Big win for the Panthers down in Hartford yesterday against an improved Trinity squad. Despite the lousy weather we had a great crowd on hand for the game and your typical alumni weekend cheering section for the Bantams on the far side of the field.

Going into the game we knew that we were going to have to improve our ground ball play as a team and the guys did just that against the Bantams. Our two wings on face offs are really coming along in Billy Chapman (5gbs) and Darric White (6gbs), both are incredibly disruptive on the wing and have become dynamic in the middle of the field. Billy in particular has become a scoring threat as he notched a goal for the third game in a row and won the game ball for his play. The other guy who continues to be a difference maker for us with his ability to get the ball off the ground is Ryan Deane. He made a few plays yesterday that showed he’s playing with an extraordinary amount of field awareness and I can only hope that other guys are learning from watching him! On one play he picked up a loose ball right outside the crease and while running full speed and about to get doubled he flipped the ball back handed in traffic to Darric White who caught the pass in stride and streaked up the field to lead the break. Hopefully this type of play is a sign of good things to come...

We’ve been focusing on becoming a better transition team over the past few weeks and I thought we continued to show signs of improvement yesterday there as well. We’re starting to see things as we get the ball into our offensive end that we just didn’t see or weren’t looking for a few games ago. All three of our starting attackmen are doing a good job of keeping their heads up and also finding open space when things are unsettled. Dave Hild finished with 2 goals and 2 assists in transition and 2 more goals on man up. Tim Cahill had a goal and an assist off of loose balls and added another settled 6v6 goal. And finally, Mike Giordano scored on a fast break and was the one who found Billy Chapman cutting after a face off win for his goal.

Last but not least, Andrew Conner continues to be a force in the midfield for us and hasn’t had any problems dodging against a pole these past few games. He was 3 and 1 yesterday and has picked up a new fan in Matt Dunn ‘02 who approved of AC’s overhand high to low shot selection after the game.

Quick turnaround here with RPI coming to town on Tuesday. Hopefully we’ll get a nice boost from playing at home again and be up to the test against the Red Hawks!