We've had a productive week since my last update and can't wait to get back to work with the team this afternoon. Spring break began on 3/21 with the Polar Bears coming to town in essentially the same situation we were in a year ago when we went to Brunswick. They were 1-4 with an inexperienced team and the last thing we wanted was for us to be the opponent when they finally turned things around! Fortunately we came out firing and took a 9-3 lead into halftime and didn't look back. Our game ball went to junior attackman Jack Rautiola (I believe), who finished with 3 goals and an assist on the day. We also gave a game ball to first-year Ben Catt who suffered a season ending injury in our win against Endicott earlier that week.

After a few indoor practices on Sunday/Monday we hit the road for the Peter Kohn Spring Trip on Monday afternoon. As the legend, Gary "The Force" Forcier drove our bus out of town we all watched Keeper of the Kohn together which was a fitting way to begin Pete's trip.

On Wednesday we ran into a buzz saw that was the #2 RIT (7-0) Tigers down at Johns Hopkins. RIT has a very skilled team with a bunch of Canadian box players and they play FAST. Whether it was the transition game or simply how fast they were moving the ball, our team played the role of spectator for most of the night. There were a few bright spots though, John Jackson dominated the face off x, Cal Williams was a man on the wing on face offs, and Joey Zelkowitz finished with 3 goals all coming in transition. The reason we sought out an opponent like RIT was to give us a measuring stick at this point in the season to find out where we are and to expose some of our weaknesses. Mission accomplished. We had two very productive practices on our way back up to New England on Thursday and Friday but we were all still interested to find out how the team would respond the next time they stepped on the field.

Next up was the #5 (8-0) Amherst Lord Jeffs, you read that correctly, they are very good these days! Amherst has some nice athletes in the midfield, a great long stick middie and two outstanding attackmen. Quinn Moroney already had 54 points (13g, 41a) through eight games and their lefty shooter was 35 and 8. When Amherst won the initial face off and Moroney scored in the first 25 seconds of the game we wondered if he'd eclipse his close to 7pt a game scoring pace, fortunately for us, that would be his only point of the game. First year Eric Rogers did an outstanding job on Quinn and has now guarded some of the best attakmen in our league and in the country. The first quarter consisted of us getting some good settled possessions under our belt and Amherst coming back down the field and sticking some shots in transition. We went into the 2nd quarter tied up at 4.

Fortunately for us, Amherst spent some time in the box and we took advantage of those opportunities going 3 for 3 on man up in the first half. We also were able to start capitalizing on some of our own transition opportunities to take an 8-5 lead at the break. With the snow coming down and temps in the 20's, Amherst ran into their locker room at the end of the field for halftime and warmed up while we were stuck out on the field for the 10 minutes. When we asked if we could go stand in their lobby to warm up, let's just say they were less than hospitable at that point. So, we used that to our advantage, we really didn't need any more gasoline on the fire for this one but Amherst just can't help themselvesŠ.

While Amherst, all cozy and warm, came out and scored the first goal after the break, we would score 6 of the first 8 goals to start the 2nd half. We had a commanding 14-7 lead with 12 minutes left in the game.

Will Ernst played his best game in a Middlebury uniform and made some terrific saves that allowed us to keep the momentum throughout much of the game. Another guy that allowed us to keep some momentum was John Jackson who won some critical face offs and pumped in two goals to boot.

Jon Broome finished the day with 4 goals and 4 assists and is lights out with time and room right now. Finally, we inserted first-year Henry Riehl in at attack during the first quarter and he finished with 4 goals and an assist as well as the game ball. Henry has been rotating in on our first midfield line up until this point but we're going to have to give him a serious look at attack.

Overall it was a great day to be a Panther! I was so proud of our team for responding the way they did on the field Saturday but I can't say I'm surprised. I continue to be optimistic about where this team is headed thanks to our senior leadership and mentality of this group.

Next up we have the Hamilton Continentals coming to town off a nice road win up at Bates over the weekend. They're sitting at 6-3 with some nice wins already this year including Nazareth. Midweek home games are always the toughest to get up for mentally and we're facing a very good team on Wednesday, our guys will need to rise to the occasion.