Who know's what to think this time of year?!  We preach focusing on
ourselves, playing our best, preparing and worrying about what we can
control.  Thank goodness, otherwise we might go into this game with any
number of conflicting approaches.  On the one hand, I cannot deny that the
guys have not forgotten last year's debacle when we were thrashed by
Springfield.  On the other hand, bringing too much of that into this year's
game is more of a distraction than it is helpful.  Springfield was pounded
by a very good Hartwick team this weekend, and it is important for our guys
to ignore that as well.  Both of these distractions would cause us to be
impatient and try to blow them out in the first quarter.  There are some
internal distractions as well as the guys are in the midst of a tough
academic crunch and our lineups are continuously shifting as injured players
return and hockey has ended.  Enough of a preamble, here are the nuts and
bolts:

Middlebury:
Matt Dunn came back yesterday after a hockey season in which he was named
1st Team All American, pretty amazing.  He looked great last night in his
one practice (indoors for one hour due to a snowstorm yesterday!)  So, today
he is our number one middie and on the man up team!  Chemistry could be an
issue as guys get used to playing with him again and he tries to figure out
how the team is playing.  We are moving the ball better this year than last,
so he needs to fit into that style.  It is a nice problem to have, though,
figuring out how to fit your 1st Team All American midfielder into your
offense.

Greg Bastis and Mike Frissora are both healthy and playing great and
freshman Jamie Duke looks better every day, so we'll be tough in the
midfield tonight.  As predicted in the pre-season Bastis and Frissora are
"both end" middies and will play lots of defense in the hopes of bolstering
our defense as well as providing offense in transition.  We will let them
play some 6 v. 6 offense as well, but we'll sub for them on a horn or if
they have had a little possession time. 

Christopher Davis and Andrew "Gio" Giordano give us two great shooters in
the midfield, while Ben Tobey, recently moved from attack gives us a
different dimension as a great feeder and smart off-ball player.

Also playing significant roles as defensive middies who can create offense
are freshmen Mike Murray and Dave Leach.  They would both be starting if it
were not for Bastis and Frissora, but they'll get tired enough to get Murray
and Leach some significant time.

Defensively we have been jostling positions a little in an attempt to
discover our best lineup.  Freshman Ed Brown has the potential to be a
disruptive Long Stick Midfielder, so he has moved from being a close D man
this past week and looked great in some intrasquad scrimmages.  John West
has started playing some close D because his size and strength look as if
they might be better suited in tight quarters than in the open field as a
LSM.  We need to settle in to a pattern soon, but the definitive pattern has
not emerged.

Springfield:
They lost many of the top players off last year's great team.  They return
some excellent talent, but they are young and not many of the talented
returning players were initiators, they were finishers.  So, they have had
some problems generating offense.  Their top returning middie (Refik, #6)
was a dominant face off man and a specimen physically with an excellent
shot. Apparently, he has been a little banged up this year.  We are taking a
chance and covering him with a short stick.  Their opponents to date have
put the long stick on him and their #2 middie (Gibson, #5) has been running
the show.  Gibson is a former attackman who can invert behind the cage with
a short stick covering him, so we will put the long stick on him and try to
disrupt the flow of their offense a little.  The physical strength of
Frissora and Bastis also allows us to do this as they match up well with
Refik's strength.  They have two nicely skilled midfield lines with 6 guys
who can score, but can be contained with good, solid midfield defense.
Their attack returns two of their top goal scorers from last year, but both
were finishers, so they don't have a great dodger.  If our close D does a
good job of playing body position we should be in good shape.  We match up
well with the style of our defenders matching up on the style of their
particular attackmen. 

Obviously, their defense and goalies struggled against Hartwick.  I thought
their defense would be very solid this year, and the Cortland State coach
thought they were at least solid with good goaltending.  However, they
started a different goalie vs. Hartwick and he did not play well at all.  I
think we'll get the guy who played vs. Cortland and expect him to be very
good, establishing a different first quarter than they had against Hartwick
when the Springfield goalie let in the first four shots.

We'll be doing some 10 man ride in the game to feed into our ability to
score in transition, also putting faith in our experience over theirs.
Riding is a little bit of a lost art with very few horns and only 4 long
sticks, but it can be devastating since teams are not nearly as well
prepared as they used to be to handle a good riding team. 

Game time is 7:00pm tonight at Springfield.

Best,
Erin