Quick update here as it's going to be a busy couple
of days here as we prepare for both Amherst and Tufts on the road this weekend.
Interesting mid-week tilt against the NEC Pilgrims
yesterday at home. We didn't know too much about
them going into the game except they have a bunch of Canadians and that they'd
be fired up for the opportunity to play against Middlebury. We came out a little flat defensively but
were able to jump out to a 4-0 lead and then were up 9-2 at one point in the
2nd quarter. Most of our offense came in
transition as we were able to create unsettled situations off our ride and did
a good job of getting out on the break from our defensive end.
It's
worth noting some of the interesting things the Pilgrims did yesterday. One of their top guys played both ends of the
field with a shortened long pole and made some plays defensively while also
being pretty dynamic on the offensive end.
They were basically playing box lacrosse on a full field, lots of on
ball picks/slips, they even threw a bounce pass into a
tight window for a goal against us at one point. Good for our guys to get some work against
that kind of a team and to see a different style of play as we move forward
into the latter half of the season.
One
thing that's been consistent for us lately is the play of our wings and our
face off specialist, Brian Foster. He
was 17-20 again yesterday and is starting to put up Pete Soden/Brian
McGregor/Pete Mellen/Dave Campbell (the player) type
numbers!
Finally,
the game ball went to Tim Giarrusso for scoring a
nice goal towards the end of the game but more so for the hustle and approach
he brought to the game yesterday. On a
day where our energy level could be described as inconsistent, Timmy was flying
around out there as usual and gave us a nice spark.
While
all of our games count the same, I think we've all had this weekend circled on
the calendar since last season ended.
We're facing two completely different types of programs this
weekend. Amherst is a very structured
and methodical group in how they play the game while Tufts is going to push the
tempo and not let you get set on defense.
It sounds like we're going to have a nice crowd on Sunday in Medford, we hope to see many of you there!