Hounds Focus on Attack, Midfield in 2016 Collegiate Draft
January 22, 2016 - Major League Lacrosse (MLL)
Charlotte Hounds News Release
BALTIMORE, MD - Major League Lacrosse on Friday afternoon held its 2016 Collegiate Draft, and with the second overall pick the Charlotte Hounds selected Dylan Donahue, an attackman out of Syracuse University. Donahue is expected to significantly improve the Hounds' offense, which ranked last in 2015 with just 160 goals scored.
Donahue was a Tewaaraton Award nominee, USILA Third Team All American and All-ACC in 2015. He lead the Orange with 50 goals and ranked second on the team with 71 points. The attackman's 15 extra-man goals were the most in the nation. Donahue will enter the 2016 season with the second-longest active goal-scoring streak in NCAA.
The Hounds also held the fourth overall selection, which they used on Johns Hopkins attackman Ryan Brown. In 2015, Brown was named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year and earned USILA Second Team All-American honors. He lead the Blue Jays with 61 goals, which is a Johns Hopkins single-season record, and 77 points.
"If you add Donahue and Brown's stats together from last season, it looks ridiculous," said Hounds General Manager Mike Cerino. "You're looking at guys who scored well over 100 goals last year in college lacrosse and we're a team that is looking for goals, looking for more scoring punch in our offense."
In the second round, the Hounds selected Maryland midfielder Pat Young with the 13th overall pick and Penn attackman Nick Doktor with the 18th overall pick. Young recorded 21 goals and 8 assists as a junior at UMBC before transferring to Maryland. He was the 2013 America East Rookie of the Year. Doktor also scored 21 goals in 2015, as well as tallied a team-high 36 assists. He was honored as Second Team All-Ivy.
The Hounds also had two picks in the third round, selecting midfielders Colin Woolford (20th overall) and Brendan Caputo (26th overall). Woolford recorded 10 goals and three assists at Denver in 2015, while Caputo had 26 goals at 12 assists at Brown.
"If you look at our midfield picks - Young, Woolford, Doktor - we added a lot of size, we added a lot of left handed players," said Cerino. "Having six picks in the first three rounds let us, I don't want to say take chances, but create some depth at those offensive positions as we try to rebuild the roster offensively and create competition up there."
To kick off the fourth round, the Hounds selected Towson goalie Tyler White with the 27th overall pick. White finished the 2015 season with a 7.57 goals against average, a Towson single-season record. He was named CAA Defensive Player of the Year and earned USILA Second Team All-American honors.
The Hounds rounded out their draft with Maryland defenseman Goran Murray (5th round, 37th overall), Marist attackman Joseph Radin (6th round, 45th overall), North Carolina defenseman Evan Connell (7th round, 54th overall), Rutgers defenseman Zach Sikora (7th round, 61st overall) and Bryant attackman Shane Morrell (8th round, 63rd overall).
"After this draft we have a lot more options and certainly a lot more diversity at the positions and the combinations of skill sets," said Cerino. "Offense was the theme of the day and we feel like we got two consummate scorers at the top of the draft and we feel like we added size and dodging ability to our midfield."
Friday's Collegiate Draft, the 16th in MLL history, was held in conjunction with the 2016 US Lacrosse National Convention at the Baltimore Convention Center. Expansion team the Atlanta Blaze opened the draft by selecting Duke midfielder Myles Jones with the first overall pick.
All drafted players will be added to a team's Collegiate Inactive Roster, and they can be activated once their NCAA season are complete. The Hounds will open the 2016 season at American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte on Saturday, April 23.
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