We defeated Connecticut College 18-3 on another beautiful day in Vermont.  We were holding our breath a little at the start, waiting to see how our goalie and defense would respond to their sub-par performance vs. Gettysburg.  They responded brilliantly, with Alex making several acrobatic saves in the 1^st Quarter and our defense stifling the Conn. Offense.  Had they scored a few early it may have been a different game, following on the heels of our Gettysburg game.  It almost appeared that our offense was waiting to see how the defense would play before they kicked into gear.  Their goalie is also outstanding, so he kept them in the game early with some quality saves.

While the 1^st Quarter was tight, ending at 1-0 Middlebury, we were laying the groundwork for success later in the game with quality defense and goaltending, good opportunities on offense, even if they were denied by the goalie, and excellent riding.  In fact, riding would be one of the big differences in the game.  There are always a lot of dead balls on Astroturf, which allows us to set up in our various rides, including an effective 10 man ride.  Our riding would lead to a number of extra possessions and goals.

It took a little while to get untracked in the 2^nd Quarter, but our offense showed some signs of waking up and getting control as the quarter progressed.  We started Freshman Jim Cabrera and Sophomore Nick Bastis to give us some athleticism and dodging and it paid off in opportunities.  It also paid off for Cabrera in terms of points as he had 6 goals and 2 assists.  What was most encouraging was that Jim scored many different ways, dodging, outside shooting, inside with smart crease play and in transition as a cutter.  He can put together big numbers playing like this without needing to have the ball in his stick the entire game dodging.  While Bastis came up empty in the scoring column, he showed great promise.  Henry Sheehan was bumped out of the starting lineup by Bastis, but responded well with 2 goals and 2 assists.  That kind of depth at Attack should prove helpful as the season wears on.  The rest of the story on offense is balance with a number of players netting a goal, while Junior Midfielder Travis Meyer had one goal and 3 assists.  Travis has developed a knack for finding Cabrera, resulting in 6 assists thus far this season from the midfield, while he had 4 assists all of last year.

The other key factor of the day was face offs.  It did not play a major role early as there were not many goals early.  However, as we started to score we were able to make runs and maintain possessions, on our way to winning 18-22 face offs.  Pete Mellen did much of the damage facing off, and he added a goal and an assist as well.  Pete was one of the few bright spots vs. Gettysburg and that tipped the decision in his favor to give him the game ball for the Connecticut College game, despite the impressive offensive efforts of Travis Meyer and particularly Jim Cabrera.  Our team has always revolved around ground balls, riding, the nitty gritty parts of the game and we wanted to set that tone by awarding Pete the game ball.  We’re not discouraging 6 goal efforts, however!

We do not play during the week this week, we play at Wesleyan Saturday, April 2 at 2:00.  Wesleyan had been playing great, receiving lots of press, but they were just upset by Bates 13-6 yesterday.  Just another example of why a team has to approach the season game by game, practice by practice.