The
Panthers rebounded today after our tough loss over the weekend and got back on
track with an 18-7 win over Bates.
We began
the game with a 9-0 run and controlled the tempo of the game from start to
finish. I have to say that going into the game I wasn't
sure where the guys would be mentally after our loss to Trinity. I
mentioned to Steve Monninger during pregame warmups that
I thought we were flat and didn't have much
emotion going into the game. I guess I learned a
lesson about this team to not read too much into warm ups!
One area
where we played particularly well today was at the face off
x. Pete Mellen ended up 12-19 and Dave
Campbell (the player) was 5-7.
It was
great to get our offense back on track in terms of how we finished the ball and
to get Jim Cabrera going (4,1). One developing
theme is that teams are having a hard time matching up with our first midfield
line of Nick Bastis and Mike Stone. Today they
decided to put a short stick defender on Mike and he finished with 3 goals and an assist.
Defensively
we did some good things and Alex Palmisano made some
saves early to help us build a nice cushion. We still have room to
improve at that end of the field and can hopefully tighten
some things up for Saturday against Wesleyan.
It's
looking like Saturday is going to be a great day for a game with weather in the
low 60's and mostly sunny. I'm sure the guys
will be excited to finally play on a nice day at home in front of a good
crowd. If we've learned anything from today,
don't pay any attention to how we warm up!