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Bucknell's Chris Cara Repeats as Patriot League Lacrosse Offensive Player of the Year
April 27, 2005 LEWISBURG, Pa. - Record-setting Bucknell attackman Chris Cara (Medford, N.Y./Patchogue-Medford) became just the second player in league history to repeat as Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year, and four other Bison earned their first All-Patriot League citations on Wednesday when the annual postseason awards were announced by the league office. Cara and junior defenseman Michael Abou Jaoude (San Francisco, Calif./St. Ignatius) represented Bucknell on the All-Patriot League First Team, while senior defensive midfielder/faceoff specialist Ryan Goodman (Franklin Lakes, N.J./Dwight Englewood), senior attack Patrick Christensen (Hollywood, Md./St. Mary's Ryken) and junior goalie Matt Baran (Wilmington, Del./Tatnall) earned second-team honors. In addition, Bison head coach Sid Jamieson, who is retiring at the end of this season - his 38th - was selected by his peers as the Patriot League Coach of the Year for the third time. The All-Patriot League Team was comprised exclusively from members of the four teams that will compete at the Patriot League Tournament this weekend - Bucknell, Navy, Army and Lehigh. Army's Matt Luyster was named Defensive Player of the Year, Navy's Matt Russell was Goalkeeper of the Year, and Army's Matt Scheel was picked as Rookie of the Year. Cara enters the Patriot League Tournament tied for the national scoring lead with 62 points (28 goals, 34 assists) in 12 games, but he had to beat out an extremely talented group of offensive stars to claim offensive MVP honors for the second straight year, most notably Army's John Walker and Jim Wagner and Navy's Graham Gill and Billy Looney. Three-time winner Tim Pearson of Army (1999, 2001-02) is the only other player to win offensive player of the year honors more than once. It was Pearson's Patriot League career scoring record of 238 points that Cara broke just last week against Penn State. Cara now has 245 career points (110G, 135A), which is also the Bucknell record. He enters Friday's Patriot League Tournament game against Army needing only three assists to equal Pete von Hoffmann's school mark and seven to reach Pearson's Patriot League record. Cara, who joined fellow First Team All-PL picks Walker and Mitch Hendler of Navy on the list of 16 Tewaaraton Trophy nominees, was the Division I scoring leader with 78 points last season, and he is tied for first with Albany's Merrick Thomson entering play this weekend.
Abou Jaoude, a first-time all-leaguer, joined Cara, making this the fifth straight season that a Bucknell defenseman has earned first team honors. Taking over the role vacated by 2004 Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year Blaise Fletcher, Abou Jaoude is the team's "shut down" cover man, who is usually assigned to the opposition's best offensive player. He leads a Bucknell defense that has allowed only 7.8 goals per game this season, the second-best figure in the conference, behind only national leader Navy. Goodman and Christensen, both seniors, were rewarded for their leadership and outstanding play with their first all-conference recognition. Goodman is the team's primary faceoff man and ranks first on the team and second in the Patriot League with 56 ground balls. He is also one of the key players on a veteran defensive midfield unit. Goodman is a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-District selection with a 3.78 grade-point average in electrical engineering and has won numerous awards for his heavy involvement in campus and community service. Christensen is one of the league's top offensive snipers with 27 goals and three assists on the season. He ranks tied for fifth in the league in goals, 12th in points and tied for first in extra-man goals with six. With 90 career goals, he ranks fifth on Bucknell's career list and 11th in Patriot League annals. Christensen scored the team's biggest goal of the season, the overtime game-winner in Bucknell's 8-7 upset of then-second-ranked Navy on March 12. Baran, a junior in his second year as Bucknell's starting goalie, is enjoying his best season with the Orange and Blue. He has posted career-best numbers - a league-best .593 save percentage and a No. 2-ranked goals-against average of 8.00. He has played nearly 96 percent of the team's minutes in goal this season, and he ranks 13th nationally in save percentage and 18th in goals-against. Baran has 134 saves this season, or an average of 11.2 per game, including a season-high 17 against Maryland. Jamieson, the only head coach in Bucknell varsity lacrosse history, previously earned Patriot League Coach of the Year honors in 1996 and 2001. He is looking to take the Bison to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2001 and win a fifth Patriot League title in the last six years. It was announced last week that Jamieson, one of the all-time great collegiate coaches, will be receiving the Spirit of Tewaaraton Award from the Tewaaraton Foundation on June 2 in Washington, D.C. Cara, Walker and Wagner comprised the All-Patriot League first-team attack unit. Army's Mike Obringer, along with the Navy trio of Gill, Billy Looney and Chris Pieczonka made up the first-team midfield. Abou Jaoude, Luyster and Hendler were the first-team defense, while Russell was the first-team goalie. On the second team, Christensen joined Lehigh's Andrew Lucas and Navy's Jon Birsner at attack. Goodman, Lehigh's Alex Hooff and Navy's Steve Looney and Clipper Lennon comprised the midfield. Army's Nick Doerr, Lehigh's Jeff King and Navy's Mike Felber earned nods on defense, with Baran in goal. Bucknell is 8-4 overall and 5-1 in the Patriot League. The Bison finished in a three-way tie for first place alongside Army and Navy in the regular-season standings, but Navy gained the No. 1 seed at the Patriot League Tournament based on a goal-differential tiebreaker. Bucknell, ranked 13th in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll and 14th in the Geico/STX USILA Coaches' Poll, will play No. 10/9 Army on Friday at approximately 4:30 p.m. at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium.
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