Middlebury closed out its spring trip with an 8-6 victory
over the Conn. College Camels, coached (extremely well!)by
Dave Campbell, '00. The team showed some flashes of excellence, but we
were not able to sustain that level throughout and Conn fought hard
to keep it a close, competitive game. It is amazing how fine a line it is
between the runs we would make to go up by several goals and then a lull that
would bring Conn
back into the game. I also pointed out to the
team that there are certainly many things we could have done better but your
opponent has a say in the outcome as well, so sometimes you have to give them
some credit without ignoring areas of concern with our own team. We had
an excellent turnout of Alumni, many of whom were reminded
of very similar games they played in at Connecticut College
over the years.
We opened the game with 2 goals fairly early, both
created by Coach Ritter and our players effectively using the mid-line for
substitution, beating the Conn.
midfielders in, creating and finishing a 6-5 situation. After Conn
tied the score at 2 we were able to pull away 6-3 at
the half with some great transition goals. In fact, at times
we almost had too much transition in the sense that we were able to get out and
run all day; when we executed and finished we made runs, when we did not finish
we also did not have the ball for settled possessions. This was a problem
in the sense that Conn
was not able to run on us but were very effective with their possessions, so
they were able to control overall possession time in the game.
Despite the possession time we were able to pull away
to an 8-3 lead early in the second half, apparently gaining a secure hold on
the game. While we did maintain control of the game for much of the
remainder, we were not to score again, and Conn scored some
4th Quarter goals to make it very interesting at the end! Our lack of
scoring was due to a number of factors. Conn continued to
have quality possessions, even when they did not score they were able to control
the flow. We had several disappointing turnovers due to some poor
decisions or poor execution. We also had 4
penalties in the half which took the ball out of our hands and took us out of
any rhythm. During these stretches we also
created some very good opportunities which resulted in missed shots or nice
saves, but not the goals which would have put the game out of reach.
Travis Meyer was 2/2 and Bastis, Sisto
and Cabrera each added 2 goals. Cabrera's came in first half as he went
out injured and missed the second half and the end of the first. He will
be back, we're not sure exactly when.
On defense, Gabe Wood and Ben Raymond were
standouts. The game ball went to Ben Raymond. Both created a bunch
of turnovers. Ben was actively involved in the sliding game, an area in
which he excels, arriving with impeccable timing and strong checks. Gabe intercepted some passes and they were both
instrumental in getting us started in transition. Long Stick Midfielder,
Glenn Bickley, and Short Stick d-mid, Chip Campbell,
were also excellent in transition. Alex Palmisano
had another very solid day, making 13 saves.
We have a tough stretch coming up, the next two are Springfield
at Springfield
Wednesday at 6:00pm and Wesleyan at home Saturday at 1:00pm.
Best,
Erin