We've had a productive
week since my last update and can't wait to get back to work with the team this
afternoon. Spring break began on 3/21
with the Polar Bears coming to town in essentially the same situation we were
in a year ago when we went to Brunswick.
They were 1-4 with an inexperienced team and the last thing we wanted
was for us to be the opponent when they finally turned things around!
Fortunately we came out firing and took a 9-3 lead into halftime and didn't
look back. Our game ball went to junior attackman Jack Rautiola (I
believe), who finished with 3 goals and an assist on the day. We also gave a game ball to first-year Ben
Catt who suffered a season ending injury in our win against Endicott earlier
that week.
After a few indoor
practices on Sunday/Monday we hit the road for the Peter Kohn Spring Trip on
Monday afternoon. As the legend, Gary
"The Force" Forcier drove our bus out of
town we all watched Keeper of the Kohn together which was a fitting way to
begin Pete's trip.
On Wednesday we ran into a
buzz saw that was the #2 RIT (7-0) Tigers down at Johns Hopkins. RIT has a very skilled team with a bunch of
Canadian box players and they play FAST.
Whether it was the transition game or simply how fast they were moving
the ball, our team played the role of spectator for most of the night. There were a few bright spots though, John
Jackson dominated the face off x, Cal Williams was a man on the wing on face
offs, and Joey Zelkowitz finished with 3 goals all
coming in transition. The reason we
sought out an opponent like RIT was to give us a measuring stick at this point
in the season to find out where we are and to expose some of our
weaknesses. Mission accomplished. We had two very productive practices on our
way back up to New England on Thursday and Friday but we were all still
interested to find out how the team would respond the next time they stepped on
the field.
Next up was the #5 (8-0)
Amherst Lord Jeffs, you read that correctly, they are
very good these days! Amherst has some
nice athletes in the midfield, a great long stick middie
and two outstanding attackmen. Quinn Moroney
already had 54 points (13g, 41a) through eight games and their lefty shooter
was 35 and 8. When Amherst won the
initial face off and Moroney scored in the first 25
seconds of the game we wondered if he'd eclipse his close to 7pt a game scoring
pace, fortunately for us, that would be his only point of the game. First year Eric Rogers did an outstanding job
on Quinn and has now guarded some of the best attakmen
in our league and in the country. The
first quarter consisted of us getting some good settled possessions under our
belt and Amherst coming back down the field and sticking some shots in
transition. We went into the 2nd quarter
tied up at 4.
Fortunately for us,
Amherst spent some time in the box and we took advantage of those opportunities
going 3 for 3 on man up in the first half.
We also were able to start capitalizing on some of our own transition opportunities
to take an 8-5 lead at the break. With
the snow coming down and temps in the 20's, Amherst ran into their locker room
at the end of the field for halftime and warmed up while we were stuck out on
the field for the 10 minutes. When we
asked if we could go stand in their lobby to warm up, let's just say they were
less than hospitable at that point. So,
we used that to our advantage, we really didn't need any more gasoline on the
fire for this one but Amherst just can't help themselves.
While Amherst, all cozy
and warm, came out and scored the first goal after the break, we would score 6
of the first 8 goals to start the 2nd half. We had a commanding 14-7 lead with
12 minutes left in the game.
Will Ernst played his best
game in a Middlebury uniform and made some terrific saves that allowed us to
keep the momentum throughout much of the game.
Another guy that allowed us to keep some momentum was John Jackson who
won some critical face offs and pumped in two goals to boot.
Jon Broome finished the
day with 4 goals and 4 assists and is lights out with time and room right
now. Finally, we inserted first-year
Henry Riehl in at attack during the first quarter and
he finished with 4 goals and an assist as well as the game ball. Henry has been rotating in on our first midfield
line up until this point but we're going to have to give him a serious look at
attack.
Overall it was a great day
to be a Panther! I was so proud of our team for responding the way they did on
the field Saturday but I can't say I'm surprised. I continue to be optimistic about where this
team is headed thanks to our senior leadership and mentality of this group.
Next up we have the
Hamilton Continentals coming to town off a nice road win up at Bates over the
weekend. They're sitting at 6-3 with some
nice wins already this year including Nazareth.
Midweek home games are always the toughest to get up for mentally and
we're facing a very good team on Wednesday, our guys will need to rise to the
occasion.