Falcon Lacrosse Hosts Mercer for Senior Day

GAME 12
Air Force (4-7, 2-1 ASUN) vs. Mercer (6-5, 2-1 ASUN)
11 am MT, Saturday, April 18
Senior Day | ASUN Conference game
Falcon Stadium, USAF Academy, Colo.

A Brief History
The Falcons and Bears are meeting for the 15h time in program history with AF dominating the all-time series, 14-2. Air Force has won four-straight against Mercer dating back to 2022. The Falcons are undefeated when playing at Mercer (8-0); however, they are 4-2 when playing at USAFA; the Bears only wins coming at Falcon Stadium. AF has doubled up Mercer in six meetings, highlighted by a record-setting 20-5 thrashing in 2024. Last season, Air Force downed the bears, 12-8, in Macon. Caelan Driggs and Mana Wilhelm both scored hat tricks.

A Look at the Bears
Mercer will take the field under the command of head coach Ryan Danehy in his fourth season at the helm. The Bears are led by a trio of 20+ goal scorers in Will Zylstra (29g, 6a), Michael Frederick (21g, 12 a), and Dillon Bush (29g, 4a).

In goal, Jacon Neuman is expected to get the start. Neuman has a .461 save percentage and 14.66 GAA. Christpher Cappelmann is the leading faceoff specialist (.556) and ground balls leader (81). Thomas Venzie and Quinn Kelley lead the team with 19 and 11 CTOs, respectively.

The Top 4 Go
With two games remaining in the regular season, two teams have secured ASUN Tournament berths; top-ranked Utah (3-0 ASUN) and Mercer (2-1 ASUN). With a win on Saturday, or the following week, the Falcons would clinch their fifth-straight ASUN Championship appearance in as many years with the league. Two-straight losses would potentially leave Air Force in a tying scenario with the bottom teams.

Ties will be broken according to the following criteria:

Two-way Ties: In the case of a two-way tie between teams in the final standings of regular season conference play, this process will be used until all ties are broken and the seeding process is completed (ties will be broken in rank order beginning with the highest seed).

Head-to-Head competition - the higher seed will go to the team that has won the most League contests played against the other team involved in the tie.
If a tie still exists, a comparison of records will be made between the tied teams starting with the highest possible seed and continuing through the lowest seed.
Comparison of record versus out-of-conference common opponents.
Goal differential between tied teams (the goal differential can be no greater than eight in any contest).
Goal differential among all conference competition (the goal differential can be no greater than eight in any one contest).
Conference office determination using criteria used by the NCAA committee (full body of work).

Last Time Out
Falcon lacrosse thundered past Queens, 17-7, in ASUN Conference action at Queens Sports Complex. The Falcons' 10-goal differential marked a season high with the three other wins being decided by just one goal.

Seven Air Force players accounted for the scoring led by Christian Schweiger's career-best five goals with an assist. C4C Schweiger, the second leading goal scorer (23) on the team, has put up points in every game this season and has four hat tricks to his credit.

Senior teammate and goals leader Caelan Driggs put up four goals on six shots, scoring his sixth hat trick of the season. Driggs, with 126 career goals, is now just one goal shy of tying the all-time goals leader, Mike Crampton (2011-14).

Senior midfielder Cole Rassas had a day, posting a career-high five points on three helps and a pair of goals, upping his season totals to 12 goals and 12 assists. Rassas leads all Falcons in career assists (34).

Schweiger Tabbed ASUN OPOTW
Schweiger led the Falcons with a career-best five goals in Air Force's victory against Queens. He tallied one assist for six points and notched a .750 shooting percentage. The weekly honor marks the Air Force's second this season. Schweiger is the first AF freshman to win a conference player of the week award since Brandon Dodd won SoCon Offensive Player of the Week in 2020.

Heating up!
After relatively quiet first half of the season— six goals in the first six games, Caelan Driggs has 21 goals in the last four games, averaging 4.24 goals per game in ASUN Conference play. His scoring tear was highlighted by a career high eight goals against Providence. Driggs has scored a hat trick in every ASUN game and has six hat trick-plus games this season.

Driggs Aims for All-Time Goals Record
Senior attacker Caelan Driggs scored his 126th career goal last weekend. Driggs is now second in the all-time goals category. Mike Crampton (2011-14) holds the record with 127 to his credit. Driggs also has 152 career points, ranking seventh all-time.

Cunningham Moves into the Record Book
C1C Cole Cunningham has moved into the all-time top 10 ground balls leaders. Cunningham, with 49 this season and 179 career ground balls, is now seventh most. His 85 ground balls last season were enough for sixth in single-season ground balls.

Fantastic Freshman
C4C attack Christian Schweiger is a force to be reckoned with heading into the final games of the season. A native of Lebanon, N.J., Schweiger has 37 points via 23 goals and 14 assists. He has five hat tricks this season highlighted by three-goal games against No. 5 Duke and No. 10 Ohio State. He is the only Falcon to have tallied a point in every game of the season.

A Look Ahead
Air Force travels to Salt Lake City to take on the conference front-running Utes in the regular season finale, April 25. Action at Ute Field is slated for noon MT. Utah won last season's finale in overtime, 16-15, at USAFA. Air Force had the final say, besting Utah in the ASUN Championship game, 11-10, to earn the automatic NCAA Tournament berth.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Cole Cunningham

Caelan Driggs

Cole Rassas

Christian Schweiger

Mana Wilhelm

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