29), Rob Rotanz (26) and junior midfielder Harley Brown (26) also doing plenty of groundwork.
Cunningham also has a team-best 16 takeaways, with Doyle grabbing 15 and Brown collecting 14.
Smalkais offered high praise for the play of Doyle following the win in New Canaan.
“He’s a tremendous, selfless player,” the coach said. “He’ll be successful in life because he’ll do anything that is necessary to make his teammates better and make the people around him better as people and as lacrosse players.”
The Jesuits have set themselves up for a run at a three-peat. Heading into the final week, they were fourth in the Class L picture behind, in order, Simsbury, Greenwich and Ridgefield.
While the Jesuits would certainly be happy facing anyone in the State final, there’s the feeling that this group would like another shot at Greenwich after falling in April to the Cards, 12-11, on a goal by Tucker Stafford with 21.2 second remaining. Prior to that, Prep had a three-game winning steak against Greenwich.
“I would love to see them again,” Rob Rotanz said. “That’s just a matter of numbers — you can’t beat a great team like that four times in a row. It was tough losing to them, but I’d rather lose to them in the regular season than in the championship.”
“That was a real tough one because we lost,” Parnell said. “But it doesn’t really matter if we lost back in April. If we’re winning in June, that’s when it counts.”
Dave Stewart, the Sports Editor of the New Canaan (Conn.) Advertiser, is a MaxPreps.com writer and photographer. He may be reached at 203-966-9541 or at sports@ncadvertiser.com.
