We pulled out a squeaker against a very good Amherst team 7-6 on Saturday, with an Amherst shot hitting the pipe as the final horn sounded!

I thought we controlled the 1st Quarter with many good opportunities, but the Amherst goalie played well and denied some good opportunities. On the other end, they got out and ran on us and capitalized on some quick strikes in transition that we are not used to seeing. We gave up 3 transition goals as we got beat in the hole or beat at the substitution box. Teams usually do not run with us, so our middies were not used to it. They play much like us, they'll run poles up the field and push the ball, forcing you to get back and keep offensive middies on the field. With an additional man up goal by Amherst we finished the 1st Quarter down 4-2. You can do the math, the middies figured out that they needed to get in the hole, the long sticks (Brown, West, Rawson and Long Stick Middies O'Connor and Phinney) were dominant and Krieger was outstanding in the goal. It was a tailor made game for Krieger. Most teams possess the ball with patience against us, waiting for a high percentage scoring opportunity. Krieger thrives on up tempo games and usually does not see many until the playoffs when he plays his best. He saw more shots and saw them more often against Amherst and he was outstanding.

We played an excellent 2nd Q on offense, scoring 4 goals and continuing to have solid possessions. The game felt very much in our control at the half. We had a disappointing 3rd Q on offense as the D continued to dominate. We threw away too many passes, many times into Amherst sticks, forced some ill-advised shots and tightened up considerably. Throw in a procedure for too many men on the field, an errant pass on a clear and a good defense and goalie and you have a recipe for a shut out in the 3rd Quarter. It also lead to a tight 4th Quarter as well, for both teams. We had a couple of opportunities we did not handle, a couple of nice saves and a couple unforced errors in the 4th and it became apparent that one goal by either team could win the game. Our opportunity came when Senior Long Stick Middie Tom O'Connor, who had done a great job all day on their top middie, checked the ball out of his stick and Mike Murray picked up the GB and pushed it upfield. Murray, O'Connor and Dave Leach all ran up the field on the break. After crossing the midfield line Murray was picked up and he saw Leach open on the other side of O'Connor. With questionable judgment, but positive results, Murray lobbed a "buddy pass" over O'Connor's head to Leach. Leach made a great catch, got a step on his defender, drew a slide from the left handed pipe and dumped the ball to Mark Foster on the pipe who faked the goalie and finished for the eventual game winner. Nice poise by Leach on the play who was returning after missing 3 games with a bad ankle. He was hampered by the ankle but still dished out 2 assists and set up a third. It will be nice to have him back healthy, he is an important element in our offense.

The winning goal was scored with 4 minutes remaining. We won the face off and decided we would not try to kill the clock, as their defense is too athletic to hope to kill 4 minutes. It was a decision to consider, however, since we had not scored for the previous 26 minutes. We actually generated 3 excellent opportunities, with one pipe and one shot going just wide by Andrew Giordano after he had beaten his guy, beat the slide and walked in on the goalie. After his shot there were under 2 minutes left so we decided to try to eat the rest of the clock. We lost the ball first with around a minute remaining but West was able to strip his man and regain possession. Aaron Herter did a great job killing most of the remaining minute, but we lost possession with around 16 seconds remaining. They are very fast and they pushed the ball upfield quickly. Their best player, an extremely quick freshman attackman got the ball and turned the corner left handed from behind, turned, shot and hit the top of the pipe with the potential tying goal as the horn sounded! It would have been a tough OT mentally with that finish!

Tufts is up next at home Wednesday at 4:30. Another very tough NESCAC opponent. They are very good, with the returning NESCAC Player of the Year at attack, a couple of great midfielders and solid players at all positions.