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Naso continuing to turn heads in rookie season

Jan 2, 2025

American-born Jake Naso continues to turn heads in the National Lacrosse League. 

It’s not like the pride of Holtsville, New York got a warm welcome into the league either. In his first two games this season, he faced off against Joe Nardella and Jake Withers, two of the top faceoff men in lacrosse. 

“He’s a student of the game,” said co-head coach Jimmy Quinlan. "He's been as advertised and we're very fortunate to have him."

Against Nardella in Albany, the bright lights might have led to a few nerves as Naso started off rough in the first half, but bounced back in the second, winning 7/15 draws inside MVP Arena. While Rush Nation might not have been impressed after night one, the ceiling was much higher, but the competition wasn’t getting any easier. 

On December 14th on Co-op Field, Naso went up against Jake Withers, who went 74% at the faceoff dot last season. The rookie clearly wasn’t fazed, winning 12/21 faceoffs in the game. Now to the average eye, that might not seem like a monumental performance, but you need to put it in perspective. Withers has only lost four head-to-head faceoff battles in his NLL career when taking 16+ faceoffs. His opponents' win percentages were: 

Jake Naso (‘24) - 57% 

Trevor Baptiste (‘18) - 55% 

Jay Thorimbert (‘22) - 54% 

Trevor Baptiste (‘24) - 52%

“He's a great kid. He gets it, knows his job and he's good at it. He did a good job against the best guy in the business and he's going to get better too,” mentioned GM Derek Keenan, who won 46.2% of his faceoffs on the 1993 champion Buffalo Bandits.

Now, Rochester didn’t have Mike Sisselberger in the lineup on December 21st, but you can only play the team in front of you and Naso did that and more, cleaning house at 25/30 on the stripe. The Knighthawks didn’t have an answer and sent out four different players to try to stop the Duke alumnus.

Philadelphia’s two-headed monster at the dot in Tyler Burton and Nathan Fehr did provide some solid competition, but it was Naso’s night once again as he won 74% of his faceoffs in his second game on Co-op Field. 

“I still thought I could have been better, and I know a lot of guys feel the same way. So, I’m definitely excited to go prove it next game,” commented Jake Naso. “We had our chances and ultimately fell short, but it’s definitely a learning experience.” 

While those faceoff numbers continue to rise, the building erupted the loudest with one minute left to go in the 1st quarter when Naso cleanly scooped up the draw and then scored on Nick Damude.

“He works hard throughout the week, does a lot of film study and never complains. I was happy to see him get his first goal,” commented Quinlan.

NLL teams don’t generally rely on their faceoff guys for goals, easing Naso into a defensive spot has been a work in process that has provided major dividends for teams who have been able to draft and develop American faceoff stars into everyday defenceman, like TD Ierlan, Trevor Baptiste, Joe Nardella and Tim Edwards.

“We don't really play him on a lot of defence now, but he's going to learn that part of it. He’s got good skills, good attitude and is a great athlete. Really nice to have a kid like that,” added Keenan. 

Anyone who followed Naso in college wouldn’t be surprised by his success at the pro level but doing it in the box game makes it way more impressive when your timing and space is limited. At Duke, Naso set the program record for faceoffs won with 1,001 and ground balls with 554. That’s the 7th most faceoff wins and loose balls in NCAA history. 

With upcoming faceoff matchups potentially against Connor Kirst, TD Ierlan, Joe Nardella, Trevor Baptiste, Justin Inacio, Mike Sisselberger, Alec Stathakis, Connor Farrell and Jeremy Thompson, Rush fans that may have groaned reading that list in the past, can now be excited to see head-to-head matchups worth the price of admission. 

Next up, the Saskatchewan Rush host the Las Vegas Desert Dogs on Co-op Field in SaskTel Centre on Saturday, January 11th at 7:00PM. 

Tickets for Every Child Matters night can be purchased here.

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