It certainly was a great day to be a Panther yesterday as we took it to the Lord Jeffs. In doing so we also secured a home semi-final game next weekend against Wesleyan. Jon Broome's 8 goals will get all the headlines but this was a true TEAM win, our guys are playing together right now and pulling in the same direction.

Last week before the Colby game I asked the team for one more middie to step up and to take some of the pressure off of Andrew Metros and Joel Blockowicz, both of whom have been doing such a nice job for us on offense. Senior Erich Pfeffer responded and received the game ball after his three goal effort against the Mules. This week I went back to the well and asked for one more guy to step up in the midfield and to elevate his game going forward. This time it was senior Scott Redmond as he scored two of the first three goals of the game and gave us the spark we needed in the first quarter. His second goal came after the goalie saved his initial shot but Scott grabbed the rebound in traffic and found the back of the net to put us up 3-0. Scott received the game ball for his best game in a Middlebury uniform and for stepping up to the plate in a big game. We're fortunate to have so many seniors playing critical roles for us and to have a group of guys that consistently rise to the challenge, it's exciting to think about who will be next!

When you put up 19 goals there tend to be some nice ones in there but I'm not sure there was a more memorable goal than our 5th of the day. As I've mentioned previously, we've been leaving our poles in on offense a good amount this year and don't have too much structure for them when they're down at that end of the field. Going into the Amherst game we decided to install an oldie but goodie, a play many of you know as "Ice" where we step the crease guy out the same side as the dodge and hopefully if it's a quick slide we can drop it right down to him. Well, we put this look in for Amherst on Friday but decided to run it to our poles stepping off the crease instead of a short stick. The result was Darric White catching the ball with time and room and roofing a low to high shot that I don't think the goalie even saw. It definitely sent a message to anyone in purple that we weren't messing around yesterday in addition to putting us up 5-2 at the time.

Amherst hung around into the 3rd quarter and narrowed the lead to three, making it 7-4 before we went on our run. Starting with a breakaway goal by Andrew Metros, we went on to score seven goals in less than five minutes. The run exhibited the balance we have on offense and the balance we have between our settled offense and our transition game. During the run we were treated to two goals each from Metros, Giordano, and Broome. Four of the goals came in transition while three of them were in settled offense. With just under eight minutes to play in the third quarter we were up 14-4 and weren't done yet.

Jon Broome would go on to score four of his eight goals the rest of the way and in doing so, ended up with a NESCAC playoff record for goals in a game. I have to admit I had no idea how many goals he had during the game and was as surprised as anyone when our announcer, Matt Jennings, (who's fantastic by the way) made the call that he had set the record. While we never talk about individual accomplishments as part of our team, it's a pretty impressive feat for our unassuming freshman attackman. Just to reiterate, there is ZERO flash in Jon's game. If you've watched him play, there is nothing about him that screams (or even whispers) he'd be the leading scorer in the NESCAC. The kid just knows how to play and is always in the right spot at the right time.

Defensively we played a solid game, our goal was to hold them under 10 and we accomplished that, barely. Nate was tremendous in the cage and continues be a difference maker with his ability to get the ball out on the break. Zach Driscoll, Billy Chapman, and Johnny Duvnjak continue to do an excellent job of getting the ball of the ground and sparking our transition game, what a dynamic group of close defensemen….

Time to start preparing for the Cardinals this weekend, they've had a terrific season thus far and have wins over Tufts and Bowdoin in the past week. They're back to playing their pressure zone and are doing it very well, we'll have our hands full with them on Saturday. My recap of our game with them earlier in the season also caused what Pete Kohn would call "a big Heckabaloo" as it made its way to their coach and they weren't happy about some of my comments. We know it will be a physical game between two very good teams and look forward to the opportunity to host the NESCAC semifinals in Middlebury for the first time since 2009!