March 9, 2010
CENTER VALLEY, Pa. — Defensive standouts RJ Wickham (Penn Yan, N.Y.) and Jaren Woeppel (Camillus, N.Y.) were recognized by the Patriot League on Tuesday after guiding the Navy men’s lacrosse team to a pair of Patriot League victories over Lehigh and Bucknell last week. The Navy pair were joined by Lafayette’ Tom Perini (offensive player of the week) and Army’s Garrett Thul (rookie of the week) on this week’s list of player of the week awards handed out by the conference office.
Earning Patriot League Goalkeeper-of-the-Week honors for a second time this season, Wickham continues to be stout between the pipes. Last week he made 27 saves and gave up 10 goals in a pair of Patriot League affairs. He turned back nine shots on goal, while allowing a season-low three goals against the Mountain Hawks on Tuesday and followed up with an 18-save performance against Bucknell on Satruday in Annapolis. The 18 saves marked the second-most saves of his career, after producing 19 against Loyola on Feb. 20 of this year. He made a spectacular save at the end of regulation against the Bison, stopping a point-blank shot by Bucknell’s Chris Palmer to force overtime.
Wickham stands second in the country in save percentage, stopping 72 shots while giving up 34 goals for a 67.9 percentage. He trails Dartmouth’s Michael Novosel, who, after one game, is pacing the nation with an 83.3 save percentage. Wickham is also in the top 10 in goals-against average, surrendering 6.69 goal per game to rank sixth.
Woeppel was named the 2010 Patriot League Preseason Defensive Player of the Year and has certainly lived up to that billing this season. He enjoyed a stellar week, as he kept both of the offensive sharpshooters he was defending in check. Woeppel held Lehigh senior attackman Brian Bienemann, who scored five goals over the weekend, scoreless in the Mids’ five-goal win on Tuesday. Additionally, he caused a season and team-high three turnovers by the Mountain Hawks and scooped up a season-best four ground balls. The three-goal output by Lehigh marked the fewest goals scored by a Navy opponent since last year’s 6-2 win over Mount St. Mary’s. Woeppel also was called upon to defend 2009 Patriot League Rookie of the Year Charlie Streep, who broke Navy’s heart last year when he darted his way towards the goal with five seconds to go in the game and threaded a beauty past Wickham, who was making his debut in goal. Woeppel, though, handled Streep and kept him without a goal until 8:19 remaining in the final quarter when Streep punched in an extra-man goal and was not covered by Woeppel. With under a minute to go in the game, Woeppel contained Streep as his possible game-winning shot was forced wide.
The 17th-ranked Midshipmen (3-2, 2-0 Patriot League) will be back in action on Friday evening when they travel to Easton, Pa. to battle No. 15 Lafayette. The 4-0 Leopards are led by Preseason All-American attackman Tom Perini who has anchored wins this season over Fairfield, Binghamton, Penn and Wagner. Faceoff for Friday’s contest is set for 7:00 pm at Rappolt Field. Due to facility limitations, there will be NO radio coverage of the game, nor will there be live stats.
### Go Navy ###