On a beautiful day, the likes of which we may not see again for some time, the Panthers jumped out to a 10-1 halftime lead and finished a little sloppy for a 14-4 victory.  Jim Cabrera got us on the board in the first possession coming off the bench as a midfielder after playing attack last year.  He will create some match up problems for opponents when he is playing midfield, but he is still primarily an attackman.  Jim finished with 5 goals on the day.  Senior Co-Captain JP Coviello picked up where he ended last season; shooting the lights out.  He is more of a shooter than a dodger, but he can be extremely effective when he gets his hands free.  He had 4 goals on 4 shots and added 2 assists.  The remainder of the scoring came in a balanced fashion from a number of different players, both midfielders and attackman. 

One of the best things to come out of the game was our ability to run the field.  We created a lot of fast break and slow break opportunities.  Their goalie made some excellent saves in tight or the score might have been even a little higher.  Our running game was both with middies breaking out, especially D-mids, Senior Chip Campbell and Freshman Mike Stone, as well as our long sticks getting out on the break.  It was great to see some new midfielders play well on the defensive end and in transition.  Stone will be a great midfielder for us, he is quick, can shoot and feed both hands.  We have him playing a lot on the defensive end because he is excellent in the open field in transition.  Freshman Mike Quinn and first year player, Sophomore Frank Granara are both football players who help in the d-midfield with athletic ability.  Granara contributed a goal today. Senior Defenseman Gabe Wood created a couple of excellent opportunities as did Sophomore Long Stick Midfielder, Glenn Bickley.  Glenn has a tremendous stick and adds an important element to our team as someone who can get the ball off the ground or from the goalie and lead a break.  In addition to creating some opportunities he also had a goal on the day.

The defense was excellent against a relatively inexperienced offense.  There was not a dominating feeling to our defense, but very solid and very sound, which is enough.  The starters were Senior Gabe Wood, who did a great job on-ball; Senior Scott Atkinson, a first-year starter; and Junior Ben Raymond, who played a considerable amount for us last year.  Along with Bickley, Junior Charlie Kolb split the Long Stick Middie duties and played well also.  Junior Alex Palmisano anchored us in the goal and played a stellar game.  He made the solid and the spectacular saves and had the presence you would hope for in a returning starter. 

As usual, Pete Mellen was outstanding on face offs, allowing us to make runs in the first half by keeping possession after scoring.  Pete will also be playing some offense for us this year, an expansion of his role from a year ago when he took face offs and always came out (FOGO-Face Off Get Off).  He has always had the skill to play offense or defense for us, he is simply so good on face offs it is difficult to allow ourselves to keep him on the field and run the risk that he is too tired to face off.  

Up next is Stevens Institute of Technology next Saturday at 1:00 at home.  I know some of you may not have heard that much about Stevens, but anyone who has played in the past couple of years knows that they are a very good team.  We had a close game with them last year.  They return good players from a 2005 NCAA tournament team.

Best,
Erin