Middlebury defeated Trinity today 14-3 on a damp, cool day
in Middlebury. It was a dominating day for Middlebury with the outcome
never in doubt. All phases of the game clicked, offense vs. man and zone,
Man Up, face offs, defense, riding, and we were able to sustain our performance
as well which was a focus by the players after our Tufts and Bowdoin
games.
The regular cast of characters excelled in the first 2 1/2 quarters, garnering
a 10-0 lead. Jim Cabrera tallied 3 goals,
continuing to pace us on offense since returning from being injured for our 2
losses in a row. Aaron Herter has been playing
great in the past several games as well. While he has been an effective
dodger for the past several seasons, he has developed into an excellent outside
shooter and feeder as this season has developed, making him a dangerous
threat. Travis Meyer and Henry Sheehan have been our feeders and
possession guys from up top and X respectively and
continued to do so in this game. I don't think
Aaron has missed on an outside shooting opportunity in the past 3-4
games. Freshmen Mike Stone and Tom Petty each contributed 2 goals today as well. Mike Stone has a regular spot
in our midfield rotation so he has had ample opportunity
to play, but Tom has played behind our 3 seniors and Junior Nick Bastis at Attack, so his opportunities have been
limited. He has practiced great, though, particularly in the past couple
of weeks and played well in his opportunities at RPI and today vs.
Trinity. He was awarded the game ball for his
efforts today. One of his goals was a spectacular diving, left handed
dunk, the likes of which I cannot remember seeing in
my tenure here.
The defense was solid, if not spectacular. The play was
not highlighted by individual play but by consistency and team
defense. We outshot them approx. 42-20, so
obviously the defense played well, only yielding 20 or so shots. The
on-ball play was excellent, paced as usual by Gabe
Wood and Ben Raymond, but the team defense was probably where we excelled and
the element that allowed us to take the ball away on some slides. I thought Trinity looked very solid on film and they looked
as if they had some nice athletes and very good skills, so I consider today an
excellent effort.
Next up is Williams at home on Wednesday for the right to keep the Thomsen
Trophy in
Best,
Erin