GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland boys’ lacrosse team will look to fill some holes as it prepares for the season.

The Dutchmen will have a young defense and will have to replace a couple of attackmen before they start their season on March 25.
"We have 13 returners and 11 seniors," said Coach Sean McConaghy. "But we have a lot of voids that we’ll need to fill. Two of our starting attackmen are gone and our face-off middie — a guy who won like 75 percent of face-offs — is also gone. We lost 140 points from the attack and two starting defensemen are gone."

Graduated are attackmen Kevin DeHont and Jon Tuttle and midfielder Dave Romano along with defenders Jeff Koss and Jimmy Benjamin.
"We need some of the juniors to step up," McConaghy said. "And the sophomores and freshmen."

The team has 25 players in all; joining the 11 seniors are 11 juniors, two sophomores, and a freshman.

The Dutchmen do return one of the best players in Section II — Mike Camardo in the midfield. Also returning to the midfield will be Bob McIver. Both will be playing college lacrosse upon graduation. Camardo will play at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and McIver at Binghamton University.
"What can you say about Mike," McConaghy said. "He can play anywhere. And Bob is the same way. The differences from last year is like night and day. He had 15 goals and 10 assists and this year he’ll have to be one of the studs on offense.
"Last year, Jon Tuttle was the go-to guy," McConaghy added. "Now, one of those guys has to be that guy."

On attack, McConaghy said that a sophomore and a junior will start, along with the only returning player — Sean Davis.

Defense

The defense will be anchored by goalie Judd Robinson, who had a superb year between the pipes in his first season as a goalie and will play at the State University of New York College at Oswego next spring. The starting defense could include some younger players around the returner Scott Raffensperger.
"The defense includes a freshman and two kids that started playing last year," McConaghy said. "We also have some kids that never played defense before until the second-to-last practice last year."

And Raffensperger played long-stick midfielder last spring.
"It’s nice to have Judd," McConaghy said. "We got him and Scott Raffensperger back. He’ll be playing close D. No more long pole [midfielder]. We have him as a leader."

Raffensperger is one of the team’s captains, along with Camardo and McIver.

The Dutchmen will have a tough schedule as they play some difficult out-of-league games. The Dutch will travel to Long Island, which has numerous talented teams and players, to take on Copague. The Dutch will also face one of the top teams in Section I in Lakeland High School.

But, as McConaghy pointed out, the Suburban Council will also be tough.
"We play Niskayuna, Shaker, Saratoga, and Shenendehowa twice," the coach said. "That, in itself, is rough. And Lakeland is obviously going to be a test early in the year."

The Dutchmen made a run to the Section II championship game last year before losing to Niskayuna, which ended up being the first team from the section to play in the state-title game. McConaghy said that his team can make the same kind of run.
"We are expecting big things," the coach said. "We expected big things last year. If we put in the time and effort, we can do it."

McConaghy wants to keep alive the tradition that Guilderland lacrosse has worked hard to gain.
"We talk about it everyday," he said. "It’s a lot of hard work and a lot of fun. We want to keep the tradition of the past 30 years. This year is the 30th year. It would be nice to do some good things."