Big win for the Panthers
on Saturday on Youngman field over the Cardinals. In what is always a
pretty heated contest (with the exception of last year) our guys showed up on Saturday
and played together and with great intensity. Our focus since the first
day of practice has been to compete, play fast, and play loose and our guys did
just that the other day.
Once again we were
treated to a dominant performance by first-year face off specialist John
Jackson (Deerfield/Hood River, OR) who went 19 out of 24 at the x to follow up
his game ball performance against St. Lawrence. If there was precedent
for giving a game ball to the same player twice in a row it clearly would have
gone to John again on Saturday! We're fortunate to have two excellent
face off specialists this year and to have Gus Brakeley
working with them again this year. Gus has done a fantastic job with that
group and deserves a ton of credit as well.
Going into the game we
were concerned about a few of Wesleyan's attackmen
and their ability to create from x. While they combined for 2 goals and 3
assists, we were pleased with the way senior Cal Williams (Wayland, MA) and
first-year Eric Rogers (Pingry, NJ) defended them and
worked together on the pipes.
Offensively we were
pretty balanced with our scoring as has been the case in most of our games to
start the year. We're playing unselfishly and are consistently making the
extra pass to set up a better look for a teammate. Saturday was yet
another example of how much further along we are this year as far as our sticks
go as well as our 6v6 play thanks to the field house. The flip side is
we're a little behind where we typically are in between the lines and with our
transition but we will get there, hopefully today against the Gulls.
Today begins a 12 day
stretch of our season where we'll play 3 top ten teams (#8 Endicott, #2 RIT,
and #6 Amherst) and Bowdoin this Saturday at home.
We will certainly find
out where we are in these next few weeks and what we need to be working on
going forward!