New philosophy sparks Penn men's lacrosse

This year’s edition of the Penn men’s lacrosse team seems like a group of new men.

Why?

The answer may lie in the team’s new offensive strategy.

After finishing last spring 3-10 and 1-5 in conference play the Red and Blue knew that something needed to change.

They got a lift from a new rule change.

“There are no horns [a situation when substitutes are added during a stoppage in play] anymore,” senior attack Tim Schwalje said. “So there is a lot less subbing, so we have [midfields] playing defense and offense. So we get a lot of transitions.

“We work a lot on our condition and speed and playing fast and physical, so when we make a defensive stop we have guys that last year had to sub off, run down and play offense for us, so we are getting those transition type of numbers and that just generates more high quality shots and we’ve been capitalizing on those.”

The Quakers have found a ton of new go-to guys to help carry the scoring load, with five players having recorded double-digit goal totals thus far this year.

Junior Zack Losco leads the team with 17 goals, followed by sophomore Isaac Bock with 16 and Schwalje, Drew Belinsky, and Nick Doktor.

However, Schwalje leads the team with 82 shots and 34 points thus far.

Much of the Quakers’ success has been attributed to the hiring of new assistant coach Judd Lattimore, a former University of Michigan assistant who has emphasized sharing the wealth.

“We run more of a motion offense where the guys make the decisions and a lot of it is based on passing and cutting and reading the defense,” he said. “The more we pass and cut, the more unpredictable we are and a lot of guys score.”

“This year we came in September knowing we lost a lot of one goal games last year with a mindset of doing the little things correct and focusing on those little details: knocking down our shots, having good stick work and playing fast and physical like we like to,” Schwalje added.

Everyone gets a chance to convert in Lattimore’s offense as 15 different players have scored for the Red and Blue this season.

“There are no set designed plays where certain guys are designed to score or assist. It’s all six guys working together and that gives us the best chance to score,” he said.

Thanks to the versatility emphasized by Lattimore, the Quakers have been able to transition easier, play faster and, ultimately, get more shots.

“We stressed on being that transition team and wanting to be pushing and always attacking,” Schwalje said. “Often, teams slow it down and we are always attacking first, attack, attack, attack and keep attacking whether there are 30 seconds left in the game or it’s the first quarter.”

Penn’s increased flexibility on offense has confused its opponents all season, but as Ivy League play goes on, teams have started to adapt.

“Early on our [offensive strategy] really gave teams trouble. Now a lot of teams are not really trying to play us in between the restraining boxes,” Lattimore said. “They are just getting in defensively and slowing the game down.”

But given Penn’s success so far this season, it would be foolish to count out Lattimore and his bag of offensive tricks just yet.

SEE ALSO

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Penn men’s lacrosse dominates Brown, 10-3

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