Stags duo land D-I rides

Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Submitted photo Steven Tepsick, left, and John (J.P.) Pietropaoli sign their letters of intent to attend Ohio State University and the Air Force Academy, respectively. Back row are Guy Tepsick, Melanie Tepsick, Yvonne Tepsick and Sue Pietropaoli. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Pietropaoli, who lives in Owings, and Tepsick, who resides in Huntingtown, formally signed their letters of intent Nov. 10.

The signings were just two of nine for the DeMatha lacrosse team. Other Stags receiving scholarships to continue their playing careers were Ryan Kotowski (North Carolina), Matt Miller (Drexel), Mike Rogers (Notre Dame), Sean McKenna (UMBC) and Shane Ryznar (UMBC). Mike Smail is also headed to Ohio State and in mid-November sophomore goalie Ryan Brant committed to the Columbus, Ohio-based university as well.

‘‘I didn’t think I was going to go [to Air Force] at first,” said Pietropaoli, who also mulled over offers from Providence, Lehigh and Bucknell, ‘‘but then when I went out to the campus, I liked it a lot.”

‘‘I’m very excited,” said Tepsick, who also received interest from Hofstra and John Hopkins.

DeMatha coach Scott Pugh added: ‘‘I think to have eight kids in one senior class is a huge deal, especially for Calvert kids [Pietropaoli and Tepsick]. They’ve made a huge commitment to come to DeMatha in the first place and they’re travelling a lot farther than the other kids. It’s a testament to how dedicated they are to going on to the next level of lacrosse.”

The 5-foot-8, 160-pound Pietropaoli, who is undecided on his major, began his high school career as a midfielder but was converted into an attackman.

‘‘Last year we had some attackmen go down early and [we also had] seven other middies,” Pugh said of why he made the change. ‘‘I just saw the skills he had in the crease. He was more valuable to us on attack.”

Pietropaoli, who has a 3.6 grade point average, used a physical style to score 16 goals for the Stags last season. He also added seven assists.

‘‘I like to play hard,” he said when asked to describe his style of play, ‘‘and get in the crease.”

‘‘He’s kind of a scrapper, what I’d call a natural crease attackman,” Pugh said. ‘‘He’s probably the best cutter on our team and has real soft hands in the crease. His knack is that he can finish with both hands in traffic, which is a very valuable skill to have.”

The Division I Falcons, who compete in the Great Western Lacrosse League (GWLL), are coached by Fred Acee, who is now in his 11th season with the team. Acee, who has a career 35-95 record at Air Force, led the Falcons to a 2-10 record last season.

‘‘Part of the reason I liked [Air Force] a lot is that they’re graduating a lot of players, so I should have a pretty good chance of playing,” Pietropaoli said. ‘‘But I need to play well this year and then get better in the offseason. I need to work on my left hand a little bit and work on accuracy while left-handed.”

‘‘He’ll probably will have to carry the ball a little bit more and dodge a bit more [at Air Force],” Pugh said. ‘‘But he was one of our most improved players last year and I’m expecting him to be even better this year.”

Acee said he was impressed with Pietropaoli and expects him to vie for playing time immediately.

‘‘We recruited John because we felt he had the ability to play at the Division I level,” Acee said in a telephone interview. ‘‘We were looking for some good tough attackmen and he fit the bill. I think he’s a good fit for the academy and he has a good opportunity to start here and play quite a bit as a freshman.”

Like father, like son

Tepsick, who is leaning toward majoring in business or pre-law, committed to Ohio State the summer before his junior year. Having a father who was a Buckeye alum didn’t hurt, either.

‘‘He knew what he wanted and the coach from Ohio State loved him when he saw him,” Pugh said. ‘‘Stephen sticks out when you watch him play.”

The 6-foot, 175-pound midfielder won 65 percent of his faceoffs last season. Pugh said Tepsick’s ‘‘probably been the best or at least one of the top two faceoff men in our [Washington Catholic Athletic Conference] the past two years.”

Pugh added he thought Tepsick’s stick skills should help him enormously in Columbus.

‘‘Stephen is a faceoff man who can actually play offense,” Pugh said. ‘‘He’s a threat to win the faceoff and then make something happen versus your FOGO [faceoff, get off player], who usually doesn’t have the stick skills.”

The Division I Buckeyes, who also compete in the GWLL, finished the 2007 season with a 9-5 record. Ohio State is coached by Joe Breschi, who is now in his 10th season behind the bench.

The Buckeyes have reached the NCAA championship tournament in two of the last four years, the first berths in the program’s history. Ohio State has also won three Great Western Lacrosse League titles, including the outright crown in 2004.

‘‘As a midfielder, [Tepsick’s] going to have to work on the overall condition of his game and maybe get tougher in between the lines,” Pugh said. ‘‘But he’s got real nice size, he’s very smooth and he can do anything on a lacrosse field. I think he’ll be in the mix right away and have a great career up there at Ohio State.”

‘‘I want to get on the field any way I can,” Tepsick said.

Though Breschi was unable to be reached for comment, he released a statement about his new recruits on Ohio State’s Web site: ‘‘We are really excited about these eight terrific young men who have committed to our program and will join us in the fall of 2008. ‘‘These student-athletes come from some of the most successful high school lacrosse programs around. We are proud of their accomplishments to date and look forward to many great years in the scarlet and gray.”