The average college experience of the 18 Springfield men’s lacrosse impact players in 2025 was equivalent to a senior nearing graduation, yet in 2026, out of the 20 players who’ve seen consistent minutes, the average age is a second-semester sophomore. A young, fairly inexperienced team can show flashes of promise, but there’s undoubtedly growing pains along the way; the Pride fit that narrative, and have been striving to shake off those pains early on.
After dropping its second game of the season in a 17-9 loss against Endicott on March 6, Springfield men’s lacrosse needed a bounce back, but Sunday, March 8 was another setback. In Sunday’s loss to Colby, the Pride put up a season-high 51 shots, scoring just eight goals. Head coach Sean Quirk knew his team was better than those two outings, and has pushed the Pride to setting a mark of scoring 13 goals, while allowing less than 10 in a game.
“We feel that if we could hold teams to 13 goals and play that much less defense, get some goals in transition, we can win every game,” Quirk said on Wednesday. “We were averaging nine (goals) and based on the number of possessions we’ve had, we should be scoring minimally 13 a game.”
On Wednesday, the Pride responded to Quirk. Behind Brady Soldo’s four goals, Springfield (3-3) ran past Merchant Marine by a score of 15-7, answering both of Quirk’s inquiries. The first year head coach was content with the team’s performance, liking how his team found a rhythm compared to the weekend games. A ton of roster turnover from last year created open playing time for plenty of positions, and while it was tough at first, the Pride are starting to figure it out.
“We had a long team meeting on Tuesday, and it was going back to what we started in the fall: our non-negotiables, team pillars and our leaders of the team,” Quirk said. “Those three things are what can make us a great team. When we don’t have those three things, we’re average. The culture of this program is just so strong, but I think we got away from the things that we did really well last week and that was the difference today. We had 42 guys all on the same page.”
First-year Tate Anderson is one of those 42 guys, and is in the mix of a solid attack core. One of Springfield’s main facilitators in Bryan Stensrud went down with an injury in warm ups with the game five minutes away, so Anderson was next up. The attackman scored three goals in the second half, including his first career collegiate goal to start the third quarter with a bang. Anderson is a ball of energy for the Pride, with a bright future ahead at the X.
“Tate’s been working hard all fall, all spring, all preseason and we have the next man up mentality,” assistant coach Chris Piatelli said. “He finished the opportunities that he had. He rode hard and worked hard. He filled in tonight and really brought a spark.”
The Pride started the game off slow, which has become a theme throughout the first six games of the season. Springfield hasn’t scored the first goal of the game, yet have fought back several times this year.
“I think we have to come out and need to take care of the ball more,” Piatelli said when asked about the first quarter struggles. “We just have to take a deep breath when we get the possession and work for good opportunities. Once we settle in, we look pretty good. It’s just about continuing to hammer home early offense, but also to keep practicing with our transition guys like our d-mids and faceoff guys. I think if we can control the pace and get the first goal, it will definitely help us a lot.”
While they may have struggled early on, the Pride flourished the rest of the way. Down 4-2 in the second quarter, Springfield rattled off five unanswered goals, thanks to two each from Soldo and Rory Scanlon, as well as a snipe from Matt Webb. The midfielders started to find their stride, as Webb scored another with under five seconds to go in the first half to go up 8-5. The sharpshooting senior has caught fire as of late, as Webb has scored seven goals over the past three games. Soldo’s four goals also tied a career-best.
“I’ve had to be more aggressive this year, especially being on a line with Webb just because of the attention he takes from the defense,” Soldo said. “That’s my advantage, and I’ve been getting a lot of shots this year but they weren’t falling. I just have to stay aggressive and know that they’re gonna start falling.”
The defense stole the show in the second half allowing just two goals, and didn’t let the Mariners score for the final 24 minutes of play. Springfield hasn’t allowed a man-down goal in 85% of opponents’ opportunities, and has only given up two man-down goals in the past five games. Anders Norman is a defensive-midfielder for the Pride, and has been a big part of the defensive success for the Pride, improving greatly from last season. The senior also had two assists against the Mariners.
“Looking back at film last year, seeing what worked and what didn’t, playing as much as I could in the offseason has helped me,” Norman said. “Playing guys who I don’t know much about really helped with reading body position and dodging. I have goals for myself but that’s obviously behind the team goals.”
The team’s biggest goal is to win the NEWMAC on Stagg Field, and that campaign starts Saturday against Clark at 12 p.m. — their first conference opponent this season.
“We just have to keep getting better,” Quirk said. “It sounds cliche, but it means everything. Our riding game, our clearing game, our face off unit, our six-on-six offense. Our defense played great but we can tighten up some slides and some off-ball stuff.”
“It’s the journey we always talk about,” Quirk added. “Now we have Clark, and this is the biggest game we’ll play so far.”