Between The Walls Of FEN - Army West Point

Last post I did a rapid-fire catch-up of the fellas' performance on the field. For this post, I wanted to dive into the personality of the team off the field. A group of men on the team with a very distinct personality is our goalies— informally known as the Red Army. As one of their unlucky neighbors in the locker room, I get to witness some of the most interesting guys on the team.

At bat is Wyatt “Joe” Schupler. Probably the guy on the team with the most laps ran around Lusk Reservoir but doesn’t show it, Shups is our starting goalie. He’s an absolute stud this year in net, with a save percentage higher than Aidan Byrnes’ average test scores from his freshman year.

On deck is Knox Dent. I often look at Knox and ask him if he forgot leg day in the gym that week. I guess he’s been forgetting leg day for the past four years. He definitely shows in practice that you don’t need lower body strength to be an outstanding goalie. An outstanding teammate as well, he is probably Wyatt’s No. 1 fan during games.

In the hole is Matt Chess. I really thought we had a celebrity on the team when I first met Matt. I was sad to learn that he did not play McLovin in the movie Superbad; however, he still is quite the character. You really can’t catch this guy anywhere without wearing his headphones. I feel like it would be fitting for Matt to be listening to Mozart or Tchaikovsky, but I couldn’t be any more wrong. Hearing Matt rap every lyric to Dreams and Nightmares by Meek Mill had me as confused as Gunner Philipp when he gets stuck on defense.

On to the Freshman Goalies:

Bennett Ong, from New Canaan, Connecticut. He has more sticks than all the faceoff guys combined. Bennett is the Chief of the FENPD (Foley, Enners, Nathe Police Department). Out of personal motivation, (no really, no one told him to do this), feels the need to “clean up the streets” in the FEN center. Not a single soul knows really when or why he will arrest you. Just expect to be immediately tased before he reads you his version of the Miranda Rights.

Mitch Gutgsell. Our other goalie from Colorado. A little-known fact is he has the highest save percentage in college lacrosse at 100%. 0 goals against and three saves; kind of a lot for only being in net for 1 minute and 50 seconds. Very relatable playing time though. Mitch is one of the “could be” younger brothers of the team. In my opinion, we have quite a few. Here’s my full list, feel free to take a look at our team roster and let me know your thoughts:

Mitch Gutgsell- Knox Dent
Tim Johnson- Brent Hauck
Billy Adams- Gunner Philipp
Kyle Atherton- Chase Gedney
Christian Mazur- Hunter Mazur
Trevor Kelly- Andrew Kelly
Coach Ward (in 10 years) - Coach Alberici

Game Highlights:

Holy Cross for 1

Previous USA Lacrosse Magazine cover boy James Pryor got his first goal of the season
Jackson Eicher getting on the board with two goals that juiced up the Dawg Pound.
It was good to see Gunner Philipp get himself two goals after taking hundreds of shots a week on that net the week prior.

Lafayette for 2

Brendan Nichtern with a casual seven points. Usually, in summer ball, you’d call this guy a ball-hog, but 5 of the 7 points were assists, so I guess you just call him a good player.
Will Coletti had a day at the faceoff X going 22-of-32. My wrists were sore just from watching how many faceoffs this guy was taking. Sheesh.
5 points for Jacob Morin, who must’ve chosen his jersey number for how hard he can shoot. I think Matt Horace had the same reason for his jersey number as well.
A hat-trick for Paul Johnson. He finally decided to start putting up numbers like his older brother did back in the day for the team.

Lehigh for 3

Army West Point Athletics