For Bellarmine, the nearest Division-I program is more than 200 miles north. To the west, more than 1,100 miles separate the Knights from conference foe Denver.

Playing in Louisville, Ky., Bellarmine and its players are outsiders in the world of elite college lacrosse. But last week, they were among the top 20 teams in the country. Despite a loss to Hobart on Saturday, the Knights are still contending for school history in the form of their first Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament berth.

“Oh man, it’d mean everything. We’ve been so close and obviously we’ve been 0-12 the past two seasons,” junior midfielder Cameron Gardner said. “This program’s come so far with the transition to the coaching staff with losing Black Jack.”

After the death of head coach Jack McGetrick in 2010, plus two winless seasons in the ECAC, the Knights — or “Team North America” as the team calls itself — are playing the best lacrosse in program history. With a tricky blend of Midwestern football players, Canadian sharpshooters, a revamped defense that maddens opposing attacks and defensive midfielders who trap opponents in transition, Bellarmine has transformed itself from a doormat into a danger.

BU and its odd blend of athletes have benefitted from the NCAA rule change allowing referees to count off a 30-second shot clock when they determine an offense to be stalling. The result is more transition lacrosse. There, Bellarmine traps its opponents in a frenzy.

After an initial breakout fails to produce a clear scoring opportunity, most teams will sub out their defensive midfielders for attacking ones, allowing the opponent to switch its attackers for defenders.

For Bellarmine, there’s little point. Defensive midfielders Bobby Schmitt, Trevor Timmerberg and Reid Wesley are all offensive threats. When the Knights can’t score straight out of transition, they punish teams on the secondary break.

“They can keep the ball down there, play a little bit of early offense against other teams,” Bellarmine head coach Kevin Burns said. “And then we’ve got a couple Canadians down there at attack, great finishers around the cage, great guys in those unsettled situations, being able to just gun the ball at each other and finish it.”

The BU roster features players from 14 different states and four Canadian provinces. Burns said lacrosse wasn’t the primary sport for most of his 42 players. His eight Midwestern players tend to play a more direct “football” style of lacrosse, he said. Team members don’t consider any of their own players to have been premier prospects, and it drives the Knights daily.

“Definitely, little bit of a chip on the shoulder,” starting goaltender Dillon Ward said. “You know, going to these places, big-time schools, the fans there don’t really know who you are. Most places we go, people are asking us how to pronounce our school, no one really knows how to pronounce our school.”

Burns said he thinks his team plays too much defense. He coached the defense last season, but gave up the unit to assistant coach Jim Mitchell for this season.

The head coach said his team plays about eight to nine minutes of defense in each 15-minute quarter. Yet the Knights boast the fourth best defense in the country, surrendering just 7.45 goals per game — 0.45 more than Hofstra’s nation-leading back line.

Bellarmine gives up plenty of shots — enough for Ward to record the second most saves per game in the country – but almost always with the opposing attackers’ hands tied up. Ward called the shots his defense gives up “easy to save.”

“Coming from a defensive perspective, I think we play too much D in every game,” Burns said. “So it’s been a little bit of me having to bite my tongue and allow the guys to make a couple mistakes and stuff. I kind of get out of my comfort zone a little bit, too, to allow us to play this way.”

That means patiently watching as his defenders work under massive amounts of offensive pressure for minutes on end, while waiting for a turnover or saved shot to send his efficient offense sprinting the other way.

The Knights started the season with one goal: make the ECACs. They’ll need Hobart and Fairfield to drops games down the stretch to make it happen. Regardless, 2013 has forced Bellarmine into national conversation.

Said Burns: “Honestly, we’re not a secret anymore to anybody.”

Published on April 16, 2013 at 2:21 am

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_