Just outside of St. John sits a small town called Quispamsis, New Brunswick.
Home to just under 19,000 people, Quispamsis is the sixth biggest town in Canada’s eighth biggest province.
It is also home to Nate Watson, a talented lacrosse player for Quinnipiac University. Quinnipiac’s enrolment is more than half the size of Quispamsis.
On Saturday, Watson scored 6 goals and 2 assists for the Bobcats, leading them to their first victory of the season. It was one of the best performances in history by a D1 men’s player from the maritimes.
With the help of Chat GPT, I brainstormed some nicknames for Nate. Saint John Sniper was the best of the bunch (“Maritime Mauler,” “East Coast Express,” and “Kennebecasis Crusher” were also in contention). Either way, congrats to Nate, his family, and everyone who has contributed to the growth of lacrosse on the east coast.
Watson’s performance was the best of the week, but there were plenty of big outings.
Owen Hiltz (Peterborough, Ontario) and the Syracuse Orange got the signature win they needed over Hopkins, in large part to Hiltz and his 3 goals and assist.
That was the same statline for Alex Marinier (Burlington, Ontario) who had a hat-trick and an assist in Ohio State’s massive victory over then second ranked Notre Dame. After a disappointing loss to Utah to begin the season, Ohio State has responded extremely well, winning 7 straight including a dominant win over Virginia and the victory at Notre Dame.
Marinier has been key to this turnaround, and is now up to 24 goals on the season.
Delta, British Columbia’s Silas Richmond was again sharp over the weekend, adding 4 assists for the Albany Great Danes over Hobart, while Richmond’s Lucas Littlejohn (Courtice, Ontario) continued his strong season with 3 goals and an assist for the Spiders.
Another 4 points came from Kyle Pepper (Victoria, British Columbia) of St. Bonaventure who added a goal and 3 assists for the Bonnies in their win over Cleveland State.
Down in Kentucky, Bellarmine’s Michael Blaymires (Guelph, Ontario) had 3 goals against Robert Morris, while on the other side Calum Brennan (Kingsville, Ontario) had a goal and 3 assists for RMU.
In Philly, Mark Watters (Orillia, Ontario) had 3 goals for the St. Joseph’s Mountain Hawks in their win over the Drexel Dragons.
It’s been a difficult season so far for the Michigan Wolverines, but a bright spot has been the play of Nick Roode (Peterborough) who began starting half way through the year and had 3 goals and an assist last weekend in their loss to Harvard. The son of WWE wrestler Bobby Roode, Nick is coming off a big summer for the Jr. A Lakers.
Defensively, Levi Verch (Victoria) had another strong game with 8 ground balls and 2 caused turnovers. Also having a nice effort was Jacksonville’s Dylan Lee who had 6 loosies and a caused turnover of his own.
St. Bonaventure LSM Owen Tasse (Ottawa) had 6 caused turnovers on Friday in their win over Mercer to go along with 2 loosies. He added 3 loose balls on Sunday as well, capping off a two-win weekend for the Bonnies.
The full list of statistics is below, stay tuned for more all season long!