McNamara Breaks School Record, Rockhurst Rolls Olathe East

With his 134th career goal in just the second game of his junior season, attack Luke McNamara broke the Rockhurst men’s lacrosse school record. The goal was his fourth of the match versus Olathe East on March 21, which ended in a 22-4 rout for the Hawklets.

“I knew going into the game that I was close to the record,” McNamara said. “I didn’t think I was going to break it that game though.”

McNamara added three more goals to his record, ending the game with seven. That exceeded the total output from Olathe East’s entire team and helped run Rockhurst’s early season record to 2-0. 

From the time he stepped on campus, expectations were high for McNamara. He grew up playing lacrosse in Rochester, New York, and Hawklet coaches had heard their fair share of hype around him. On the east coast, lacrosse is one of if not the main sport, so they were expecting a strong player.

“I mean, from day one, he’s been just as good if not better than we anticipated,” head coach Tim Reidy said.

While the talent is obvious to even a casual observer, Reidy says McNamara dedicating his blood, sweat and tears to working to become an all-around athlete is what has brought him to the position he is in as a school record holder and University of Utah commit.

“He doesn’t play other sports, but he’s put in a lot of work outside of the lacrosse season in terms of strength and conditioning, putting muscle on, working out, footwork types of things that he adds to his game beyond just shooting and playing catch and those types of things. So, in turn, he’s become more of an all-around athlete as opposed to just a lacrosse player.”

Starting varsity as a freshman, McNamara has had the opportunity to work toward the school scoring record since he stepped on campus. While he says it was never a focus, McNamara admits setting school marks is pretty cool, and doing it now adds another element.

“I was excited because breaking that record as a junior means that I still have two years to make the record even more.

“I hope that the record will be broken at some point, but I don’t think it’s going to happen anytime soon,” he added.

While McNamara impressed with his seven goals, the Rockhurst offense, in general, put on a show against Olathe East. Senior Henry Kemp won a majority of his faceoffs, keeping the ball in the Hawklets’ sticks. Goals were scored in what felt like moments from each other, and the offense was cutting through the Olathe East defenders like butter.

The game started with junior Croix Snow scoring very early off an assist from junior Jack Bichelmeyer. McNamara scored his first moments later. The Hawklets dominated the whole first quarter, maintaining possession most of the time on Olathe East’s side of the field. Staking themselves to an early lead allowed the Hawklets to slow down the offense and focus primarily on not allowing the other team to score.

The second quarter started with a McNamara goal, increasing the lead to 8-0. Rockhurst continued to possess the ball on Olathe East’s side of the field throughout the period. The Hawks didn’t break through for their first goal until there were just seven seconds left in the half. Rockhurst quickly responded, though, with junior Reid Moshier scoring with only two ticks left on the clock.

The third quarter featured goals by junior Colin Komenda as well as McNamara’s sixth and seventh ones of the night, the last of which was an impressive behind the back goal, his second such tally of the evening. The Hawklets continued their impressive defensive showing as well, not allowing Olathe East to score again until there was 1:40 left.

Going into the 4th quarter, the Hawklets held an 18-point lead, 20-2. The final frame proved to be more of the same, with Rockhurst playing keep away from Olathe East. The Hawks finally scored their third goal with 10 minutes left, and notched their final one with 5:30 to go in the game. In the end, Rockhurst kept their 18-point advantage, claiming the 22-4 victory.

The game gives the Hawklets momentum heading into their trip to Houston for a pair of games, and shows how potentially dominant this Rockhurst lacrosse team can be, especially with players like McNamara on the attack.

“We’ve had a couple really talented players,” Reidy, the head coach, said. “We have one that’s playing professionally [Wheaton Jackoboice]. He was playing a different position, so if you want to compare…I don’t think so. The other one was a defender [Tommy Eckels]. But in terms of a lacrosse player, no one comes close to Luke McNamara.”