SUWANEE, Ga. - In exclusive voting by the league’s head men’s lacrosse coaches, Zack Connors of Centre College was selected the 2012 SCAC Offensive Player-of-the-Year, while Colorado College’s Zach Pierce was tabbed as SCAC Defensive Player-of-the-Year. Centre head coach Bert Severns was named the SCAC Coach-of-the-Year.
In the same balloting, Erik Klein of Birmingham-Southern College
was voted SCAC Newcomer-of-the-Year.
Connors, a sophomore attacker from Louisville, Ky., finished the
regular season with 86 points on 45 goals and 41 assists. He ranked
in the top five in the league in a number of offensive categories
including assists per game (2.56 – 1st), total points (86
– 2nd), points per game (5.38 – 1st) and game winning
goals (4 – T-2nd). Connors is the first Centre player to be
named the league’s Offensive Player-of-the-Year in
men’s lacrosse.
In being selected the league’s Offensive POTY, Connors
received six of 10 votes from the coaches.
Birmingham-Southern’s Jacob McPherson, Colorado
College’s Moses Taylor, Henrix College’s Cameron
Millstone and Southwestern University’s Jamie Long all
received one vote each.
Pierce, a senior longstick midfielder from Denver, Colo., helped
lead a Colorado College defense that ranked fifth in the SCAC in
ground balls with 38.93 per game. He helped the Tigers to a number
two ranking in the league in penalty killing (81.4 percent) and a
number one ranking in caused turnovers (9.87 per game). Pierce
totaled 65 ground balls and caused 37 turnovers.
Pierce received five of 10 votes to earn the SCAC Defensive POTY
honor. Andrew Huffman of Birmingham-Southern received three votes.
Clayton Brown of Centre and Brandon Barrett of Sewanee-University
of the South split the remaining two votes.
Klein, a first-year attacker from Coquitlam, British Columbia,
tallied 90 points on 62 goals and 28 assists. His 90 points led the
team while his 28 goals also led the team. Klein also ranked among
the SCAC leaders in goals per game (3.65 – 1st),
assists per game (1.65 – 4th) and points per game (5.29
– 2nd) while also totaling 43 ground balls.
Klein received five of 10 votes in the Newcomer-of-the-Year
voting. Centre’s Peter Murphy received two votes. Colorado
College’s Connor Ervin, Sewanee’s Hal Smith and
Southwestern’s Ross Warkentin each picked a vote.
Coach Severns guided the Centre men to the program’s
first-ever appearance in the SCAC tournament in 2012. In his second
season as the head coach of the Colonels, Severns led Centre to a
7-2 SCAC record along with a 12-4 overall mark. The 7-2 league
record was tied for second place.
In just the second season as a varsity program, Severns helped lead Centre to a 7.5 game improvement in 2012 after Centre went 3-10 last year.
Severns received four votes from his peers in the COTY voting. Andy Bonasera of Birmingham-Southern (three), Sean Woods of Colorado College (one), Marty Waters (one) of Sewanee and Tom Higgins (one) of Oglethorpe University received the remaining votes.
To view the entire 2012 All-SCAC Men's Lacrosse teams, click here.
