We
defeated
next Sunday at
conference call Tuesday, I will not have any details
on tickets until then.
It was a funny game today. Both teams played hard in the first half but
were a little sloppy/tight. We were getting beat to a few ground balls,
turned it over in some loose ball situations and didn't finish particularly
well. Some of the mistakes were as a result of good athleticism by
and quality goaltending. Some of them were probably due to being tight in
the beginning of a Final 4 game. Maybe the rest can be attributed to
playing at the end of finals week with practice being pretty much washed out
a couple of days, Seeley and Herbert both getting injured during the
practice week, not practicing for the two days leading up to the game and
playing like warriors as if they were not injured/I believe they each had
two goals and you would never know they were hurt. Those would be excuses
if we lost, just possible contributing factors since
we won.
We ended the half man up with possession, and got on the board right away in
the beginning of the 3rd Quarter with Dunn hitting Greg Carroll on the
crease with a no look pass, tying the game at 3. Dunn then scored a goal
to
put us ahead and we went on a short tear, building a solid 7-4 lead and lots
of momentum. Offensive standouts were Dunn with 2 goals and 4 assists,
Peter Albro with 2 goals (one lefty upper corner and
one behind the head,
top shelf shot on the run!), and Herbert and Seeley with a couple.
Brian McGregor did an excellent job on face offs, helping to control the
tempo of the game.
While Dunn and Albro were great on offense in the
second half, Seeley and
Herbert set an amazing example by even playing in the game, let alone
excelling, the story of the day was the defense and Eric Krieger in the
goal. With the offense struggling in the first half, the D kept us in the
game, limiting the Bombers to 3 first half goals (one a "garbage"
goal)
while struggled to get 2. Knowing we could hold them to a low number
certainly allowed our offensive players to come out loose in the 3rd
Quarter. If we had not played as well defensively we may not have been in
a
position to make a run and pull ahead. Sebby Astrada and Nick Lesher
dominated their attackmen, taking the ball away all
day. The long stick
midfielders did a great job on their big middie,
albeit a much different job
than Scott Goldman last year. Scott just beat on him and man handled him
last year physically. We were not sure our younger long sticks could
match
up physically, so we asked them to shut him off for most of the day. That
should give you an idea of the level of respect we have for him, shutting
him off with long sticks. When he did get the ball, they did a great job
staying on his hands and harassing him into contested shots. He only had
one goal on the day, a bit of a circus goal, catching the ball on the crease
when they were man up with his back to the goal and sticking the ball under
the cross bar behind his head without turning around. As I mentioned,
Krieger was a huge key today, if not "the" key. He had several
point blank
saves on the day, and played big just as he has in these situations in the
past.
It was a great weekend for the Panthers up here as Ian McCray, '92, and
assistant coach for several years, was married in the area on Saturday
night. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend, as were a good number
of lacrosse alumni. The wedding was great, Ian and his new wife, Laura,
are
terrific people and we will be fortunate to have Ian (hopefully Laura, I
forgot to ask) with us in Vail this summer on the Masters team! Congrats,
Ian.
I look forward to seeing many of you at
Best,
Erin