Middlebury
defeated Nazareth 13-8 at Nazareth in the NCAA semi-final round,
securing a spot in
the national championship game next weekend vs. the
winner of
Salisbury State/Washington and Lee who face off tomorrow.
Nazareth has a
great team and a great program, but we played a great game.
The offense was
patient and disciplined, the defense was stifling and Peter
Soden dominated
the face off game as usual. He won 19
of 25 face offs
despite Naz
throwing the kitchen sink at him. In
addition to the two face
off guys Peter
faced, they also faced off with their best defenseman in an
effort to strip
Peter if he got the face off, which he was able to do
several times, but
Peter was undaunted...he is a warrior!
Jed Raymond was
dominant on defense, but all of the defense played
disciplined
defense and Coach Ritter had them
extremely well prepared.
Campbell was big
in the goal and started us off on virtually a perfect day
clearing the ball.
The offense was
balanced but the scoring was not. Holt
Hopkins and Matt
Dunn each had 5
goals. We asked our attack to not dodge
and handle as much
and to work the
offense through our short stick match ups because each of
Narareth's
defensemen are over 6' and can throw checks, and they have an All
American goalie
who is a great stopper. We were
successful in being patient
most of the game
and were able to exploit their short sticks to some degree
by all players and
to a large degree by Matt Dunn who was outstanding
dodging and
shooting.
Game balls went to
Soden for face offs, Dunn for dominant dodging/scoring,
and Coach Ritter
for a great defensive game plan. Oops,
I almost forgot.
We held them to
0/6 on man up, including a 3 minute non-releasable to start
the second quarter
for a middies stick which was too short.
Great game plan
on man down to
stop them and a couple great saves by Dave.
On to the national
championship. It was a proud day to be
a Panther, not
only just the win,
but the way we won was old fashioned Middlebury lacrosse!
See you in College
Park!
Erin