A
Tale of Two Halves
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was
the age of wisdom, it was the age foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it
was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of
Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had
everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to
Heaven, we were all going direct the other way ... (Dickens, not Quinn)
Fortunately,
“it was the best of times, it was the worst of times…and then it was the best
of times again” for us today! If you did not see already, we defeated
Bowdoin today 12-11 in OT. For those of you familiar with this rivalry in
recent years the score would come as no surprise, especially since we were at
Bowdoin. For those of you that were in attendance
you know it was as unlikely a 12-11 score as one could imagine.
We played
just about as well as we could possibly play in the first half. The ball
was moving, shots were zipping, the defense and goaltending were excellent and
we were dominating face offs. J.P. Coviello had
4 goals and an assist in the first half and Jim
Cabrera added 3 goals. It was a dominating performance and it led to an
11-3 halftime lead. There was no indication at halftime that we would be
complacent or that we were cocky. We had just been through an experience
against Tufts in which we were up 9-2 at the half and only won by a score of
12-4. I thought that experience would come in
handy, but apparently not.
Now is
probably the time that you expect to get the answer for what happened in the
second half. Neither team changed personnel, nor did they change
offensive or defensive schemes. Anyone at the game can pick out reasons:
a swing in face off success, lack of ball movement-especially relative to the
first half, a couple of good opportunities that were saved or we hit a post, we
got rattled defensively when they made a run.
All of the individual reasons can be lumped into the elusive “momentum”.
They had all of the momentum in the second half and we were
rocked. Fortunately, we had a solid possession or two late in the
game. The possessions did not result in goals but we were able to keep
the ball out of their hands for a few minutes and slow down their
momentum. Both teams had a couple of opportunities to score down the
stretch but came up empty. Jim Cabrera had a late opportunity to score
but was unable to cash in after a spectacular first half. Fortunately when he came to the sidelines he was loose and
laughing at himself, we told him he might get another chance.
In OT
Bowdoin was clearing the ball with one of their middies almost at the offensive
box (a team can only call Time Out in their offensive box) when Sophomore LSM,
Glenn Bickley, threw a “ding dong” check, dislodging
the ball from the middie. He picked up the
ball, Attackman Henry Sheehan broke open near the
mid-line, Bickley hit
him. As Sheehan ran under some pressure down our sideline, d-middie Frank Granara streaked
toward the restraining line uncovered. Sheehan
hit Granara in stride, while a Bowdoin d-man slid hard
upfield toward Frank in an effort to de-cleat him as
he turned. Frank took about one step and zipped
the ball cross cage to Cabrera who made the finish look relatively easy for the
OT victory. We learned later Frank threw the ball to
Cabrera solely on hearing his voice calling for the ball. Had he
taken the time to look for him he may have been de-cleated as planned by the Bowdoin d-man!
Although we
would have preferred to have played better and more
poised in the second half, and despite the fact that we were shut out for over
30 minutes, we’ll happily take the win over a tough Bowdoin team, especially at
Bowdoin.
I don’t have much detail on the Supermasters game as we showed
up relatively late. I do know a few things:
1. We owe
Eric Kemp our gratitude for putting it together
2.
Tremendous turnout by both the Middlebury and Bowdoin Alumni
3. Rit scored a goal
4. It was a
great event…thanks to all for your participation!