We couldn't have ordered up a nicer day for a game today on Kohn Field, the temperature was hovering around 50 degrees and there was a good crowd on hand for the season opener.

 

As you can tell by the score, it wasn't our best day defensively but the good news is that we handled some adversity and played well in the second half.  In surrendering 9 goals in the first half we found ourselves giving up the strong hand in the midfield and giving up the topside from behind which are the two things we go into a game trying to take away.  Our young defense was exposed a bit in the clearing game as we had a hard time getting the ball out of our end and made some poor decisions with the ball in our sticks.  Finally, the 3 minute non-releasable stick penalty on Dave Campbell with 6 minutes to go in the 1st qtr was a big blow.  We ended up giving Dave the rest of the half off and didn't win many face offs until he was back out there in the 2nd half (he finished the day winning 14 out of 19 draws).  

 

The good news is that offensively we were very efficient and scored 16 goals on only 28 shots.  We were getting some excellent opportunities and cashed in on them for the most part.  We ended up going 6 for 8 on man up and should continue to score at a high percentage with the personnel we have out there.  Some performances worth noting were Mike Stone scoring 5 goals on 6 shots and that's with being shut off for 3/4 of the game.  As promised, David Hild made an instant impact as our 4th attackman by notching 4 goals on the day and I'd expect David to draw a lot of attention going forward.   Skyler Hopkins finished with 5 assists in the midfield and has a great understanding of what we're trying to do in our offense.  Finally, Pete Smith finished with 2 goals and 3 assists and showed why he's one of the best attackmen in the NESCAC.

 

Next up are the Wesleyan Cardinals who lost a close one today to Bowdoin 4-3.  With an entire week to prepare I'm hoping we're a much more polished team in Middletown next weekend.

 

Yeah Blue....

Dave