Another great day to be a
Panther...aren't they all, though.
Williams was expected to be
a strong team and they were, but not as balanced
as we are. They have a strong offense and excellent
stick skills. They
don't have our defense or
intangibles.
It was easy early with a
first quarter lead of 6-2 and a 9-2 during the
second quarter. Then we gave up 3 goals in a row, two of
them on man down
situations and they closed
the gap to 9-5 at the half. If we had
stayed out
of the box in the end of
the second we could have buried them then and
there. The 9-5 halftime score gave them some
confidence and allowed them to
hang around for a
while. At one point in the 3rd quarter
it was 12-9 and
they looked to have some
momentum. One interesting facet of the
game was
that they were facing off
with their #1 face off man who happens to be their
#1 middie. He does not face off a lot because they
count on him to score
lots of goals and they are
reasonably successful with their other face off
guys. Because Soden is so good for us their guy
faced off most of the time
and did pretty well. Soden was still over 50% but he usually
dominates.
So, we played more defense
than we are used to playing. At the
same time
their #1 middie only had
one goal and that was man up. He had to
expend a
lot of energy facing off
vs. Peter. I guess it was a good trade
off for us.
The 4th Quarter belonged to
the Panthers as it has all year. Our
depth
keeps us fresh so we are
still on all cylinders in the 4th and we outscored
them 5-1.
Holt Hopkins led the way
with 5 goals, Matt Dunn added 3 (and won the game
ball) and Dave Seeley had 4
Assists to go with 2 goals. The rest of
the
scoring is most noteworthy
because of its balance. Interesting
dynamic on
this team is coaching guys
about playing roles because so many guys play and
make contributions. Our starting attack and first midfield line
are all
marquee guys but beyond
them there are lots of contributors who must be
satisfied with somewhat
limited playing time overall and maybe only getting
one or two opportunities to
score. Some of these guys had a much
bigger
role even on last year's
team and they have had to adjust. Our
second and
third line middies have
scored some critical goals in the past two games, so
that has been nice.
A couple notes from the
weekend. Thanks to Jon Owsley, Duane
Ford, Jim
Grube and Bob Ritter for
speaking at the dinner Saturday night.
They sent
chills down my spine and
made me more proud than ever to be a part of
Middlebury lacrosse. The feedback from players and parents has
been
unbelievable. It is sometimes hard to have a perspective
on tradition while
you are in the midst of
playing, but our players and parents got a heavy
dose this weekend and they
loved it! The alumni game, despite
terrible
weather, was the best
attended game since I have been here.
Thanks to all
who were able to attend!
We travel to Maine this
weekend for two league games, Bates Saturday at 1:00
and Colby Sunday at
Noon. Both teams have been struggling
for wins, but
Bates played Bowdoin to one
goal last week and Colby has always played well
against us. Our focus is on our own play and our own
standards anyway, so I
am expecting back-to-back
great efforts. I will be out of town
with the
team, so probably no write
up by me until Monday at the earliest.
If anyone
sees the scores maybe they
can post it on this list serv.
Best Wishes,
Erin