Big Blue picked up a NESCAC road win up in Lewiston against the Bobcats 10-8 on Saturday, a two goal win that by NESCAC standards is now officially considered a blowout. Seven of the nine games played by NESCAC teams this year (Bates and Trinity both have played one goal games with Skidmore) have come down to a goal, besides our two goal win on Saturday, Wesleyan took it to Hamilton yesterday as well. What a start to the 2013 season!

To set the stage a bit, we had a beautiful day for lacrosse on Saturday as the temp was in the mid-40's which may as well have been in the 80's for us at this point in the season. Since we've had Bates at home the past few years this was the first time we've played them in their new stadium and not on their Astroturf field, what a great venue for a college lacrosse game.

Bates has some nice pieces this year, an athletic face off specialist (Mac Jackson), a good long stick middie (Torben Noto), and an offensive midfielder that should be on an All NESCAC team in Rob Highland. They clearly won the face off battle going 14/22 with Jackson scoring a goal off a clean win in the 2nd quarter to boot. On offense we were impressed with how they moved the ball and with their spacing; fortunately Nate Gaudio came up with some big saves throughout the game to keep us in it until we went on a run in the 2nd half.

If felt like the ball was in our defensive end the entire first half of the game and when we found ourselves down 4-2, in the opener, on the road, I wasn't sure how our team would respond. We would end up scoring the last two goals of the half to tie it up at 4 after 30 minutes. The second half opened with a fluky goal by Bates on a shot that was deflected in the air and then essentially turned into a change up for Nate. The ball ended up taking an odd bounce over his shoulder as he reacted to where the ball should have gone and Bates took the lead 5-4. At that point our transition game kicked in and a few seniors rose to the occasion. We scored six straight goals to go up 10-5 a few minutes into the 4th quarter. Andrew Metros started things off as he stung one into the upper corner, then Mike Giordano would find Jon Broome and Billy Chapman in transition for our next two goals. Jon Broome stuck another in transition after a nice face dodge and then Stew Kerr got on the board with our last two goals which turned out to be enough for the win.

Nate Gaudio was credited for 17 saves on the day and played the way we think he's capable of this year. He's playing the best lacrosse of his career right now and will be the best goalie out of the cage in the NESCAC (hopefully in the cage as well!). While we still have plenty of work to do defensively, we have some great pieces with seniors Billy Chapman, Zach Driscoll, and Johnny Duvnjak. While they all have their own style of play, the one thing they all share in common is their ability to get the ball off the ground. They all played a big role in the win the other day.

On offense we have a good mix of experience and young talent that we're hoping to develop over the course of the season. First-Year Jon Broome finished with four goals in his first game in a Middlebury uniform while fellow first-year Harrison Goodkind scored our second goal of the day on a nice dodge in transition. Senior Mike Giordano finished with three assists and has looked good throughout the preseason, he and Jon Broome have been fun to watch play together so far this year. Hopefully they connect plenty of times as we get into the regular season! Finally, we have some excellent two way middies in Joel Blockowicz and Andrew Metros, when those two get going in transition, good things are going to happen for the Panthers.

There's plenty to be excited about with this team, but we all realize there's a lot of work to do going forward. With only two days to prepare for Springfield we don't have any time to waste and plan to get after it this afternoon. As some of you may recall, we were throttled by Springfield last year as they put on one of the best offensive performances I've ever witnessed first-hand. I'm sure they'll be ready for us on Wednesday in what is always a hard fought game and what is for many of us one of our favorite games on the schedule.