It was a fine day for
lacrosse in early March, unfortunately it was April 23! On a cold, damp day with snowflakes blowing,
Middlebury defeated Williams 11-6. The
win guarantees that we win the NESCAC title, thus gaining the #1 seed in the
tournament, a bye this Sunday in the first round and the right to host the
Final 4 on May 3 and 4. Most
importantly, we keep the Thomsen Trophy in Middlebury for another year. Williams last had the trophy after defeating
us in 1993. I still remember that game
clearly as we were leading and playing sharply in the first half, then they
switched to a freshman, lefty goalie, Andy McDonald, in the second half and he
stoned us for the victory. Lefty goalies
were much more of a rarity in those days and we consistently put the ball in
his stick, and he also turned out to be an outstanding goaltender.
The goalie for Williams was
also part of the story yesterday. He is
a bit of an enigma, as he played great against us two years ago at Williams and
created much the same game as yesterday.
Last year we scored 20 goals and he could not stop anything. Their
scores during the year support this apparent inconsistency, winning 4-2, losing
19-10. In any event he played well
yesterday, keeping the game tight, making 19 saves, many on point blank
shots. I do not think it was a factor of
terrible shooting, either, as I know a couple of saves in particular were
outstanding. Mike Frissora had a hard
off hip shot to the far corner that I thought was going in for sure, the goalie
got to the far pipe and saved the shot.
So, they made us work for our goals which was not good news for us the
way we started the game! The first quarter saw lots of turnovers and missed opportunities. I'm not certain of the cause as both teams
seemed emotionally ready to play, maybe it was the shock of the conditions for
a late April game? It was a low scoring
first, ending at 1-1. Williams was doing
a nice job early in the game, and throughout the first half with their offensive
possessions, creating some nice feeding opportunities, but not capitalizing on
enough to pull away. Middlebury graduate, Adam Pascal '99,is running their
offense and doing a nice job. They are
lacking attackmen that can threaten with a dodge, so our long sticks were able
to control their attack and often take the ball away. They took advantage of their nice
stickhandling and plays to score a few in the 2nd, but we were able to keep
pace and open up a little, creating a 5-4 halftime lead.
On our offensive end, we did
not adjust well enough to their quick slides from the crease as we held the
ball too long, looking to feed directly to the crease instead of moving the
ball with a couple of passes and then feeding the crease. We did get a couple of nice looks into the
crease, but it also cost us a couple of possessions. Charley Howe finished well for us as the game
progressed, which was nice as he struggled a bit during our tough
Tufts/Bowdoin/Amherst stretch. Ben Tobey
played well controlling the offense with crisp feeds and his excellent
quickness keeping a step ahead of his defenseman. Unfortunately, most of his feeds were not
finished and he missed a couple of scoring opportunities himself, so his solid
play does not show in the stat book.
Senior Brian Gault has been practicing great and earned his first
playing time of his career in a tight situation and he came through just as we
hoped and expected. He has been
"instant offense" whenever we have inserted him this year, but it has
typically been when we were already comfortably in the lead. He just kept proving in practice and games
that he deserves a shot at some minutes, and has maintained a great attitude
all the while. He does not necessarily
create his own shots, but has a knack for getting open, catching the ball and
finishing his shots, sometimes in an improbable manner, gaining the phrase
"circus" attached to many of his goals! He immediately sparked us yesterday, only
ended up with one goal on a great feed by Dave Leach, but got us going with
excellent opportunities and hard riding.
As you know, we finish our
regular season with Bates at home this weekend. For us the focus is on the task
at hand, play well-beat Bates. Lots
going on around us with Peter Kohn's big weekend, lots of parents and alumni
visiting. Also looming is the possibility of an undefeated regular season in
NESCAC which would be a great accomplishment for this team after what we
graduated from last year's team. I look
forward to seeing many of you this weekend.