The Panthers came away with another close win down in Rensselaer yesterday as the Red Hawks gave us all we could handle.  The difference in this game was our athleticism in the midfield as we were able to create transition opportunities all day long and turned those into 6 of our 11 goals. 

RPI is a well coached team that does some nifty things on offense, they run a lot of different sets and had some guys who could flat out shoot the ball.  Defensively the best thing we were able to accomplish was getting the ball off the ground and getting it up field quickly.  It seemed like we had one of our defensive middies wide open at the midline all day long.  Pete Britt was awarded the game ball after stopping 14 shots and coming up with some nice ground balls out of the cage.

Another player who could have easily been awarded the game ball is Frank Granara.  Frank scored off of the face off to open the game as well as to begin the second half.  The second goal was an absolute rip to the far pipe from about 11 yards.  Frank plays exclusively d - middie for us but has probably worked on his shot more than anyone on our team.  It has shown so far this year as he's only taken 8 shots and has 7 goals, the 8th shot hit the pipe against Bowdoin.

Other players who capitalized in transition were Matt Virtue off a nice feed from Pete Smith, Alex Giammarco who kept it himself and let one fly from 10 and also Tom Petty who scored our last goal off a feed from Granara.   Mike Stone finished the day 3,1 and wasn't trying to do too much.   I think he's due for a big day soon.

Overall we are finding ways to win, our defense has found a way to get stops when we need them and on offense we have a lot of confident players who are more than willing to step up in big spots.