We squeaked one out yesterday against the Cardinals winning 7-6 and in doing so improved to 5-0 and 3-0 in the NESCAC. The difference in the game was our face off unit that went 11 for 16 and the play of Nate Gaudio in the goal. The story of the game was how the Wesleyan team conducted themselves as time ran out.

It's taken our face off unit some time to get going this year but boy did they ever show up yesterday! Brian Foster won the initial move on almost every draw and had we handled a few easy gb's he could have easily been 13 or 14 out of 16 on the day. It's also worth mentioning how fun it is to watch Darric White and Billy Chapman work the wings, these two guys are outstanding at getting the ball off the ground.

Defensively we had another pretty good day, we held Wesleyan to 24 shots and many of those were poor angle/low percentage. We have the ability to play smothering defense as our poles and short stick d-mids can cover a lot of ground and we've been able to extend and still have support on the backside in case we're beat on the initial dodge. There are still a few moments a game where we don't talk things through and are caught without a slide and that's what we'll continue to work on going forward. In goal, Nate made all of the saves he should have made and then a few show stoppers. Wesleyan had a few good looks in transition and a few off of loose balls where our defense was unsettled and Nate came up with some big time saves.

Offensively we've taken a step back over the past week. Going essentially 0-9 on man-up yesterday is unacceptable and our inability to finish with the exception of Jon Broome and Stew Kerr is troubling at this point in the season. The good news is we have the week off from school and hundreds upon hundreds of balls at our disposal, we will get better this week. We also need to improve our understanding of what we're trying to accomplish at the offensive end and will go back to basics today starting with the Wesleyan film. We have some good pieces and once we get the guys playing team offense we'll be pretty dangerous. Most of our goals yesterday came in transition or off a loose ball which isn't all that unusual against a Wesleyan team. Stew Kerr finished with two goals and Jon Broome had three goals and an assist. Jon also rang one off the crossbar on the doorstep and had a goal called back as the official thought he stepped in the crease.

The game ball was awarded to senior Zach Driscoll, many of you know Zach from his record setting season this fall on the football field (now holding the NESCAC single season reception (83) and touchdown (15) records and was 4 yards away from setting the yardage mark as well!). Zach came up with a few critical ground balls yesterday including one in the last few minutes of the game where he scooped up the ball and sprinted down into the offensive end before finding Sean Carroll for the game winner. As one of our captains said of Zach after the game, he epitomizes what we look for out of a teammate and as a Middlebury lacrosse player. His energy for every practice and even for each drill we run has been outstanding and it's contagious for everyone around him.

Finally, I can't give a summary of yesterday's game without mentioning the way the Cardinals decided to play in the closing seconds. After Sean Carroll scored to make it 7-6 with just over a minute to play, we proceeded to win the face off and get the ball in our offensive end. At that point Wesleyan was playing hard trying to get the ball back and in the process of doing so had three flags thrown on them including a slash and unsportsmanlike conduct. We managed to break the pressure and keep the ball moving all the while they're taking more and more hacks at our guys, finally we throw the ball away and it goes out of bounds with 14 seconds left. Now we're two men up with 14 seconds to play and proceed to try and kill the clock. When the whistle blows to start play the Wesleyan team is now simply teeing off on our team any chance they get, it all culminates in one of their defensemen taking a charge at Sean Carroll WHO DOESN’T EVEN HAVE THE BALL and levels him as time expires. The refs had already thrown another flag for one of the slashes and then award this last offender a 3 minute misconduct pentalty with no time on the clock. Needless to say there's a difference between playing hard to the final whistle to show your team that you never quit and having an intent to injure your opponent by taking cheap shots especially these days with all of the sensitivity to concussions and what that could mean for an opponent going forward. To me anything that's done after the whistle or against a defenseless opponent is what I call "FAKE TOUGH". Wesleyan came in high and late for most of the game and the last few seconds was no different. I was proud of our team for staying above it all and not retaliating, we just brought it up on Nate and enjoyed the W!

We know we have plenty to work on before we host Hamilton on Wednesday and will get back after it this morning.