Just five years ago, the men’s lacrosse program was an infant and an afterthought. Now in 2006, with seven seniors leading the charge, head coach Ed Stephenson is excited to see his first recruiting class come of age and provide experienced leadership that the club has never seen before.

“The first year we started, we didn’t recruit,” Stephenson said. “We basically got a handful of guys from the club team and a lot of walk-ons that hadn’t played before — maybe they played in high school, but we just drew from the general student body our first year. During that whole year I recruited our first recruiting class, and now we’re at our first point where those freshmen, that initial group of guys, are now seniors.”

The lacrosse program has come a long way since its inception, posting the best record in America East play over the last two seasons at 10-2. Despite its recent success and three consecutive wins to close the 2005 regular season, Binghamton was ranked fourth out of seven teams in the preseason coaches’ poll. But Stephenson isn’t concerned with the poll.

“Especially with us, [it] is very inaccurate,” he said. “We’re such a new team and you have to earn it over a period of time. We’ve put together two really quality years in the conference, coming in first and third. [This season] we’re hoping to actually win the conference tournament.”

The 2005 team’s strength was its defense, which held opponents to a conference-low 8.09 goals against average — the second year in a row Binghamton has led the AE in this statistic. Stephenson thinks goalie Kevin McKeown, the team’s first All-American in 2004 and an all-conference selection in the past two seasons, “could be one of the elite goalies in the country.”

With another year under its belt, Binghamton’s defense should once again be the team’s backbone in 2006. Senior defenders Kevin Kaylor and Sean Meluney have started every game the past three seasons, and will be joined by returning starters Tom Wilmot and Michael Cove. Speedy freshman John Dreska will man the defensive midfield position and will help the team clear the ball better.

But for the Bearcats to win the conference title, their offense will have to step up, too, as they scored a conference-low 5.92 goals per game last season — every other team in the conference averaged 7.5 goals or more. Junior Matt McNamara has led the team in scoring in the past two seasons with 39 total goals, but he needs help this year from freshmen Jake Boyce and Chris Mulheron, both of whom Stephenson has confidence in.

“I think that we’re pretty balanced for the first time ever,” he said. “I think we’re more experienced on the defensive end, but the talent is also clearly there on the offensive end. Our young guys are pretty good.”

Fresh faces will play a large role on this year’s team, particularly on offense. Five out of nine players on the offensive unit are either freshmen or transfers, while 10 of the team’s 34 total players are freshmen. Scott Mitchell is the only senior on the front line.

Binghamton’s midfield is highlighted by sophomore Stephen Smith, whom Stephenson jokes is “as tough as that Steve Smith,” referring to the Carolina Panthers’ wide receiver. Smith was the team’s leading scorer last season on the midfield line and will be supported by three seniors, David Burpoe, Brian Chaapel and Binghamton native Matt DeCirce, as well as junior Jeff Santucci and freshman Kevin Joy. Freshman J.P. Wioncek will hopefully improve the team’s success rate in faceoffs, which was a conference-low .322 last season.

“This group here is the hardest-working group that we’ve seen to date in five years,” Stephenson said. “I can’t go out on a limb and say what our record’s going to be, but it’s a hard-working group, it’s a fun group to coach and I think it’s a group that’s going to improve every day of the year.”

Bearcats Drop Opener

Ed Stephenson’s men’s lacrosse squad was outmatched by the sixth-ranked team in the nation in the opening game of the 2006 season.

Junior attack David Mitchell scored eight goals to lead Cornell past Binghamton in the season opener, by a final score of 16-3. The Big Red jumped out to an early 3-0 lead and scored 11 unanswered goals during one stretch.

Junior attack Rob Williams and freshmen Jake Boyce and Chris Mulheron each scored a goal for Binghamton. Freshman midfielder J.P. Wioncek won 11 of 18 faceoffs.

The Bearcats hope to earn their first victory when they visit 12th-ranked Towson Saturday at noon. Binghamton has previously defeated a top-20 team three times.