As we begin the week of preparation for our opener this Saturday against Conn, I figured it would be a good time to give a brief update.  I will assume most of you have not had a chance to check in on the most recent USILA poll but as of today we have 4 NESCAC teams ranked in the top 8 in the country (#1 Tufts, #4 Amherst, #6 Middlebury, #8 Bates).  While we have long had tremendous depth in our conference, I'm not sure we've ever had four teams ranked in the top 8! (Albeit in a poll consisting of many teams that have yet to play their first game).  As we look ahead to our schedule this spring, we'll obviously face those other top NESCAC teams and will also see #3 ranked RIT over spring break at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse!!

We have been treated to some relatively mild weather these first few weeks of practice which has allowed us to get out in the stadium on a daily basis.  A nice addition to our plan this year has been our ability to start with some individual drills in Virtue Field House before heading out to the field at 4:30. 

Our only scrimmage opponent this preseason was against Cortland a week ago (2/20) down at Siena College.  Cortland has not been as dominant in the past couple of years as they were in the late 2000's but are still considered an early season top 10 team (#7 currently) and had some talented players on the offensive side of the ball.  As always, we didn't have the scoreboard going during the scrimmage but it was nice for us to come out and take the lead throughout the first quarter after only 4 practices under our belt! It was a pretty even scrimmage overall with their 1's being slightly ahead of our 1's at this point and then our 2's and 3's being ahead of theirs.  Coming out of the scrimmage I really didn't have a great sense as to what the final score would have been.  It wouldn't have surprised me if they had won by a few goals or if we had evened things up, but as it turns out the final after 5 quarters ended up being 16-12 Panthers.  Overall it was good to see our guys come out and compete with a very good opponent and play with some poise that early in the year. 

Some performances worth noting were Jon Broome's quiet 2g, 2a day which has become his trademark, Harry Giarrusso scoring two nice goals in his first career action, and both of our veteran goalies (Will Ernst and Miller Steinle) having outstanding games in the hoop.  Besides Harry Giarrusso, a few other new names to look out for this year are going to be first year's Jack Gould (Governor's Academy, MA) and Michael McCormack (Mt. Greylock, MA) also the son of Williams coach George McCormack.   We have some talent and depth in the midfield this year and both Jack and Michael figure to get into the mix with a crowded group.  

We then held a Blue/White scrimmage this past Saturday which was exactly what we needed.  We treated it like a game with officials there, the scoreboard on, and let the seniors draft the teams.  The Blue team coached by Gus Brakeley and Zach Dayno used a late 4 goal run to take a commanding 12-8 lead before the white squad (coached by Bobby Ritter and Jack Reilly) made it interesting at the end for a 12-10 final.  The guys competed and we were treated to a great battle at the face off x with first year Wyatt Rancourt (Lawrenceville School, NJ) giving John Jackson all he could handle.  

Seniors Jack Cleary and Sean Carroll both had three goals for the white team while Jon Broome once again went 2 and 2 for the blue.  Lots of good stuff out there overall and now it's time to get ready for the Camels.