As reported on here earlier, we pulled out the W today against Springfield 13-9 on Kohn Field. After taking an 8-4 halftime lead, Springfield worked back into the game and eventually brought it within a goal by making it 10-9 early in the 4th quarter. As you all know, Springfield is an emotional team and credit them for taking advantage of some good plays and on riding the momentum.

Fortunately our guys regained their composure and poured in the last three goals to give us a little breathing room. The encouraging sign is that two experienced seniors were the ones who stepped up down the stretch and put the game away for us. The first goal came from Andrew Conner which extended the lead to 11-9. AC’s goal came right after he had played a large role in a failed clearing attempt that led to Springfield bringing it within 1 only moments earlier. We always talk about not letting the last play effect the next one and AC did just that by coming down and ripping a shot to the lower corner. The last two goals of the game were scored by David Hild who decided it was his time to take over and made some big time plays.

We did a pretty good job defending Springfield 6v6 but have a long way to go with our transition defense. They must have scored 5 or 6 goals off of loose balls in the middle of the field or a loose ball in our defensive end. We’re smart and determined enough to get better at this part of the game and I wouldn’t expect it to be an issue going forward. Also after a rough first half facing off we made up some ground in the 2nd and came close to making it 50/50 for the day.

Going forward we’ll get a nice boost this Saturday against Wesleyan with the return of Erich Pfeffer and George Curtis in the midfield who were out today. Wesleyan is off to a good start this year after a one goal win up at Bowdoin last Saturday. We’ll definitely have our hands full this weekend in Middletown and it should be a GREAT game. Hopefully we’ll see a few of you there, game time is 2pm.