I've been looking forward to this write up ever since the final horn sounded yesterday on Youngman Field on an absolutely gorgeous day here in Vermont. Our boys did indeed respond in practice this week and against the Camels in a game that played out quite a bit differently than the score would indicate. Overall it was an extremely satisfying win for our team on many levels.

First and foremost for our guys to gut out a win (yes it was a gutsy win, more on that later) after what happened down in Springfield and for the first 53 and a half minutes yesterday, it was satisfying.

Secondly for our inexperienced team to see a glimpse of what they're capable of becoming this year even it it was only for about 6 minutes and

20 seconds on the clock, was also satisfying and encouraging going forward.

And finally, just picture the opponent from your era (Nazareth for my teammates, Wesleyan for the recent grads) that decided the way they'd get up for your game would be to disrespect you and your teammates on your home field. Starting in warm ups by calling guys out from your team and then continuing to do it for about 53 and a half minutes on the clock.

Then to silence that team and bench while your play did the talking and while your sideline erupted..... Now THAT was satisfying.

As one of our players mentioned to me after the game, Conn College gave us a gift yesterday with the way they motivated our team starting the second our guys walked on the field. We typically are on the quiet side in a pre-game warm up anyway but you'll typically hear our guys getting each other pumped up a bit throughout stretching and our warm up drills.

Yesterday, when Conn started in on their verbal onslaught of our players, our guys went silent. The next taunting call from across the field was "CRICKETS, I can hear crickets over there boys!!!", all the while I knew from my playing days that I absolutely loved it when an opponent decided to treat me and my teammates that way as there's only one way to respond.

Going into the game we knew a few things about the match up that all pretty much proved to be true at the end of the day. First, Conn wants to control the tempo of the game and overall their coaching staff treats the game like a chess match, an extremely deliberate bunch. They have an excellent face off specialist and they prefer to slow it down on offense, settle the ball at all times and take a lot of time off the clock. They also have a good goalie and like to pack it in on defense and hope to lull their opponent into taking low angle shots or to let it fly from outside of 12 yards. We also knew they were going to be one of the worst clearing teams we'd see all year and that our ride would and should generate some great opportunities.

On the other side, you have our team and the way we like to play which is to let the players make decisions on the field and to push the ball in transition at all times. So, when we were down 5-2 in the third quarter and then 6-4, the deliberate style of play was certainly getting the job done and the question was if we'd be able to start playing loose and if we'd be able to make some plays before time ran out.

Finally we got a bit of a spark in the third quarter. One play that the guys on our team will always remember will be us creating a turnover in the middle of the field, Johnny Duvnjak (Game Ball) scooping up the ground ball and then proceeding to make a mad dash straight to the goal and sticking a shot from 9 yards out in the lower corner to make it 6-5 Conn.

If you were at the game you'd know that it was Johnny that probably got it the worst in terms of being chirped by the Conn team in pre game warm ups as well as throughout the game from their sideline. So it was Johnny that was the first of many guys on our team to let his play do the talking for him.

Erich Pfeffer would then tie the game up at 6 heading into the 4th quarter on a physical dodge against one of their poles from up top.

The fourth quarter started off the same way the Springfield game had gone offensively for us, we were generating some pretty good looks and just couldn't stick a shot. Feeds inside, time and room shots from 8-10 yards, dodges from attackmen coming around the cage, a pipe, a few saves, 0 for 3 on man-up, this is all just in the first 5 and a half minutes of the 4th quarter! At this point in the game we had taken 42 shots and only scored 6 goals.

Finally Stew Kerr drove left handed around the cage and took a nice wrap around shot from on top of the crease only to hit the pipe again!

Fortunately he stayed with the play, picked up the loose ball, and put it away to give us a 7-6 lead. With that goal it was as if a huge weight was lifted off of our shoulders and it showed on the field as we would go on to score on 5 of our next 6 shots all in under four minutes of play.

Each of the goals came in transition and were scored by five different players. The last two being scored by Darric White and Cal Williams respectively, both long poles! As you may recall, Darric White was one of our starting long stick midfielders last year and after practicing for the first time on Friday, was out there again for us yesterday. Darric proved yesterday that he's going to be a difference maker for us this season. He finished with a goal and an assist on the day and picked up some big time ground balls.

What a day to be a Panther! Hopefully the way we played at the end of the game will give us some confidence as we head into an absolutely brutal stretch of games over the next month.

3/20 - #3 Cortland @SUNY Albany

3/24 - @ #20 Wesleyan

3/28 - @Hamilton

3/31 - @ #15 Bowdoin

4/5 - #2 Tufts

4/7 - #7 Amherst

4/14 - Trinity (may be ranked as early as this week)

We'll get back after it tomorrow and can't wait to see where we're at against the Red Dragons on Tuesday night!