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NCAA DIVISION III MEN'S LACROSSE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPMay 26, 2013Paul CantabeneMark PannentonTyler ReidNick RossiPHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA Stevenson – 16 PAUL CANTABENE: Thanks. Appreciate you all being here. I want to congratulate RIT on just a tremendous year. They're an unbelievable team with just some great, great talent and they showed a lot of character today in the way they played, so I think Coach Coon is a great guy. It's not going to take us long to see them again because we open the season with them next year. That'll be pretty interesting. I also want to thank everybody from Stevenson University that helped us get here: President Manning and Tim Campbell and Brett Adams and everybody who put everything on for this weekend. It's an unbelievable community of people and what they do to help us get here and the logistics and it's just a real special place. I feel like I'm one of the luckiest guys in the world to have the best job in the world, so I just can't thank them enough for everything they've done, and especially my team, especially in the end where I thought it might have cost us a little bit. They're a great bunch of kids. The character is unbelievable and these guys show every day, come out to practice to get this job done and just a crazy, crazy game. It's unbelievable and it's a testament to them and their character of what they were able to do today, and I thank them, and again, congratulations to RIT on just a tremendous year. Q. For all three of you guys, what was the mood going into that fourth quarter after a really played third quarter by RIT? NICK ROSSI:  I'll start. When we started the fourth quarter there, I just was trying to tell everyone and coach was trying to tell everyone to stay calm. We had been in that situation before, and towards the end of the year we kind of excelled in those situations, keeping our composure and making plays when we needed to make plays, and that's something coach has stressed all year and I thought we did that again today. MARK PANNENTON: Yeah, they definitely did make a great run in the third quarter after halftime and we knew that was going to happen. We knew that both teams were going to go on their own separate runs here in the game and this game was definitely up and down, but I think we just rallied up and really showed some heart there in the fourth quarter and just showed how much we wanted this one today. TYLER REID: To go off what they said, we've been in that position before, and against Washington College right at the beginning of the tournament we put ourselves in a bad hole, and it comes down to heart and it comes down to doing the little things, and I think that the one thing that we did, we knew it was our time and we knew we all had to play and make smart plays and somebody was going to have to make a big play, and we just went out there and we played as a team, and our biggest thing this year has been family, and I think that that attests to the fact that we play like a family out there. Q. Just talk about what it means to you guys to be the first team to bring a championship home to Stevenson. MARK PANNENTON: I mean, that's something that I personally dreamed about since I was a kid, of since I started playing lacrosse was winning this National Championship, but I think it makes it that much better that this is Stevenson's first one, the first one for coach as a head coach, and I mean, we're all really excited about it and extremely proud of everybody on the team. NICK ROSSI: Just a testament to all the hard work that has come before us, players on the other teams, Evan Douglass, Kyle Moffitt, Richie Ford, guys like that built this program. Without them we're not here today. TYLER REID: I think to go off of that, the guys have worked so hard. I'm pretty sure we've practiced more than 100 days this year, and every day going out there sometimes it gets tough, you get into kind of a routine, but we're looking forward to practicing every day, and that was the biggest thing. We wanted to be out there. Some people might complain, some people might go through the motions but we would get into that locker room and it was strictly business, and I think these guys can also go along with it and say it's a great feeling to be the first team at the school to bring something like this back, and also to be part of a school that's growing like it is. It's a great team at Stevenson, that's for sure. Q. Tyler can you talk about just this game which seemed like it was so uphill after that start, the face‑off violation that led to a tough second quarter, 11 fouls, you're on the field two men down to make your last stand. Not exactly the way you draw it up, but talk about how you dragged it uphill like that and got it done. TYLER REID: Yeah, I was actually joking around with coach coming in here about how I led the game in penalty minutes because I was serving a lot of penalties there. But it came down to really‑‑ when you're put in position to make a play you have to make a play, and Dimitri Pecunes, the kid came up with three saves within about 15 seconds and he stole the show with a minute 30 left. The one thing with playoff‑‑ in any sport when you've got a player that gets hot, it's hard to get something past that player, and Dimitri got hot through these playoffs, and we counted on him and we needed him to make some plays and the kid made some plays. Q. Tyler, you scored a lot of big goals in your career, but you got the first goal this afternoon to spark a great run in the first quarter. What was your team's mentality after halftime, you guys balanced the momentum, how were you able to come away with it when it mattered the most? TYLER REID: I think the one thing that we tried to stress a lot in the season after the first half, especially during the beginning of our season, we would come out kind of flat, and we kind of came up with the mentality that every quarter is 0‑0; no matter if we're up or down, it's one goal at a time and that's something that Nick specifically stressed a lot this year. We were down against WAC, we dug ourselves a hole. Nick was composed and talked us through it. One goal at a time, that was our mentality. You can't look too far ahead, you've just got to play it out. And another thing that we went through during these playoffs was keeping everything eye level. Out there today a lot of the calls we couldn't control, and at times we felt that calls weren't going our way, but you can only control what is put in front of you. You can only control what you can do. It was big for us to get out there and just control what we can control. Q. Can you just explain the will of your team facing that adversity with all those penalty minutes they were taking? PAUL CANTABENE: Yeah, a lot of penalty minutes, but that's just the way they called it. But I think our guys have always showed great character, and a lot of those guys have learned through our program how to do that. I think we played in a lot of big games all year long with our schedule, and I think that we've handled it pretty well and put in a really tough spots, and our kids are pretty tough and they can make big plays. Something we preach all the time is that when you're put in position to make a play, you've got to make it. These guys were put in some positions to make it and made the plays, and that's how we win games. I thought we played to win the game, we didn't play to lose the game. At 13‑10 when things weren't really looking good for us in the fourth quarter, I thought they really ‑‑ in the huddle Pat Candon was coming to me, Coach, don't worry, we're going to get this; Mike Crowe came up to me, Coach, don't worry, we're going to get this; it's in our hands, we can handle it. One of the great parts about playing at Stevenson is we don't call a whole lot of plays; we just let our guys play within our formation, play within our sets and a pure motion style offense really, and those guys really just took it upon themselves to win this game, and I give them a lot of credit. We didn't handle that third quarter really well. I thought some adversity went to us, I didn't think we handled it well from the coaching staff to the players. Anytime you get a team going on a 7‑1 run, you're not doing things the right way. So we struggled there a little bit, but we handled it, we got in the fourth quarter and I think our mentality, we were able to calm the guys down, calm the coaches down and make the plays to win the game, and that's exactly what we did. Q. You did have 11 penalties today but you move on to the next number and that's 12. So can you explain the motto 12 feet tall? PAUL CANTABENE: Well, 12 feet tall is actually something that when you have some leaders at the Stevenson University like we do, especially President Manning, who leads from the top, he met with our guys throughout the course of the year and kind of worked with them with some things, and that's something he worked with them. And he's mostly like if you're 12 feet tall you can do anything. If you're on the field and you feel like you're 12 feet tall, you can do just about anything. He wanted to give those guys that insight, and he worked a few games ago meeting with them. The guys really bought into it. Any time that the guys really buy into something and they feel is important to them, that was the 12 feet tall motto they got, and we kind of embraced it. The seniors really took it upon themselves, hey fellas, we're 12 feet tall, we can do anything if you put your mind to it. When you're that big and anybody else, you can be successful, and those guys bought into that and we ran with it, and the seniors ran with it. And President Manning met with the team again today at our brunch at 11:00 and really reinforced all the things he did. And I think it really helps when you're getting into the fourth quarter and things aren't really going your way and you've been outscored 12‑4 in the second and third quarters and you aren't doing too well, mental toughness comes into it, and those guys were really able to channel their mental toughness and be able to be successful. That's what it's all about. It's a cool little thing. Any time when you hear teams have a little logo, and I thought it was great, and the guys really lived up to it. Q. How does it feel to be the only Irondequoit guy of three coaches to bring home a title? PAUL CANTABENE: I'm really proud of Rochester. One of the things, especially Irondequoit, when you're from a small town in upstate New York and not a lot of people go to your high school and lacrosse is the biggest thing, I'm really proud to be associated with those guys and to bring one home for Irondequoit and especially Coach Pratt, who was our high school coach, and what a great guy. He sent me a text yesterday and I'm glad that he's had a big influence on my life. At a time when I was in high school and my dad wasn't around and my mom was trying to do it, he kept me in line, a guy that, hey, Paul, this is what you've got to do. He did a lot for me. That's a big reason I was able to go to Loyola College and get out of Rochester which not a lot of people do and be successful. It's great for‑‑ unfortunately the other ones weren't able to come home with titles, but Matt Kerwick has done a great job with Cornell, and Chris, his team had a great run, almost got back all the way in, and those guys are a great representation of Irondequoit, especially Rochester. RIT even being here is great for Rochester, great for that town and everything going on. It was great for Rochester for them to be here. I'm proud to be an alumni of Rochester, especially Irondequoit, and happy to win it, and hopefully it does more for our town, gives more publicity for them which they really deserve because I don't think they get enough credit for what a great lacrosse town Irondequoit really is. Q. Is this how you dreamed it up at the beginning of the season, beating Salisbury two times in the season and then winning the championship? PAUL CANTABENE: Well, I kind of kid‑‑ this is actually pretty funny because I kind of kid with our women's basketball coach, Jackie Boswell, at the beginning of the year. We kind of do this little thing where you put all the Ws next to the games you think you win and the games you think you lost. And then she hands it to me and goes, why don't you do one. I put Ws next to all of them because I never think I'm going to lose a game. I always go in with that mentality we're going to win all the games, and we're going to do everything we can to win a game all the time so I never think about losing. That's the worst part, we always think about winning the games and never concede that loss. And I think that's one of the things that this team does, they never concede the loss. They could have gave up at 13‑10. They never concede anything. They never concede an inch to anybody. All right, you got us, I'm going to make the next play, we're going to make the next thing. That's kind of how we go about it. It's not how we dreamed it up. Obviously we thought we were going to have a good year because we had a lot of guys returning from the 18‑5 year last year, but when you lose Steve Banick in the preseason, who's probably the best attack man in the country, and then you have to rely on some young guys, but I thought we had good leadership throughout the year and we learned a lot of lessons, and it was good to be able to score goals this year, which last year's goals kind of came by. We did it, and it was good to beat Salisbury twice and it's good to beat a great team like Lynchburg who's outstanding twice and some other games, and Washington College who had such a great season, to beat them and some of the other great wins we got. But we did learn a lot from our losses. I thought we lost ‑‑ some of those losses we had, especially the Roanoke game, we learned a lot about ourselves about how to go about a game and to win in a tough situation. That's why it actually was really great that the game got changed from Stevenson to Roanoke because it put us in a really unbelievable situation, in a hostile situation down there and how to handle that, so I thought we learned a lot from that loss actually that probably helped us win this game. Q. Coach Coon talked about how he felt his team was a little tight coming out of the gates and maybe that contributed to falling into an early hole. How do you attribute your team coming out hot? PAUL CANTABENE: Well, we've always been ‑‑ I think the first quarter has been our best quarter all year. We've outscored teams pretty regularly, got on teams pretty regularly, 6‑1, 5‑1 after the first quarter all year. So our guys come ready to play. I think they do a great job staying loose early in games and going out and playing. I think our defense does a great job of getting on guys. I think we're really long and lanky. They're not used to how lanky and strong our guys are on the defensive end. It takes a little time getting used to, and I thought RIT took a little time to get used to that and were able to get out and go. So I think we just do a good job out of the gate getting our guys ready in the first quarter especially. Q. Can you go through just the last sequence after the offsides, then you get dinged for the conduct foul and just how that defensive sequence unfolded? Start with what happened with you and then just go through the whole sequence that ends up obviously with the save. PAUL CANTABENE: Well, I'm not going to comment on any officiating. The game was called the way it was. They dinged me. They didn't like what I had to say. I didn't think I said anything out of the ordinary, and that's just the way it is. They called me on it and we knew that ‑‑ I went in that huddle and basically said, he, fellas, that one's on me. You guys got to bail me out on this one. I screwed up and I shouldn't have said anything, I should have just went with the call. I thought Mark got drilled from behind that's why he went offsides and they didn't call it, but I got called for it. I go, hey, you've got to bail me out. The first thing Kyle Holechek said, looked at me and said, Coach, you've had my back my whole time here, we've got your back on this one. Dimitri looked me in the face and said, I'm going to make that save, Coach, don't worry about it, and he did, and they bailed me out. I told them, hey, fellas, that's what it's about. Sometimes your players got to bail you out of situations as a coach that you get yourself into, and with that. So it was a little crazy at the end, especially because they're so great at the man up. I really give them a lot of credit how great they are man up. They're unbelievable. So it was a little crazy, I felt a little bad there for a moment, actually felt great shame, but they bailed me out. Q. Moving into the final frame down 13‑10, what did you tell your team, and also give a little bit of insight from a face‑off standpoint, you're a former face‑off man yourself, what did you tell Brett Hiken? PAUL CANTABENE: The face‑offs were a little peculiar today at times, but I thought ‑‑ as a face‑off guy myself, I was trying to relay to Brent and Sam that you've got to adjust to the officials. You can't just think ‑‑ they're not going to change for you. You have to adjust how they're going about their mechanics. You've got to adjust how they're going about it. All great face‑off guys really adjust to those things. But at the same time I've always told Sam and Brent that I don't really care if we lose face‑offs for three quarters. All great face‑off guys win face‑offs in the fourth quarter. If you win face‑offs in the fourth quarter, you're going to help us win games. For us it's really a mentality to figure it out for three quarters and let's dominate in the fourth quarter to give us a chance to win the game and dominate the game. We've always taught all our face‑off guys they've got to figure it out; the fourth quarter is the only quarter that face‑offs matter. The rest of it's all whatever. The fourth quarter is when it matters because possessions get bigger, and as we were in the fourth quarter going down 13‑10 we needed every possession, and then that little run when we scored five goals in about two and a half minutes to get us back to a two‑goal lead right there, we won every face‑off in that goal, and I think put a little more pressure on their goalie, especially Pat Johnson who started seeing some shots, we scored five straight shots or five out of seven shots in that run to really put a lot of pressure on them. So yeah, the face‑offs were huge for us, and once we figured it out we did a great job, and Brent has been great all year. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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