Just finishing up watching some film of Cortland and wanted to get a quick game recap out about the Wes game from the other day.

As many have reported here, it was a great day to be a Panther!   I couldn't believe how many Middlebury fans we had in Middletown and the team didn't disappoint with the effort they put together on the field.

For the 2nd straight game we came out a little flat and also made some early mental errors in the clearing game which led to 2 quick Wesleyan goals.  The third came after we killed a penalty and as it went all even after the penalty we simply didn't match up.  We left a Wesleyan player wide open on the back side and they found him for an easy goal.  We actually gave up another very good look in transition but Pete Britt came up huge on the doorstep to keep it at 3-0.  Pete actually made a bunch of key saves in the 1st quarter or else it could have gotten ugly in a hurry. 

We finally got on the board after a nice goal by Matt Ferrer in transition, I still don't know how he squeezed the ball near side against their goalie but it went in.  Our second goal came from Pete Smith and was a typical goal for him.  The ball went loose on the left side of the field and Pete was there to scoop it up in traffic, spin through a double team and put it away.  I haven't done any research on this but I don't think there is another attackman in the country who has 76 ground balls. 

We started to dominate the ground ball battle all over the field in the 2nd quarter.  It started with our face off unit which won 5 of the 6 draws in that quarter with both Dave Campbell and Matt Rayner doing an excellent job coming up with tough gb's.  We were still a little frantic in the middle of the field and turned the ball over a decent amount but also managed to score four more goals to go up 6-4 at the half. 

In the third we continued to dictate the pace of play by being a little smarter with the ball in transition and also winning some key ground ball battles.  I can't recall a game this season where our defense was flying to the ball the way we were the other day.  Rit deserves a ton of credit for coaching up the attitude of our defense and as well as making us a much better transition defensive team in the last few weeks. 

Finally in the 4th quarter we outscored Wesleyan 5-1 and our offensive group showed why they've been such a formidable unit this year in the different ways in which we scored.  The first came on a nice feed from Mike Stone down to the crease where Matt Ferrer found a seem in the zone to slip into.  The next was during a substitution situation where we set an on ball pick for Skyler Hopkins to allow our midfielder to gain an advantage running to the midline.  As Sky came off the pick, Wesleyan made the mistake of leaving Mike Stone on the crease at about 8 yards.  Sky recognized the quick slide right away and found Mike who roofed one to make it 10-4.  The next two came after Wesleyan was forced to come out of their zone and start playing man to man.  Tom Petty backdoored their best defenseman as he left to double the ball and stuck one from about 10 yards out.  The next was a breakdown on Wesleyan's part as they allowed Mike Stone to dodge a short stick from up top and get his hands free lefty at about 10 yards.  For those of you who have seen Mike play this year, you know that a team can't give him that shot. He pinged it about waist high inside the pipe and I don't think the goalie saw it.   Our last goal came off of a great feed from Pete Smith to Tim Cahill on the crease to put the game away. 

Since Pete Britt is a captain, I presented him with the game ball and told the team I thought he had played his best game in a Middlebury uniform.  If Wesleyan scores one or two more goals throughout the 2nd and 3rd quarters the game could have swung the other way in a hurry.  As I said to the team on the bus as we were pulling away from Wesleyan, on any other day the game ball goes to Mike Stone.  At the time I didn't realize that he finished the game with 4 goals and 2 assists but he could have won the game ball simply for being out on the field.  I'll leave it at that but Mike is as tough as they come and we're fortunate to have him suiting up in the blue and white for another day.  Hopefully we can make it two more.

Thanks for all the support and thanks again to all of you who made it out to Middletown on Wednesday.  That's a day many of us will never forget.