Once again we came out on the wrong end of a
tight game the other night in the Carrier Dome. RIT scored with 6
seconds remaining to complete their comeback and go ahead for good at 11-10.
It was a fantastic lacrosse game and a great experience to play against
an opponent like RIT that presents so many challenges with the way they play.
It was also a big deal for our team to be able to play in such a historic
venue, even if it was mostly empty! I hope that experience will pay dividends
for us going forward, we will find out soon enough with Amherst coming to town
today.
RIT definitely graduated some firepower from the
squad we saw at Homewood last year but they are still an explosive team in
transition. Their long stick midfielder is one of the best players we've
gone up against in a long time, outstanding in transition, excellent off the
ground, and great instincts on the defensive end. With a few exceptions
we did a good job of limiting their transition and matching them in the sub
game at which they are the best team I've ever seen.
Defensively our guys executed our game plan with
only a few breakdowns and Will Ernst stood tall in the cage. On offense
we generated great looks and were extremely efficient at that end of the field.
The surprise of the night was how well RIT faced off, we have been so
successful there all season and didn't think they had a specialist who could
match up with John Jackson. Their kid did a good job of tying things up
and their wing play was much better than ours.
The game was back and forth most of the way with
it being tied up at 4 at halftime and after they took 6-5 lead in the third we
went on a four goal run to go up 9-6 with 2 minutes to play in the quarter.
From that point on RIT played with more poise than we did. We came
up with a bunch of stops at the end of the third and start of the fourth
quarter but either failed to clear the ball or gave it right back to them after
an ill-advised shot. Our lack of poise helped spark a 4 goal run by RIT
which allowed them to take the lead once more at 10-9 with 4 minutes to go.
At that point our team responded as they always
do and senior Kyle Soroka stuck a nice shot rolling
back to his right to tie the game at 10 with just over three minutes to go.
We ended up with the ball with a chance to win it and Kyle had
another good look which hit the pipe and after we backed it up, we turned the
ball over with just over 20 seconds to go. Clear for RIT, timeout, and game
winner with 6 seconds remaining.
We've talked about what we're able to control
going forward after all of these close losses and that is our effort, our
dedication to the team, and our mindset the next time we're in a close game.
We will need to embrace that opportunity to come out on top and not fear
the possibility of another close loss after we've given everything we have for
the team. Winners embrace that challenge and while we've yet to show it
on the scoreboard, I still believe we have a locker room full of winners.