The 2007 Panther squad took the field for the first time yesterday against Stevens Tech on a gorgeous day in Middlebury.  After having the weather hover in the teens for much of the last two weeks, we were fortunate to have a 40 degree day on Kohn field with the sun shining for much of the game.

As you can see by the score this was more of a defensive struggle than your typical run and gun matchup that has occured between Stevens and Middlebury over the last few years. There was still plenty of excitement though.  The story of the day was the play by both goalies who were playing on top of their games and causing shooters to think twice before pulling the trigger.  Alex Palmisano ended the day with 13 saves, many of them coming on point blank shots.  He made up for more than a few defensive breakdowns and kept us in the game. 

Offensively the plan was to possess the ball and keep their experienced offense on the sideline.  At attack we started with sophomore Tom Petty (Exeter, NH), sophomore Skyler Hopkins (McDonogh, MD) and senior Nick Bastis (Greenwich, CT) along with freshman Pete Smith (Deerfield, MA) playing a big role off the bench.  This group did a nice job of controlling the ball and making good decisions.  Bastis ended up with 2 goals on the day and continued to show that he's going to be a force this season.

In the midfield we rotated 6 middies pretty evenly throughout the day.  Sophomore Mike Stone (Wellesley, MA) led the way with a goal and number of great scoring chances.  Mike runs the field well, plays great defense and is a good ground ball guy.  Needless to say, he'll be on the field a lot for us this year.  Joining him were seniors Pete Mellen (St. Joseph's Prep, PA) and Will Simpson (St. Albans, DC), junior Rory Sanborn (McDonogh, MD), and freshman Jeff Begin (St. John's Prep, MA) and Bart Witmer (Brunswick, CT).  A lot of new faces in this group but all of them have the potential to become very good offensive midfielders for us.

We ended up starting three new close defenseman in senior Charlie Kolb (Greenwich, CT)  sophomore Conor Lyons (Summit, NJ) , and sophomore James Guay (Deerfield, MA) our 4th close guy was Eric Olmsted (Belmont Hill, MA).  At long stick middie we have our lone returning starter from a year ago in junior Glenn Bickley (St. Albans, DC) who has been fantastic.  Backing him up and getting a lot of playing time is freshman Chris Mejia (Bullis, DC).   Stevens has a potent offense as they had just scored 17 goals against #10 Ithaca last week, and that was without their preseason 2nd team all american attackman.  Who was of course back for our game! We put Charlie Kolb on him and he held him to (0,0) on the day.

In the midfield they featured two all americans, Mark Bielicky and John Dolny.  Bielicky is 6'3 230 and in contention for D3 player of the year.  Going into the game we decided to put two long sticks in the midfield to match up with their talented middies and to put our best defenseman(James Guay) on Bielicky.   James held him to no goals and one assist. It's worth mentioning that James also scored a goal from the midline when Stevens was in a 10 man ride.   James is going to be one of the best defenseman in the league if not the country this year.

Overall, we did just enough to win this game.  We have a lot to work on both offensively and defensively.  However, it was the poise that the team displayed against a good team that I was most impressed with.  Now it's time to get ready for the Connecticut College Camels.  I'm looking forward to getting some film on them but I think I have a pretty good feel for their personel already!

Thanks for all the emails and for the support.  We look forward to seeing you all soon!