We
scrimmaged at
The
scrimmage was perfect for us. The weather has been crazy this year, so
although we have the turf field, we have only had one outdoor full field day
and one outdoor half field day. We had not done any riding or clearing,
and our outdoor, full field passing and catching skills were abysmal at the
start. We played 2-45 minute running time halves and we did not have any
possessions for the first 20 minutes or so. We could not clear the ball
and we could not pass and catch when we did clear. After we warmed up a
little, settled down, and became a little more accustomed to the size of the
field our basic skills returned to us.
Following
is an overview of the team based on last night and practices to date:
ATTACK:
We played 5
attackmen equally. Juniors Henry Sheehan and
Jon Sisto started along with Senior Mark
Foster. Mark is the only returning starter, he
scored 37 goals last year as a junior. He brings an excellent LH shot,
along with lacrosse savvy and excellent stick skills. He is more of an
off-ball, shooter type, but has the stick skills and some size to create some
opportunities as well. Henry and Jon are lefties also, and along with
Sophomore Nick Bastis, this gives us 4 lefty attackmen!
Henry and
Jon both had some flashes last night, although both can play better.
Henry is a smart player, with good vision and feeding ability. Jon has
quick feet and excellent skills, and was close to creating or finishing several
excellent opportunities last night, but was not able to do so. When they
settle into their roles and we play a better team offense, they will
shine. Nick Bastis and Freshmen Jim Cabrera
were the other two attackmen. Jim did a PG year
at Taft, the year before he and Bastis were teammates
at
MIDFIELD:
We are
again deep and talented in the midfield, although we have not yet identified
any defensive midfielders to join Senior Captain Mike Murray, who played great
last night, a definite stand out on the field. We have several middies who are playing offense well who can also play defense and
run the field. The best bet is that we will play more full-time middies
to take the defensive runs and they will stay on and play offense. We
like our “d-middies” to have athletic ability and offensive skills so we can
run and score in transition, so this fits well with our system. Senior
Captain Dave Leach leads the group of all around middies. Joining him are
Travis Meyer and Chip Campbell. Aaron Herter is
a quick, ambidextrous junior who looked great last night. He played well
last year, but is poised to do great things. He has an extremely quick
first step and can feed and shoot with both hands. In fact, last night
when he broke his defenders ankles and ripped a lefty shot, his strong hand, I
said “nice shot with your off hand” because he has developed into an arguably
better shooter righty, his off hand. Jeff Pello is a great cutter and finisher who rounds out the
returning players who contributed the most last night. Freshman Rory
Sanborn from McDonogh in
FACE OFF:
Sophomore
Peter Mellen developed into our #1 guy by the end of
last year and picked up right where he left off last night. He played
great last night, both in winning face offs cleanly and in scrapping for ground
balls. He will be excellent. Pete will be backed up by freshman Dave
Campbell. Dave is a great athlete, tenacious and a great guy. The
difference in experience between Peter and Dave was apparent last night, but
Dave has a bright future for us. He is also an outstanding athlete who
can play defense and will develop into someone that can score goals as he
shoots hard and can run by people.
DEFENSE:
We were
able to see some new faces play as we have two hockey players, Brian Phinney and John Sales who played defense for us last year
and Sophomore Ben Raymond is injured. Seniors Ed Brown and Will Rawson both played and looked excellent, as we would
expect. Junior Gabe Wood, who filled for John
West when we lost John last year, looks excellent as well. Those 3 guys
give us outstanding size, strength and athletic ability on our close defense.
Junior Scott Atkinson is a strong, hard working defenseman who has played
well this pre-season and continued to look good last night. He has worked
hard in the weight room, is impressive physically, so I am glad to see it pay
off for him. Two freshmen have stood out in pre-season and continued to
do so last night. Glenn Bickley is a small,
quick Long Stick Midfielder from St. Alban’s, DC, with an incredible
stick. He is quick with his hands, great on GB’s, and his stick is good
enough that I would guess that an opposing coach might ask for a stick check (I
had better check his stick today after a couple plays last night. In one
particular play, he was on the ground cradling the ball with 2
GOALIE:
Sophomore
Alex Palmisano started and played the entire game for
us last night. He is the #1 guy and sat behind Krieger all last year, so
we gave him the whole game. We also thought it would be difficult to sit
for a ½ and then come in and play, so we kept Alex in. He played great,
made a bunch of “ridiculous” saves, although he obviously gave up some goals as
well. They scored enough goals to beat us handily (we did not keep
score), but I did not feel there were more than one or two that Alex did not
save that he should have, and there were several that he did save and he had no
business doing so. I was most impressed with how he outletted
the ball, as that is critical to our success with our athletes in the midfield
and defense.