The name Trevor Baptiste was absent from Lacrosse Magazine’s preview of Denver’s no. 1-ranked men’s lacrosse team. Additionally, Inside Lacrosse had Baptiste pegged at 78 on their 2014 Power 100 Freshman Rankings–still among the top freshman in the country, but by no means an unprecedented review.
Therefore, it was a bit of a shock when the freshman faceoff specialist decimated no. 3 Duke University in his first collegiate game, winning 25 of 34 faceoffs, and losing only three draws in the second half. The publications had underestimated Baptiste.
“I had a feeling I was going to take a few. I didn’t know I was going to take all of them,” said Baptiste. “It definitely wasn’t obvious.”
“He was huge. Every faceoff that he won was another possession for the offense, so I’m not complaining,” said junior attacker Jack Bobzien, who had six goals against Duke.
Baptiste began taking faceoffs during his sophomore year in high school, yet it appears as though he’s been doing it for a lot longer. Through three games so far this season, the freshman has won 53 of 73 total faceoffs (.726 win percentage) en-route to a 3-0 start for the Pioneers.
Most recently at the 2015 Frontier Airlines Faceoff Classic on Feb. 21, Baptiste went 17-for-21 in the 16-6 win over the Air Force Academy and on Feb. 22 went 11-for-18 against Furman University as Denver won 10-5.
That’s not to say there hasn’t been some sort of learning curve.
“In the beginning [of the season] I felt like I was trying to do a little too much from the habit of trying to do too much in high school,” Baptiste said. “We have how many All-Americans on this team? They can take care of scoring, they can take care of clearing the ball, my job is getting the ball off the faceoff.”
The Pioneers returned 10 starters from last year–the entire attack unit and their top four point getters with senior Wesley Berg (48 goals, 20 assists), junior Jack Bobzien 42 goals, 21 assists), sophomore Zach Miller (38 goals 19 assists) and senior Erik Adamson (44 goals, 10 assists).
“There’s a lot of talented players on the offensive end, and I think everyone knows they can score, but it’s just whoever is gonna have a day is gonna have a day,” said Bobzien. “Some people aren’t going to get the points, but, if you get a ‘W’ at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.”
As if the Pioneer offense wasn’t potent enough, Denver landed the ACC Rookie of the Year, Connor Cannizzaro in the offseason, who transferred from the University of Maryland to join his brother and senior midfielder Sean Cannizzaro. Through three games, Connor leads the team with 20 points on 10 goals and 10 assists.
“He’s a very dynamic player,” said Bobzien of Connor. “He can shoot, he can pass, he can do everything. It’s nice having him on the field because he can make plays and it makes it easier for everyone else around him.”
It’s hard to say that Denver will slow down defensively either.
Though the Pioneers lost long-stick defender Teddy MacKenzie, goalie Jamie Faus and do-it-all midfielder Jeremy Noble to graduation, they return a slew of experience at the defensive end. The goal belongs to senior net-minder Ryan LaPlante, who will no longer have to split time with Faus. Sophomore Christian Burgdorf and senior Carson Cannon return as well to anchor the defense in front of LaPlante.
“I think we have a little more experience,” Bobzien. “We have a lot of guys that logged a lot of good minutes last year and played in some big games, and hopefully that translates to this year where we just build on that base.”
If anything, the non-conference schedule will not be kind to the Pioneers. Denver will head to Chapel Hill to play no. 4 University of North Carolina on Feb. 27. The no. 3 University of Notre Dame will visit Denver the following weekend.
