February 15th has come and gone and after only one week of practice we're beginning to get ready for our opener with Tufts this Saturday! The NESCAC moved our start date up to the first weekend in March this year and it's certainly going to make things interesting next weekend for all of us. Fortunately we had a fantastic week of practice despite the cold and wintry weather we received up here during the week.

On Saturday we were able to clear a significant amount of ice and standing water off of Youngman field thanks to the determination of injured players, parents, coaches, and only the very slightest bit of effort from head trainer, Kelly Cray. As the ground thawed out throughout the morning we were able to get both of our scrimmages in on Youngman.

First up was St. Michael's, a top ten D-2 team from a year ago. They've come a long way in the past five or six years from where they used to be and their coach, Pat Ivory has done a nice job with them. The scrimmage was pretty even for the first two quarters of stopped time as we adjusted to the speed and settled down a bit. We picked it up significantly in the 2nd half. After only five practices there were plenty of things we had not gone over yet and had to coach up on the fly. Overall the guys showed very well for the first time facing off against an opponent wearing a different color uniform. Heading into the 2nd half with a 6-5 lead we went on to score 8 of the next 9 goals and did some good things at both ends of the field. Leading the way offensively was Tim Giarrusso who finished with 5 goals in the scrimmage. Junior Chase Clymer added a few goals and three assists.

As soon as the St. Mike's scrimmage wrapped up, Union took the field to warm up for 15-20 minutes and we turned it around. Union is a well-coached, blue collar, physical lacrosse team and they played hard against us on Saturday (they open up with Cortland this Saturday). It was a bit of a step up from the first scrimmage in terms of the speed and physicality which turned out to be a good progression for our team as the day played out. Our goal going into the day was to show progress each quarter while our older players were on the field and I believe we achieved that goal. After being tied 1-1 after the first quarter and 4-4 at halftime, we were up 9-5 after three before getting all of our younger players in the game for the last two quarters. Tim Giarrusso added another three goals at attack while senior Steve Seymour had two goals and an assist from the midfield. Steve is in the best shape of his career and mentally he's completely dialed in to what we're trying to do on offense. Another middie who's stepping up his game right now is junior Taylor Pirie. He had a nice goal on Saturday and has been outstanding in practice over the first week of the season. It's exciting to see some older players stepping up their game after losing so many talented players to graduation. Speaking of stepping up, junior Cal Williams has emerged as a difference maker on defense. Cal has always had the athleticism to contribute on the field but it is his motor that has been cranked up a few notches this year. Hopefully he can continue to develop this spring and turn into one of the better defensemen in the league. Finally, senior captain Nate Gaudio was outstanding between the pipes. He's a dynamic player both in and out of the cage and had a heck of a day.

Next up are the Jumbos on Saturday, at home. We'll certainly have our hands full as they return a ton of talent and brought in a talented freshman class. After another good week of practice I hope they'll have their hands full as well!