On a sunny but cool afternoon Middlebury played a great
second half to beat Williams 11-7, keeping the Thomsen Trophy-awarded to the
Middlebury/Williams winner-for the 13th consecutive year. For those of
you who have forgottten, or who did not know, Ferris
Thomsen, grandfather of Jeff '83 and Dan '92, commissioned the Thomsen Trophy
when Jeff was playing for Middlebury and his brother, Peter, was playing for
Williams.
If you remember, I talked about us being a zone team's
worst nightmare when we played RPI (we possessed the ball, won face offs, shot
well and rode extremely well.) The first half today was an up-tempo man
team's worst nightmare for us. Williams had long, effective possessions
while their goalie made some outstanding saves early-5
saves in the first quarter. The first half turned into us tightening up
offensively, throwing some balls away and pushing some shots instead of letting
them rip. At the defensive end we played on our heals,
allowing Williams to generate quality shots while also possessing the
ball. It is a subtle difference between playing great and playing tight
and we walked that line today. Fortunately we
were playing pretty well and had the confidence to come out and play well in
the 2nd Half.
It did not come easily for us in the 2nd half, however. Williams has
played very well recently and they were playing with a lot of confidence in the
2nd Half. They are more athletic than the past
couple of years, they are executing their offense well
and they disrupted our offensive flow with some adjustments in the first
half. It is a great tribute to our team, however, that they hung in
there. It took until the 4th Quarter for us to pull away, but we did so
in the 4th Quarter , largely due to the play of Nick Bastis. Nick's play was sympomatic
of our team today. He was fairly ineffective for
most of the day, but did not pack it in. Instead, after sitting for much
of the 3rd he was inserted back into the lineup in the
4th and quickly scored 3 consecutive goals, all on nice shots. It was
particularly rewarding for us to see Nick pull through in that he has always
been athletic, but he has worked hard to be a more effective, fundamentally
sound, overhand shooter and that is how he is scoring many of his goals.
Other players excelled during our run in the 2nd Half
including senior middie Jeff Pello,
Freshman Midfielder Mike Stone and Junior Defenseman Ben Raymond. Ben
harassed his attackman effectively all day and Gabe Wood was typically excellent against his attackman as well.
Up next is Bates. Although they have lost several games in a row they remain a difficult opponent. They are deep
and disciplined on offense. They have a very good defense and an
outstanding goaltender. They play with both passion and discipline.
Best,
Erin