Creo Creates Spark for Richmond with Move from Attack to Midfield

A good portion of Gavin Creo’s season was spent figuring out angles, the byproduct of the Richmond sophomore moving from attack to midfield around the end of February.

It helped set up another sort of angle: The boost he provided with back-to-back multi-goal games helped the Spiders capture last week’s Atlantic 10 tournament and ensured them an opportunity to collect the first NCAA tournament victory in program history.

“I came into this program with that exact desire, which is just to help the program level up and get that NCAA tournament win and so on,” Creo said. “I think as a program, the thing that makes us so special is there’s not a doubt in any guy, not a single one 1-through-52 in that locker room, that each game we play, whoever it is, whether it’s home or away, at noon or 5 o’clock, whether it’s sunny or rainy, whoever our opponent is, that we can win and we will win. That’s the expectation at this point.”

Richmond (13-3) is making its sixth all-time NCAA tournament appearance, dropping a play-in game in 2014 and then falling to No. 2 or No. 3 seeds in its next four trips. The Spiders face No. 8 seed North Carolina (10-4) in the opening game of the first round Saturday afternoon in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Creo was a well-regarded arrival heading into last season, but he joined a program with few openings at any position for freshmen to contribute. Richmond’s starting attack featured three of the top eight scorers in program history (Dalton Young, Luke Grayum and Aidan O’Neil), though Creo was opportunistic enough to collect eight goals and four assists and land on the A-10’s all-rookie team.

With Young out of eligibility and Grayum choosing to use a grad year at Duke, Creo thought he would have a good chance to earn a starting role. It worked out that way, though the Spiders were limited to single digits in goals in two of their first four games, and coach Dan Chemotti looked to make changes.

“Just the way things shifted and the way the year went and the personnel that we had, things were shaken up and I kind of made the move to middie,” Creo said. “It was pretty personnel-based. I don’t think I was exactly playing bad. It’s just that things sometimes don’t click as a team.”

It turned out to be something of a throwback move. When Creo first picked up the sport around third grade, he played midfield. His speed and quickness stood out to A.J. Haugen and George Powers, his coaches with the Long Island Express club program, and by the seventh grade, he was figuring out how to deal with a pole all the time, how to manage the crease and learning about different shooting angles.

There was still an adjustment period back to midfield, though Creo said he was increasingly comfortable by the time Atlantic 10 play arrived in late March. He’s posted multi-point games in five of his last six outings and proved especially efficient in the A-10 tournament.

In a 14-4 semifinal rout of UMass, he scored twice. Two days later, he had two goals on three shots and tacked on an assist in a 16-10 defeat of High Point to bump his season totals to 16 goals and seven assists.

“Gavin, I think, deserves so much credit,” Chemotti said. “He didn’t have a great start to the season, or kind of the start that probably both him and I expected him to have. He was starting on attack for us and we were just missing something, so we moved him to midfield. He settled in and has been a huge part of our success offensively.”

Both of his goals in the A-10 final restored two goal leads, but the first provided a notable boost. Chemotti had Creo stand near midfield for much of the final minute of the half before starting a sprint with about 12 seconds to go.

Buoyed by Chemotti’s trust in him and enjoying the rare opportunity to fire off a shot with a 30-yard head start and zero consequences if he missed, Creo zipped past a short-stick midfielder and deposited a 15-yard dart with 6.4 seconds remaining in the half.

“I saw a short stick in front of me, and I was just ready to go,” Creo said. “I think we’d run the play prior in the game. It’s a team scout. They know plays, but I was happy to see no slide. I just used my wheels to get past the guy and didn’t even think twice about shooting. I just ripped it home. It was awesome. My teammates put me in a great position and [gave] great spacing to be able to hit that shot.”

It was exactly the sort of moment Richmond figured Creo was going to deliver often in a breakout sophomore season, only maybe it was going to come from working around the crease. And while Creo does get opportunities to handle the ball below the goal line, he’s quickly becoming adept at creating problems for defenses — even those, like High Point’s, that choose to double-pole the midfield.

“I knew the talent he has,” Spiders defenseman Hunter Smith said. “It’s just a matter of finding it during the games. He’s absolutely found it. He’s been a beast down the stretch.”

And those offensive inconsistencies Richmond wanted to address a month into the season? The emergence of both Creo and freshman Daniel Picart have helped solve them. The Spiders head into the postseason with nine double-digit goal scorers.

That’s another angle Creo understandably views as vital for Richmond’s chances at having an extended stay in May.

“Our offense is balanced, which I think a lot of the time is way more dangerous than having one or two guys,” Creo said. “When you’re playing against a defense and they don’t know where the point of attack is coming or who’s going to score next, it’s really dangerous. I think a big part of that is the trust we have in each other as an offense that we know any six of these guys who are on the field right now can put it in the net.”