I was a little nervous when
I woke up to a fresh inch of snow on the field Saturday, but the grounds crew
got out the plow and brush and we had our game at home under sunny, beautiful
skies! Thank goodness (and our lacrosse families who generously donated the
money!) for the turf field.
We had the distinct
advantage of turf practices (albeit limited this year by extreme cold), so we
used that advantage to ride like crazy.
Our riding resulted in lots of Colby turnovers and a frenetic pace which
helped in terms of giving us possessions and tiring them since we had more
depth. We did not execute very well in
transition or shoot particularly well, so the pace did not help the score. The other part of the game in which we lacked
execution was Extra Man Offense (1/10.)
We had a bunch of EMO opportunities and came up empty as we shot poorly,
threw the ball away and generally looked anemic. On offense we did not have any problems with
their zone, but again did not shoot or execute too well. The silver lining was that we did generate
offense and show signs of being able to score goals. Experience should help a lot.
We looked great on
defense, the close defense of Caleb
Holmes, John West and Ed Brown shut down the attack and the Long Stick Middies,
Tom O'Connor and Will Rawson played well also.
O'Connor received the game ball for tenacious on-ball play and a big
hit! Freshman Gabe Wood was also a major
contributor, he and Rawson are both playing close and long stick middie. Gabe
is big, athletic and poised and is making an impact early. Krieger is playing well in the cage, he only
sees point blank shots, so he doesn't put up huge numbers (9 saves vs. Colby),
but he makes big saves, outlets great and is a leader for us on defense. Finally, Brian McGregor dominated on face
offs, further adding to the possession advantage we grabbed with our riding
game.
Springfield is up Wednesday,
they are talented, just beat Hartwick 15-14, so a nice challenge that we are
ready to handle.