Middlebury defeated Wesleyan 15-7 on Saturday at Western CT
State University. Thank goodness for the switch of venue, as the rain was
steady and heavy, and it would have been an absolute mess on the Wesleyan
fields, which were only recently cleared for play. With all due respect
to everyone who played in mud for many years, I/we have become spoiled and we
enjoyed playing on a great
Wesleyan is the second team of the year to play almost the entire game in zone
against us (
With all of these pieces coming together, we played as good a half in the first
half as we have all season. The half ended with us up 10-1 against a very
good Wesleyan team. It was a balanced first two quarters, as we were
ahead 5-1 after the 1st and then outscored the Cardinals 5-0 in the
second. The key to the scoring was excellence in all phases. As I
mentioned, we had patient and effective possessions against the zone, we
converted a number of unsettled situations created by riding, and we scored 3
times in man up situations. Leading the way in the scoring column was
again Freshman Jim Cabrera who ended with 4 goals and 2 assists and several
more excellent opportunities. He also sold out several times in the
riding game, establishing himself as much more than a scorer. Lots of
other players contributed to a balanced scoring effort, with Aaron Herter, Nick Bastis and Jon Sisto each netting 2, while Mark Foster and Travis Meyer
each assisted on a pair.
Wesleyan was stifled on offense in the first half, with an outstanding effort
by Ed Brown on their top player, and excellent short stick defense by Mike
Murray and Chip Campbell. We consistently put Ed on the other team's top player
and he consistently shuts him down. On the few occasions when they did generate
any quality shots, Alex Palmisano stuffed them on the
doorstep, keeping them from staying in the game.
The final nail in the coffin was Peter Mellen facing
off. I don't have his statistics, but the statistics don't tell the
story. Pete just battled all day. He was physical, scrappy and
relentless. He set the tone for the rest of the team. The defining
play on the day for Peter was when he picked up the ball on our defensive half
of the field and carried down our sideline, getting hacked the entire way by
their long stick middie, who was throwing heavy checks
and getting all glove, thumb, arm and leg. He probably threw 4 brutal
checks just in front of our bench. Their team was shutting off, thinking
the LSM would take the ball away. You could read the determination grow
in Peter on each slash. As he approached the restraining line, he split
into his right hand toward the middle of the field, took several steps inside
the box and fired a shot to the corner for a goal. He then quietly ran to
the sideline without demonstrating what I am sure was some great satisfaction.
The game ball went to Jon Sisto who had 2 goals and
an assist on the day. He had recently been replaced in the starting
lineup, more for the quality play of others than anything he is doing
wrong. The game ball was given in part for his play against Wesleyan and
in part for how well he handled being replaced in the starting lineup. He was
outstanding in practice and stepped right into the game and made a huge
contribution. We have 6 attackman who can all
play right now as well as 8 long sticks who can all play (there are a few more
good players at each position, the 6 Att and 8 Long
Sticks are just the guys capable of playing very well right now.) At one
point early in the season, with injuries and hockey still going on, we felt a
little thin. We now are very healthy and have everyone out and we are
very deep. This will be both a strength and a
challenge for this team as we progress.
We have played well recently, but will need to keep it up as we play against a
couple of quality opponents this week, with RPI at home Tuesday and Amherst at
home on Saturday.