The Dartmouth scrimmage was held this
past Friday, it turned out to be a good decision playing Friday as it was a
beautiful day and the cold, rain and snow came in over the weekend.
We were pleased with how we
played, particularly considering where we are in our season. We had at least one top player out at each
position due to injuries and hockey, 5 practices/only one outdoors under our
belt. Those would be excuses if we had
played miserably or had been embarrassed.
That was not the case. We
certainly have a long way to go, but we did not look as if it were so early in
the season. I think it is a tribute to
how hard the team works in the off season.
Krieger played the first
half in the goal and looked great. The
defense in general played extremely well, holding Dartmouth to either 2 or 3 goals in
the first half when we primarily played our starters on defense. One of the positions that jumped out was our
midfield defense. Mike Murray and Dave Leach
looked particularly strong. John West
has moved to close D and looked strong.
He started along with Caleb Holmes who had worked out a lot this off
season, greatly improving his strength, and it shows in his game. Sophomore
Will Rawson started at close with them. He had played mostly Long Stick Midfield last
year and may again this year, but he gives us a quick
close defenseman who can pressure a quick #1 attackman. Junior Tom O'Connor played a solid game at
Long Stick Middie, while a bright spot for the future
was freshman Gabe Wood. Gabe is big and athletic, he started for the soccer team at 6'2 200lbs. He has great poise clearing the ball. He could play either close or LSM.
At Attack we played 10 guys
fairly equally and did pretty well! A
couple of guys will end up moving to midfield, so we will not keep 10 attackman but we wanted the opportunity to see them play
first. Charley Howe has played great in
the pre-season, but had a severely sprained ankle and missed the
scrimmage. We hope to have him back by
the first game on March 8. Mike Saraceni has the most experience as our 4th last year and
played well against Dartmouth with a goal and a couple of
nice opportunities. He is a great off
ball player and scored on a nifty off ball cut.
The rest of the spots are wide open.
Junior Ben Tobey is extremely quick, had a
great goal on a dodge just going by his defenseman with his speed. He has played both Attack and Mid and will contribute significantly wherever we play him
this year. Freshman Jon Sisto was the 3rd starter and showed flashes of his
exceptional play while also showing flashes of being a freshman with a couple
of turnovers. He can make things happen,
though, both scoring and assisting, so expect to see a lot of him. Freshman Henry Sheehan did not get a shot
until late in the game but played great, making a case for moving up the depth
chart. A number of the other attackmen have played well both in practices and games, so
we will take a while until any final decisions are made and even then we might
play more guys in each game than we did last year when we were dominated by
seniors.
The midfield showed good
depth with the defensive middies I already mentioned along with Senior Captain
Mike Frissora who had 2 goals on great shots and
played his usual dominant defense. Our
defensive middies are expected to run the field and play offense, so Frissora, Murray, Leach and Greg Bastis (injured, did not play but should be dominant) will
be on the field a lot. Andrew "Gio" Giordano played well in an offensive role and he
should be a major contributor. He has a
great shot and showed an ability to carry the ball and feed as well. Senior Captain Christopher Davis had a great
shot for a goal, we are hoping to get one or two shots
for goals a game from him. Sophomore Jamie
Duke will be another major contributor on offense, although he did not play his
best in the scrimmage and Junior Bob Wannop played
well in a "jack of all trades" role.
Freshman Travis Meyer has a great stick, very good shot and is a great
finisher. He played with a bunch of
studs at Landon, so he is used to getting open, having someone put the ball on
his stick and finishing, and he does it well.
He finished with two goals and another great opportunity. As with all frosh, he has to learn team defense
a little, but he could see considerable time this year.
Senior Captain Brian
McGregor handled most of the face off duties and did well. Murray was particularly strong as
a short stick on the wing. Gabe Wood has looked tremendous on the wing in practice,
did not get many opportunities in the game.
Overall, it looks as if we
might be down a little in the 1st Team All American type talent (although it is
early and some guys are heading in that direction!), but deep in overall
talent. Top to bottom we are very
strong. We have to figure out who to play and in what combinations, but that is
a good problem to have.
We are scheduled to
scrimmage Skidmore at home this Saturday at 1:00pm. The weather does not seem to want to
cooperate this year, we'll be indoors again today, so
we'll keep our fingers crossed for the weekend.
Erin