On
Saturday, Middlebury defeated
Defense
and goaltending was certainly the story in the Middlebury/Amherst game on
Saturday. Middlebury jumped out to an
early lead on a great goal on a fast break when Saraceni,
the point attackman, skipped the ball down the to low lefty, Mark Foster who
scored on a nice pump fake finish. The goals would not be easy to come by,
however, as both defenses were athletic and physical and both goalies were
hot. We had several great looks at the
cage in the first quarter, including a couple of feeds directly into Bastis on the crease who was stuffed on consecutive
shots. A difference between our team now
and early in the year is that we are playing through mistakes and good play by
the other team with more poise. Earlier
in the year there was almost an expectation that things would come easily, so
when the game was tight we would tighten up.
Despite how low scoring the game was we never tightened up. We were talking in the huddles about
continuing to get the good shots, keep taking them and eventually some would
fall. There was a feeling that the team
that could play through the tight game remaining loose would be the team to
pull away. That team would prove to be
Middlebury.
All
of the defensemen played great, but Ed Brown played particularly well, shutting
down their super quick frosh and doing a great job doubling and putting the
ball on the ground. Gabe
Wood continued to play outstanding lacrosse in substitution for injured John
West. Gabe was
in the position to be the slide most of the day just by how they set their
offense and he did a great job doubling, holding when he didn't need to go, and
also "fake sliding" and recovering to his man. He has been great on-ball since entering the
line up, it was encouraging to see him play so well off-ball. I wrote before that he is a 2 year starter in
soccer as well. Always nice to get the
two sport star. When Gabe
went into the lineup as a sophomore who has not started in lacrosse, he had
already had two seasons as a major contributor in the soccer program under his
belt, which has to give him a mental edge.
Krieger
was up to his usual playoff standards. He denied several
In
the second game Wesleyan shocked Tufts.
Tufts had a great team all year, losing only to Middlebury (in OT) and
Whittier. It is possible they were
looking ahead to the championship game, it is also possible that Wesleyan just
flat out beat them. The league has been
like this all year, so it should not come as a shock that there was an upset in
the playoffs. Tufts went up 5-1 in the
first half and looked (maybe felt?) as if they had complete control of the
game. Not so fast. Wesleyan continued to scrap. They play very confidently, almost cocky,
zipping long passes through sticks and finishing well. The game looked as if it was going into OT
after Wesleyan missed a couple of opportunities in the last minute and Tufts
had possession clearing the ball. The
goalie was out of the cage, threw a lob clearing pass to the sideline which was
picked off by the speedy Wesleyan middie who then
calmly zipped a 30-40 yard shot into the open net for the 10-9 lead with 4
seconds remaining! Tufts would not get a
shot off the face off and left the field stunned.
The
match up today will be interesting. They
play a lot of zone, they are super quick on offense and finish great. The goalie has played well all year also. They have struggled clearing the ball and we
took advantage the last time we played and will hope to do so again today,
gaining some possessions and hopefully some easier shot opportunities
also. Today's game is a mental test as
well since none of us go back-to-back during the year.
Erin