On a beautiful day, the likes of which we may not see again
for some time, the Panthers jumped out to a 10-1 halftime lead and finished a
little sloppy for a 14-4 victory. Jim Cabrera got us on the board in the
first possession coming off the bench as a midfielder after playing attack last
year. He will create some match up problems for opponents when he is
playing midfield, but he is still primarily an attackman.
Jim finished with 5 goals on the day. Senior Co-Captain JP Coviello picked up
where he ended last season; shooting the lights out. He is more of
a shooter than a dodger, but he can be extremely effective when he gets his
hands free. He had 4 goals on 4 shots and added
2 assists. The remainder of the scoring came in a balanced fashion from a
number of different players, both midfielders and attackman.
One of the best things to come out of the game was our ability to run the
field. We created a lot of fast break and slow break opportunities.
Their goalie made some excellent saves in tight or the score might have been
even a little higher. Our running game was both with middies breaking
out, especially D-mids, Senior Chip Campbell and
Freshman Mike Stone, as well as our long sticks getting out on the break.
It was great to see some new midfielders play well on the defensive end and in
transition. Stone will be a great midfielder for us, he is quick, can
shoot and feed both hands. We have him playing a lot on the defensive end
because he is excellent in the open field in transition. Freshman Mike
Quinn and first year player, Sophomore Frank Granara
are both football players who help in the d-midfield with athletic
ability. Granara contributed a goal today.
Senior Defenseman Gabe Wood created a couple of
excellent opportunities as did Sophomore Long Stick Midfielder, Glenn Bickley. Glenn has a tremendous stick and adds an
important element to our team as someone who can get the ball off the ground or
from the goalie and lead a break. In addition to creating some opportunities he also had a goal on the day.
The defense was excellent against a relatively inexperienced offense. There was not a dominating feeling to our defense, but very solid
and very sound, which is enough. The starters were Senior Gabe Wood, who did a great job on-ball; Senior Scott
Atkinson, a first-year starter; and Junior Ben Raymond, who played a
considerable amount for us last year. Along with Bickley,
Junior Charlie Kolb split the Long Stick Middie duties and played well also. Junior Alex Palmisano anchored us in the goal and played a stellar
game. He made the solid and the spectacular saves and had the presence
you would hope for in a returning starter.
As usual, Pete Mellen was outstanding on face offs,
allowing us to make runs in the first half by keeping possession after
scoring. Pete will also be playing some offense for us this year, an
expansion of his role from a year ago when he took face offs and always came
out (FOGO-Face Off Get Off). He has always had the skill to play offense
or defense for us, he is simply so good on face offs it is difficult to allow
ourselves to keep him on the field and run the risk that he is too tired to
face off.
Up next is Stevens Institute of Technology next Saturday at 1:00 at home.
I know some of you may not have heard that much about
Stevens, but anyone who has played in the past couple of years knows that they
are a very good team. We had a close game with them last year. They
return good players from a 2005 NCAA tournament team.
Best,
Erin