Middlebury defeated Springfield yesterday 9-7 on a typically beautiful early spring day in Vermont.  It was a great day for a game, and we were itching to get the season started.  Probably the most surprising, and noteworthy, aspect of the game is that Springfield played almost the entire game in a zone defense.  It was a curious decision, given that they had only played a couple possessions of zone in each of their two previous games.  Their history is to typically pop into a zone at the end of a quarter or end of a game, especially after a time out, to disrupt a last second man-to-man play.  We had not spent any time preparing for zone, although we had put in a substantial amount of time in practice the previous week, anticipating the possibility of a Colby zone.

 

Our offense was reasonably effective against the zone, except for a couple of periods in which forced some passes and lost approximately 6 possessions in a row.  However, for the most part we were patient, and we moved with and without the ball reasonably well.  We might typically get 40-50 shots in a game, we only generated 25 since we possessed the ball more and had that string of turnovers.  Their goalie played well in the cage, I think we made him comfortable early when we generated a couple of quality shots, but rushed the shots a little, hitting him, and probably getting him into the game.

 

The offense was led by Freshman Attackman Jim Cabrera’s 3 goals, Junior Midfielder Travis Meyer’s 2 goals/3 assists and Senior Midfielder Dave Leach’s 2 goals/1 assist.  Cabrera generated the best offensive opportunities on the day, and if this were a few games down the road, with a little more experience, he may have netted 5 instead of 3.  He is a big, fast Right-handed attackman with a strong shot.  He has a knack for getting his hands free for shots and being in the right spot, and his teammates are getting the knack for finding him.  Two of Meyer’s assists were to Cabrera.  Meyer, Leach and Herter all looked excellent in the midfield along with Senior Mike Murray and Junior Chip Campbell logging a lot of defensive minutes and playing well also.  Murray is the one true defensive short stick midfielder.  A big advantage for us is that Leach, Campbell, Meyer and Herter are all top offensive middies who are playing great defense.

 

Our team defense was excellent.  Ed Brown matched up on their All American Attackman and did a great job.  It was a fun 1 v. 1 match up with each getting the best of the other at times, but battling all day.  Gabe Wood matched up well on a very good attackman and took him out of his game, which is to be a speed dodger.  Senior Will Rawson did a great job on their 3rd Attackman in a less glamorous role, as he is a spectacular off ball player, who typically gets 3 goals/game off ball.  Will shadowed him all game, and he did not beat Will off ball.  He did have one great, back handed, underhand Man Up goal late in the game.

 

Not everything went our way, there is clearly work to do.  As I mentioned, we did throw the ball away too much on offense.  Defensively, there were a couple of breakdowns with the team defense, not many, but enough to work on.  We tend to be a very good on-ball team, and a good first slide team.  Where we need work is against a nifty, feeding team, since I do not consider ourselves that type of offense.  I think we see athletic, hard dodgers in practice and that is what we play best against.  Having said that, we only gave up 7 goals, 3 were man down, one on a fast break and only 3, 6 v. 6 goals, so no need to panic!  Our Man Down showed some inexperience, looking slightly baffled while giving up 3 goals in 4 attempts.  We were also beaten badly on face offs.  I think a lot of the face off woes is on the coaches.  Springfield handles us well often on face offs, and I think it has more to do with wing play than at the face of Box (notice I said Face Off Box, and not Face Off X?  This year the X has been replaced by a 4 x 4 box of a contrasting color, ours is blue, so the refs can be certain the sticks are 4 inches apart from each other, as opposed to last year’s “up to, but not touching, the ball.”)  We need to coach our wings better in general, and certainly better when we play Springfield.  I thought it was personnel related last year, as they had a very good LSM on the wing, but as I look back, it is probably every year.  They are tough and athletic and it shows up on their wing play more than anywhere else.

 

Finally, Sophomore Goaltender Alex Palmisano was awarded the game ball in his first start.  He played great, making some spectacular saves, and doing a great job on outlets.  It was a comforting feeling having Alex play so well after having Krieger in the cage for the past 4 years.

 

We play Stevens Institute on Saturday at 1:00 at home.  They have been an Automatic Qualifier NCAA playoff team for the past several years and are playing well right now.  I think we surprised them a little in the NCAA’s last year when we beat them handily, I think they are better than that and it should be a great game.  Opening a non-conference schedule with Springfield, Stevens, and Gettysburg is a great challenge.