Men’s Lacrosse: Terriers Lose Top Recruit, But Plenty of More Talent to Come

By: Marisa Ingemi

Boston University’s men’s lacrosse program is making some noise. After just missing out on the Patriot League tournament two seasons in a row, the team is bringing in some of the top prospects in the nation.

Joe McSorley is the 17th ranked goalie recruit this season and Chris Gray is the 53rd ranked prospect out of players joining college lacrosse next season. BU has been able to recruit around the nation and outside of New England, and it looked like they had another solid get.

Anthony Demaio, the all time points leader in the history of California high school lacrosse, had been committed to BU before he changed his mind and committed to play at Maryland. The Terps are always a top team in the nation, and it’s a solid addition to the Big Ten team.

But what’s Maryland’s gain is the Terriers loss. The fact that BU was able to attract such a prospect is a positive sign, but being a younger program and being *not Maryland* is always going to be a struggle.

There are some lacrosse schools known nationally, such as Maryland, Syracuse, and Johns Hopkins, that are always going to be attractive programs and difficult to compete with if you’re a smaller or newer lacrosse school. That’s why UMass Lowell has had the approach of adding Canadian talent.

BU has stayed away from local prospects at times, with John MacLean from Medfield, Ma. being the only Massachusetts native joining the team this season. Instead, BU has picked up players from hotbeds not going to the major programs or has reached around to Texas, Florida, and California.

DeMaio is an attackman and midfielder who would have fit in perfectly with a BU team that likes to shift its most dynamic players around. Instead, it will be Maryland adding him to their roster midway through 2017.

The next big prospect joining BU in 2018 will be Tommy Nook from the University School in Ohio. The rest of the committed prospects for the next two seasons include names out of New Hampshire, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania. Only Will and Ben Murtagh out of Governor’s Academy are home state prospects headed to BU.

Of the current roster, eight are from Massachusetts, and only three of those players see regular playing time. One of them, Brandon Bowman from Foxborough, transferred from Air Force so wasn’t actually recruited out of Massachusetts.

The recruiting hasn’t been bad for the Terriers, competing to make the conference playoffs in just their second and third seasons as a varsity program. Players like Cal Dearth, Jack Wilson, and Sam Talkow have been huge for the program, and they’ve continued to bring in underrated talent.

Where does the local talent go? UMass and Providence each bring in plenty of Massachusetts high school talent each year, while Lowell has also brought in local, but has gone outside the country often.

Not having DeMaio is a tough blow for BU, but as long as there are the schools like Maryland, these things can happen. The next two years of recruiting classes look excellent as the Terriers look for that elusive conference playoff berth behind the talent that it has developed in its first full season with each recruiting class.