Middlebury defeated Bates yesterday 9-8, clinching the
regular season #1 spot in NESCAC. Had we lost we would have been #2 and
playing vs. Williams today. By winning we get a
bye today and host the NESCAC Final 4 at our place next Saturday and
Sunday. We were very close to playing at Wesleyan next weekend.
Going into the game I had a tremendous amount of
respect for Bates; that respect only grew with our game. I mentioned to you in my Williams notes that they play with
passion as well as discipline and they were able to do that for much of the
game. It is difficult to pinpoint what was wrong with us. I believe we did not take them for granted, I believe we
showed up ready to play, I believe we attempted to play hard, but it was not
enough to match them. We certainly did not play with poise, discipline or
intelligence as an answer to their intensity and discipline. Bates is well-coached and it showed on their early possessions as
they were generating excellent scoring opportunities. On the defensive end they surprised me, not by coming out in an unorthodox
defense, but by playing fairly straight up. We had anticipated possibly
some change up defense with short sticks shutting off Cabrera or a little zone,
but they played straight man and let us run our offense.
They did change up where they were sliding from, and I
do not believe they left Cabrera very often, if ever, a fact that helped us
down the stretch. Here is how the game unfolded.
Bates dominated play in all facets in the 1st Quarter. Their possessions
were great, their defense was executing well, they were facing off well and they
were beating us to loose balls. They appeared to be playing at a
different speed. The results were showing on the scoreboard. With
only a couple of minutes left in the first half, Bates was
leading 6-2 and it felt as if it could have been worse. Fortunately,
Cabrera found the back of the net with 2 minutes left on a nice outside shot to
the far post and then found Bastis who finished his
shot, allowing us to close to 6-4 at the half and give us a little hope.
Our halftime proved to be of limited effectiveness as the 3rd Quarter resulted
in 2 Bates goals and no Middlebury tallies, leaving us
at a 8-4 deficit after 3. The one bright spot was that both Bates goals
were unassisted dodges by a middie. I say bright spot because they were moving the ball so well
early in the game they had us on our heels and it looked as if they could do
whatever they wanted. We could live with a 2 goal
quarter and we could play better on-ball to limit unassisted
opportunities. What we couldn't do was continue
to squander opportunities on the offensive end. Their team defense is
very good, their goalie is excellent and their face off line is strong, so we
were clearly running out of time.
At the 13 minute mark we finally had a good possession
on offense with the ball moving quickly, resulting in JP Coviello
finding Travis Meyer on the crease for the 5th goal. While we thought we
were on to something, it would take almost 7 minutes before we would score
again. We had tightened up more and more as the game went on, so we were
mishandling easy opportunities in the 3rd and 4th, dropping passes on 4 v. 3
breaks, throwing passes away on 2 v. 1's and this continued in the 4th.
At the same time we did generate some excellent
opportunities, only to be denied by their goalie. We outshot
them 14-1 in the 4th! With a little over 6 minutes remaining Henry Sheehan snuck around the cage from
behind and tucked in a goal. It was something we should have been able to
do much better throughout the game as they were sliding off our adjacent attackmen and then attempting to recover back to their own
player; most of the game we allowed them to do so. Henry realized on this
goal he had his man beat and snuck it by the goalie. 8-6
with 6:14 remaing...striking distance. Now we
could relax and play. 2 goals is nothing if you can
win face offs. At 3:04 Bastis
found Cabrera and we were within a goal. While we were loosening up and
playing with an extreme sense of urgency, the wheels were falling off for
Bates. The game stats were not accurate, so I am
not sure if this is accurate, but the official stats had them clearing only 3
of 10 in the 4th Quarter. Whether or not it is exactly accurate, it is
does paint the picture appropriately. They could not clear the
ball. With a little over 2 minutes remaining we
got the ball back after yet another Bates clearing turnover and called a time
out. Bates had shut off Cabrera with his defenseman the previous
possession and they had been reluctant to leave him all day, so we used him to
pick for Aaron Herter off- ball. Herter's man would have to be the slide while Travis Meyer
dodged, so Cabrera picked him as he was locked in on
his sliding responsibility, leavi!
ng Herte
r wide open 3 feet from the goalie. After misfiring and turning the ball
over most of the day, Herter nailed his shot, tying
the game at 8 with 2:21 remaining.
With just over a minute remaining, Bates had another clearing
opportunity. My guess is that after turning the
ball over so often in the 4th Quarter the Bates defensemen were reluctant to be
aggressive. The result was that they never cleared the ball,
they received a 20 second violation. Cabrera and Sheehan reacted
quickly. Cabrera ran to pick the ball up immediately to get a quick
restart. Sheehan immediately ran to the goal. The whistle blew, Cabrera fed it to Sheehan who finished the goal...9-8
Midd with 1:11 remaining. Bates retained possession
and called a time out. They execute their offense well, so we were
certainly concerned that they would generate a quality shot. Although
Alex Palmisano had played an outstanding game, it is
difficult to make the great save in these situations. Fortunately, Bates
was going to pass the ball around, perhaps to take some time off the clock,
perhaps just to set up their play. Whatever the reason
it proved to be costly as we had a mismatch with Ben Raymond on his attackman. When Ben's player ran the ball into
X he deftly knocked the ball out of his stick and out of bounds; Middlebury
ball. After clearing the ball it became loose
but the clock ran out. Regular season NESCAC Champions
at 8-1 in the league, but not an easy regular season! As the
season testifies, the Final 4 will be tough. #2-#7 play
today in order to set the Final 4 for next weekend.
#2 Wesleyan vs. #7 Williams
#3 Bowdoin vs. #6
#4 Tufts vs. #5 Bates