The Boston Cannons recently held open tryouts and
informed 5 players that they will be invited to the Cannons training Camp which
starts on April 2nd and goes through the 3rd, at Endicott College.
The five players invited were James Fahey (UMass
Amherst), Andrew Newbold (Sacred Heart), and Jak Wawrzyniak (Providence) all
defensemen. They also added midfielder Peter Vlahakis (Fairfield) and attackmen
Chris Breiner (Lemoyne).
Now it's time for the overview of each player, and
what I have found about them.
Andrew Newbold Sacred Heart '14
Andrew Newbold had an outstanding career in his
time at Sacred Heart, and Newbold is far from home being from Loveland, Ohio.
Newbold stands tall at 6'3 210 lbs., and with his size he is not afraid to toss
around the body. Newbold was able to see time in just his sophomore year at
Sacred Heart starting all 13 games that year, Newbold did manage to see time in
5 games though his freshmen year. But his sophomore year his career at Sacred
Heart really took off, in his junior year he started 11 games out of the teams
14 games and lead the team with 22 caused turnovers and was second on the team
with 40 ground balls. Newbold was also chosen to the All-NEC first team for the
first time during his Junior year. Newbold followed up a great Junior year with
an even better Senior season this time starting all 15 games for the Pioneers
and leading the team in groundballs with 43 and caused turnovers with 27. Once
again Newbold was selected to the All-NEC first team, as well as being selected
to the All-NEC tournament team. What Newbold left behind at Sacred Heart was a
great career finishing with 127 groundballs, and caused 61 turnovers. He also
scored 10 goals, and added 3 assists in his time at Sacred Heart. What I think
Newbold gives the Cannons is a young defender who is a big guy who is not
afraid to toss the body around and someone who can help the Cannons cause
turnovers, and help them possible in transition if they need it from the close
defense position.
Jak Wawrzyniak Providence '14
Let me just say Jak Wawrzyniak is a bad man, the
defender stands at 6'4 and weighs 235 lbs, and the crazy part is he is not from
the United States either he hails from Manchester, England. I was not really
able to find much about Wawrzyniak, but from what I could he had a pretty decent
career. He initially started his college career at Stony Brook where he played
for two years where he played in just 21 games. Following the end of his
sophomore year Wawrzyniak decided he wanted to transfer, and decided to go to
Providence. I couldn't really find much about Wawrzyniak career at Providence,
but from what I could find his time playing for the England National team has
been pretty successful. In 2012 Wawrzyniak was a gold medalist for England in
the European games, he was also chosen to the England World Champions team in
2010, and in 2008 he was a member of the U-19 England National team. What
Wawrzyniak, provides the Cannons with is a young player who has international
experience that is not for the United States.
Peter Vlahakis Fairfield '04
Peter Vlahakis, to be honest I had never heard of
him, until I looked his name up, and let me tell you this might be one of the
game changing addition for the Cannons. Vlahakis had a great career at
Fairfield as a tremendous face-off guy, in his four years with Fairfield he
always finished in the top 10 in face-off percentage every year. In his junior
year he broke and finished 7th in the country with a face-off percentage of
63.3% and then his senior year he finished with a winning percentage of 65.4%.
In his senior season he also led the Stags in groundballs and was eighth in the
nation averaging 5.93 groundballs per game. In his career at Fairfield he was
also a two time All-New England selection. Vlahakis also had a great MLL career
but it just came at the beginning of Major League Lacrosse. In 2004 he was
selected in the fourth round by the New Jersey Pride (no longer exist).
Vlahakis might not be a big name to many people to this day but if you look at
the numbers in his career, he is arguably one of the most
dominating faceoff men in Major League Lacrosse. He holds four MLL All-Time
faceoff records. Vlahakis holds the MLL career face-off wins (1,053),
career faceoff percentage 56.6%, single game faceoff wins and single game
faceoff percentage records. He was also selected to participate
in the 2007 and 2008 MLL All-Star Game. In that 2008 season he set the league
record for faceoff wins and percentage by winning 35 of 48 or 72.91% of his
faceoffs in a single game. In 2012 he was selected in the Supplemental draft in
the 12th round 90th overall by the Hamilton Nationals (No
longer exist). Entering the 2013 MLL season (his 10th) he ranks
fourth in faceoff attempts (1,861) and eighth in ground balls (352). At the end
of the 2013 season the Nationals were dissolved and that was the last we
heard until the Cannons gave him the invite to training camp. I think Vlahakis
could provide the Cannons with another great face-off guy along side Craig
Bunker and Joe Nardella, now that's scary.
Chris Breiner LeMoyne '15
The recent division two graduate Chris Breiner had
a good career as an attackmen for the LeMoyne Dolphins. Just by looking at the
numbers it seems like Breiner did not see much time on the field till his
senior year. Breiner never really had one of those breakout years in which he
produced a lot of points or anything but was just a solid all around player.
His senior year he had 16 goals and 14 assists to total 30 points in 19 games
for the Dolphins. The crazy part is the fact that Breiner had 46 career points
and almost 2/3 of those points came during his senior season. Looking at the
numbers it seems like Breiner was smart with his shots and put a high
percentage on goal. In fact in his four year career for the Dolphins 55.1% of
his shots were on goal taking 95 shots in his career. Of those 95 shots, 49
were on goal, and 27 of those found the back of the net. I don't really know
what to think of this addition, I think they might like Breiner because he
takes quality shots, and gets his shots on net, or maybe it's the fact he
can be clutch scoring 2 game winning goals in his senior season for the
Dolphins. It will be interesting to see what happens with Breiner.
James Fahey UMass Amherst '14
James Fahey he is the last one because of the connection we have, Fahey
attended the same high school as me St. John's Preparatory School in Danvers,
Massachusetts and lead our high school to it's only state championship so far
in school history. James Fahey is the original CJ Costabile to me, the only
difference is Fahey didn't win a face-off to score a the game-winning goal in
overtime, but instead took a clear all the way up the field to score the game
winning-goal. Not only was it the program's first state championship in
lacrosse but it ended the dynasty of Duxbury lacrosse who was a powerhouse at
the time and still is. Duxbury had won 6 straight division one state titles but
Fahey was not gonna let them get their 7th, and took a full field clear all by
himself to score the game winner. So you can say I was happy to see, a former
alum of my high school being added to the Cannons roster, and I am pretty sure
he is the first person to ever play in the MLL from our high school, so
congrats James!! Once Fahey got to UMass the defensemen had a hard time seeing
the field until his Junior year, where he got to make his first 2 career starts
in the 12 games he played that year. Fahey started the first 2 games that year
before he suffered in an injury that caused him to miss a couple games that
year. Fahey did not start the rest of the year but still saw appearances in
games, and helped the Minutemen any way he could, but come Senior year Fahey
was back. In his final season he started all 13 games at close for UMass and
had a great conclusion to his career, causing 20 (career high) of his 28 career
turnovers that year. He also scooped a career high 31 groundballs, he finished
his career with 53 groundballs. Also bad news for Fahey his last career goal in
an actual game was not the OT winner against Duxbury, but he scored 1 goal and
his only career college goal in his senior season in fact it was his only
career shot. I think Fahey could really help the Cannons as a defensemen
whether it be at the possibility of playing LSM or close. I would love to see
Fahey possibly play LSM because he can score goals trust me Coach Quirk, he can
just watch the tape of the Duxbury game.
I had to do it here is the picture of Fahey celebrating that State Title victory!
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