As Dcam reported yesterday, we beat the Chief Dogs yesterday after a huge output offensively by our guys and some sloppy play to let them back into the game. This Springfield team is young and may go through some growing pains this year but they certainly have some talent on offense and it wouldn't surprise me if they put it together by the end of the year.
The story for our team was obviously on the offensive side with our attack finishing 11 of our 18 goals and assisting on a few others. Freshman Jon Broome is going to be the one getting most of the headlines going forward with the way he's finishing the ball (4 more goals yesterday), he's now scored 8 goals in our first two games on only 9 shots! If you get a chance to catch us in person this year or on a webcast, you may be surprised by Jon's game. There's nothing flashy there, he just puts the ball away and takes what the defense gives him. Senior Mike Giordano (Game Ball) may have played his best game in a Middlebury uniform finishing with 4 goals and 2 assists. He's playing with a tremendous amount of confidence and is making everyone around him better. Finally, senior Stew Kerr has elevated his game this year and is doing a great job for us as a captain. Stew has always been able to shoot the ball with some velocity and is making significant progress with his understanding of the game and is starting to put himself in some good spots off ball. I'm excited to see what this attack unit can do this season.
In the midfield we'll be pretty balanced this year as we're playing a number of offensive midfielders that all bring something different to the table. The two guys that continue to put the most pressure on the defense are Andrew Metros and Joel Blockowicz. So far teams have gone into our games thinking they'll put a short stick on Jon Broome and bring a pole up into the midfield to guard both Andrew and Joel. That's lasted exactly one possession in both the Bates and Springfield games as Jon has found a teammate on the doorstep on both occasions.
Another encouraging sign is our man up unit which finished 5 for 8 on the day but really 5 out of 7 opportunities as one of them was a 6v4 situation. We scored a number of different ways on man up but the one that will get the most attention is first-year Sean Carroll sticking the last two goals of the game. Sean has the hardest shot on the team and was able to get his hands free twice in the fourth quarter for a few shots that got the sideline and the crowd on their feet.
Defensively we had some mental lapses that led to at least half of Springfield's tallies on the day. When our guys plug-in and communicate we have the potential to have an outstanding defense but there's work to be done at that end of the field. Thankfully Nate Gaudio had another good day between the pipes and finished with 12 saves. The other performance worth noting came from Darric White, our starting long stick midfielder. He finished with 8 ground balls and after catching an earful from the coaching staff after the Bates game, responded with a great game yesterday on and off ball.
Overall it was an encouraging performance and hopefully a confidence building one for our offensive group as we move forward and prepare for Conn College over the next few days. The Camels have started off with a few one goal victories over Bowdoin up in Brunswick and at home over Tufts. We all know how difficult it is to win on the road at Bowdoin and even though Tufts was dealing with all of their suspensions; that's still a big win for the Camels. We'll have our hands full down in New London but look forward to the opportunity this Saturday! Hopefully we'll see some of you there!