Chuck Weitzel has had a long journey to get to where he is today.
A top-50 national recruit coming out of high school according to Inside Lacrosse, Weitzel attended Yale to play lacrosse. Battling injuries, the Massachusetts native graduated from Yale in 2024 and became a volunteer assistant coach with Dean College while in grad school. Competing in collegiate lacrosse seemed like a pastime for Weitzel, but he entered the transfer portal after the 2025 season as a player.
Dean head coach Matt Schairer, who was once an assistant under Pride head coach Sean Quirk at Endicott, contacted Quirk to vouch for Weitzel to join Springfield — and it worked out. Weitzel came to Alden Street as a grad transfer, studying sports psychology as well as playing for the Pride this year. The journey had a sense of relief on Thursday afternoon.
Down a goal with under six minutes to go in the fourth quarter against Union, Weitzel picked off a pass and sprinted out to a 40-yard dash in the middle of the field without a Garnet Charger in sight. Cradling the ball in his left hand, Weitzel was finally presented with a defender in front of him — his brother, Chris.
“Playing against [Chris] was surreal, man,” Weitzel said. “I played with him a little bit in high school, but I never got to play against any of my siblings growing up. We’re all spread out a little bit. Especially me, thinking I was done from the sport, coming back for another year after a year off is surreal. It’s awesome.”
Weitzel had only one choice when Chris slid, and that was to launch a shot from 17 yards out, and it cashed, knotting the game up at eight apiece. Two minutes later, Jake Degnan was left wide open at the point, and he delivered to give Springfield not only its first lead of the season, but its first win as the Pride held on to beat the Garnet Chargers 9-8.
Quirk captured his first career win at the helm of the Pride, and was visibly emotional after the game. The back-and-forth bout between the two teams ending in a Springfield win filled Quirk’s eyes with joyful tears.
“Our guys are just gritty. They believe in what we’re trying to do. I’m just so proud of them,” Quirk said just minutes after the clock hit triple zeroes. “They put so much work into it every day, and we want what’s best for them. To see their faces after, these guys are winners, and they’re learning how to win and get through adversity. We had a lot of adversity in that game, and they just battled through it.”
In the second quarter, Brady Soldo brought the Pride within a goal when he put his defender on the ground with a dodge. Soldo had two goals on the day, and the All-American is set to be a key piece moving forward. Later in the frame, short-stick defensive midfielder Sal Posillico used his skills as a punt returner on the football team to force his way past defenders in the open field, finding Bryan Stensrud wide open on the doorstep to tie it at 4-4.
Springfield trailed by one at the half, but if it wasn’t for goalkeeper Ian Cote, the Pride would’ve been in real danger. Cote had just two career starts prior to this game, and his most recent start came in a game where the Pride allowed north of 50 shots against Stevens. Cote was ready for the moment, as he had eight saves in the first quarter alone and 20 saves overall, good for a .714 save percentage. The senior has stepped up as an anchor of the Pride’s defense, as he leads the three freshman goalies on the squad as well.
“I have to give praise to the coaches and our defense,” Cote said. “I was getting a lot of shots that I wanted to see. I can’t do what I did today without my defense in front of me. The offense capitalized when we got them the ball, and that’s huge.”
Quirk has been impressed by Cote also.
“He’s playing like a senior out there,” Quirk said. “He hasn’t played much throughout his career, but he’s playing like a veteran. He’s playing like a senior. He made huge stops today to hold that team to eight goals, and the defense in front of him played great. I’m so proud of him.”
Chuck Vath and Mike Kuziak are two players who were buried in the depths of a rare, ultra-experienced position the year prior. This season, the smooth and shifty midfielders have improved greatly, finding their way onto the field in key moments. Quirk even told Vath at halftime that if he were to get the ball near the goal to let it fly. With 5:30 left in the third, Kuziak rolled out to catch a pass from Rory Scanlon, and he found Vath who fired a missile into the top-right corner to make it 6-6.
“Chuck’s got all the tools physically,” Quirk said. “His confidence is just through the roof now. These guys are buying in, they’re listening, and we’re just trying to build their confidence.”
“I think Mike has done a really good job of being a leader on that line,” Springfield graduate assistant coach Kevin Tierney said. “It was a gutsy performance by that second line. It’s not easy to be younger in these one goal games but they play really well together, and they really love each other out there and have each other’s backs.”
Face-off specialist Dom Savastano ended the third quarter with a spectacular play, beating a long-pole to the goal and tying things up yet again. Savastano now has a goal in both games for the Pride this season.
Weitzel’s fourth quarter goal was one that was familiar to him. In a scrimmage against Conn. College, the 6-foot-5, 215 pound tree scored a goal from over 15 yards out too. This time, the stakes were leveled up.
“First, I saw my little brother at the point. He gave a hedge and got back. He didn’t trust that I could shoot,” Weitzel said with a smirk. “But I know our guys trust me. I know we got back up. I kind of closed my eyes, all I saw was the goal move, and all the guys were hyped.”
Degnan’s goal to take the lead was nothing new either. He’s scored a goal in every college game he’s appeared in, with 90-plus goals in his career.
Union had plenty of opportunities to tie the game late, but a costly called timeout with no timeouts to spare under two minutes gave Springfield the ball and iced the game. The 11 turnovers by Union in the fourth was the most by either team in a quarter dating back to 2013 in the two programs’ match history.
“We didn’t necessarily feel like we gave it our best shot last Saturday, and we just really wanted to get back to the way that we play lacrosse,” graduate assistant coach Kaden Quirk said. “All credit to those guys for working their tails off all week and coming out today, executing on that game plan and just being themselves. They do it every single day at practice, and they showed that they’re capable of it in this game.”
Quirk’s first win as the Springfield men’s lacrosse head coach puts the Pride at 1-1, facing Keene State on Tuesday at 5 p.m.
“The community that Coach Quirk has built within this team is awesome,” Weitzel said. “I know all the guys trust me, the coaches trust me. It’s a supportive community. You mess up, you play well, everyone’s got your back. It’s a different experience than I had. It wasn’t this positive, and this has really helped me maximize my game and maximizes how we can compete this season.”