Another great day to be a Panther...aren't they all, though.

Williams was expected to be a strong team and they were, but not as balanced

as we are. They have a strong offense and excellent stick skills. They

don't have our defense or intangibles.

It was easy early with a first quarter lead of 6-2 and a 9-2 during the

second quarter. Then we gave up 3 goals in a row, two of them on man down

situations and they closed the gap to 9-5 at the half. If we had stayed out

of the box in the end of the second we could have buried them then and

there. The 9-5 halftime score gave them some confidence and allowed them to

hang around for a while. At one point in the 3rd quarter it was 12-9 and

they looked to have some momentum. One interesting facet of the game was

that they were facing off with their #1 face off man who happens to be their

#1 middie. He does not face off a lot because they count on him to score

lots of goals and they are reasonably successful with their other face off

guys. Because Soden is so good for us their guy faced off most of the time

and did pretty well. Soden was still over 50% but he usually dominates.

So, we played more defense than we are used to playing. At the same time

their #1 middie only had one goal and that was man up. He had to expend a

lot of energy facing off vs. Peter. I guess it was a good trade off for us.

The 4th Quarter belonged to the Panthers as it has all year. Our depth

keeps us fresh so we are still on all cylinders in the 4th and we outscored

them 5-1.

Holt Hopkins led the way with 5 goals, Matt Dunn added 3 (and won the game

ball) and Dave Seeley had 4 Assists to go with 2 goals. The rest of the

scoring is most noteworthy because of its balance. Interesting dynamic on

this team is coaching guys about playing roles because so many guys play and

make contributions. Our starting attack and first midfield line are all

marquee guys but beyond them there are lots of contributors who must be

satisfied with somewhat limited playing time overall and maybe only getting

one or two opportunities to score. Some of these guys had a much bigger

role even on last year's team and they have had to adjust. Our second and

third line middies have scored some critical goals in the past two games, so

that has been nice.

A couple notes from the weekend. Thanks to Jon Owsley, Duane Ford, Jim

Grube and Bob Ritter for speaking at the dinner Saturday night. They sent

chills down my spine and made me more proud than ever to be a part of

Middlebury lacrosse. The feedback from players and parents has been

unbelievable. It is sometimes hard to have a perspective on tradition while

you are in the midst of playing, but our players and parents got a heavy

dose this weekend and they loved it! The alumni game, despite terrible

weather, was the best attended game since I have been here. Thanks to all

who were able to attend!

We travel to Maine this weekend for two league games, Bates Saturday at 1:00

and Colby Sunday at Noon. Both teams have been struggling for wins, but

Bates played Bowdoin to one goal last week and Colby has always played well

against us. Our focus is on our own play and our own standards anyway, so I

am expecting back-to-back great efforts. I will be out of town with the

team, so probably no write up by me until Monday at the earliest. If anyone

sees the scores maybe they can post it on this list serv.

Best Wishes,

Erin