We improved to 2-0 yesterday and more importantly, notched
our first midweek home win of the season. Last year, we ended the year
0-3 at home in midweek games including OT losses to St. Lawrence and
Springfield. One of our goals going into the year was to go undefeated at
home including these important midweek games where guys are running down to the
field straight from class.
For those of you who had the chance to catch our webcast
yesterday you already noticed that we have ramped things up with our tempo and
how we are going to push the ball in transition this spring. It has been
an adjustment for all of our veterans since we have been more of a deliberate
6v6 team the past few years. We are slowly but surely getting them to buy into
what we are trying to do and yesterday was about as stark of an example as we
could have presented to them to get them on board!
In our Conn game on Sunday we missed a number of
opportunities to run our transition offense and in turn, didn’t create as many
good situations as we should have. The 4 or 5 times we did run our
transition we ended up with doorstep looks.
Yesterday we did a much better job of looking to push the
ball and put pressure on the Endicott defense in transition and it led to some
easy goals. We still have a lot of work to do and need to have it click
for a few more guys, but we will get there.
After taking an early 5-2 lead we had a few mental mistakes
in the middle of the field that led to an Endicott run and a 6-5 score after
the first quarter. From that point on we would outscore them 11-2 and
left a half dozen goals on the table due to some sloppy stickwork.
We unveiled our pressure ride in the 2nd half of the game and
managed to create 7 turnovers with it, now we need to convert those turnovers
into goals.
Henry Riehl had a career high 7
goals and a breakout game after a subpar performance at Conn on Sunday.
Henry missed our playoff run last year and we sure could have used him, I
believe he has the potential to be the best offensive midfielder in the NESCAC
this year.
First-year AJ Kucinski (BC High,
MA) finished the day with a goal and four assists. He has been
outstanding for us since our first practice and it was great to see his talent
shine yesterday against the Gulls. Our other attackmen also played well
with Jake Schneider contributing 3 goals and Harry Giarrusso finishing with 2
goals and 2 assists.
Next up are the #3 ranked Jumbos down in Medford on Friday night. It is going to be a windy, cold, and wet evening and we will certainly have our hands full. What a great early season opportunity for our team to go against one of the best teams in the country. We look forward to the challenge.