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02/13/2010

Navy Keys on Offense in Topping VMI - 16-5 !!

It was cold.

There was snow surrounding Rip Miller Field.

The old aluminum bleachers were FULL of Navy Lacrosse fans. (over 1600 fans at Rip Miller - that was great !!)

There was a note circulating in the stands asking if Lacrosse was becoming a Winter Sport instead of a Spring Sport. { Majority Opinion: No }

It might have been cold - but Navy was hot.

Of the 16 Navy goals, 12 were scored by midfielders, including Patrick Moran '10 with a hat trick, and Nikk Davis '12 with two.

Nine of Navy's 16 goals were assisted, with 5 of those assists coming from the midfield.

Navy launched 44 shots in the game, of which 26 were on cage. These are good signs.

RJ Wickham '12 had 12 saves in goal - and looked good doing it. He was also did well on clears. (21 of 23 overall)

Many plebes played today, and this Class of '13 showed themselves very well.

Bucky Smith '13, Cade Norris '13, Jay Mann '13, Jordan Seivold '13, and Will Fields '13 all saw significant action at the midfield.

Tim Paul '10 and Zack Schroeder '10 both came back from injury and looked good.

The defense of Michael Hirsch '11, Matt Vernam '12, Ian Crumley '12, Jake Brosnan '10, Jaren Woeppel '10 and Zack Schroeder '10 was stifling on the VMI team and executed numerous take-away checks, putting the ball back in a Navy stick.

This was a good start - "something to build on" as Coach Meade put it.

Starting with a rousing rendition of our National Anthem, the season began with the first face-off of 2010 at noon.

The VMI face-off man had a good day (17 of 23), and this first one started it off for him.

Navy used a team of face-off specialists, beginning with Robby Battle '10, then moving on to Frankie Coppola '10, Will Fields '13 and Logan West '12.

Marty Gallagher '11 and Jaren Woeppel '10 played the wings on the first face-off.

VMI took the first face-off, however the first shot of the game was stopped by RJ Wickham '12 in the goal. The Navy clear took only two passes.

The midfield change brought in Joe Lennon '10, Patrick Moran '10 and Nikk Davis '12 on the first midfield, while Tim Paul '10, Brendan Connors '10 and Andy Warner '11 started on attack.

It only took Nikk Davis '12 about 40 seconds to notch Navy's first goal of 2010 at 13:06 of the first period. It was a great left-handed overhanded shot from the goalie's left hand side.

Navy 1-0

Robby Battle '10 won the second face-off with Bucky Smith '13 and Jake Brosnan '10 on the wings.

Basil Daratsos '10, Brian Striffler '11 and Kevin Doyle '11 came in as the second midfield. At the 9:30 mark, Kevin Doyle '11 registered his first goal of the year on a sweet assist from Brian Striffler '11. This unit would attack the goal from the midfield all day - with great results.

Navy 2-0

VMI took the ensuing face-off, but RJ Wickham '12 came up with another sterling save - initiating the clear to Matt Vernam '12.

The first midfield came back on, but wouldn't be there long. Nikk Davis '12 scored his second goal of the day at the 8:34 mark of the first quarter. On this play, a VMI defender was a little over-zealous and was flagged with an Unnecessary Roughness foul.

Navy 3-0 and EMO

Frankie Coppola '10 took the extra-man face-off and in the process was tripped, giving Navy a 2-man advantage.

Navy wouldn't need the whole minute.

At 7:52, Patrick Moran '10 took a pass from Brendan Connors '10 and rifled in a strong right hand overhand shot to extend the Navy lead to 4 goals.

Navy 4-0

VMI won the ensuing face-off.

RJ Wickham '12 made another great save (his 3rd of the game) and the clear to Joe McAuliffe '10 led to a fast break and a shot by Tim Paul '10.

At 4:25, RJ Wickham '12 stopped his 4th shot of the game, which led to another smooth clear beginning with Ian Crumley '12.

The third midfield came out with Jay Mann '13 (former Dulaney HS teammate of Nikk Davis '12), Cade Norris '13 and Taylor Cook '12.

This also brought out Taylor Reynolds '12 and Kyle Kapron '10 on attack joining Andy Warner '11.

With 3:29 left in the 1st, Taylor Cook '12 scored his first goal of the season, making the score 5-0.

Navy 5-0

Robby Battle '10 won the next face-off and three passes later, Andy Warner '11 became the 5th different Navy player to score in the quarter. At 2:56, Navy ran the score to 6-0.

Navy 6-0

VMI won the next face-off, but turned the ball over to the defense as Michael Hirsch '11 pressured his attacker.

The second midfield came on (Basil Daratsos '10, Brian Striffler '11 and Kevin Doyle '11) and after several passes got off a good shot. The VMI goalie came up with the save and began clearing it up the bench side of the field.

Basil Daratsos '10 saw that his midfielder was standing near midfield with his stick up, but not moving his feet. The VMI defenseman heaved a pass toward midfield, when Basil broke on the ball, stepped in front of the pass and began a fast break with under a minute to play.

Basil drove straight to the goal and rifled in an overhand shot with 0:51 seconds left.

Navy 7-0

VMI took their 5th face-off of the quarter (to Navy's 3) and that would be the only quarter where we won more than one face-off in a quarter.

End of 1st qtr: Navy 7-0

A stick check on Andy Warner '11 resulted in a 3-minute non-releasable illegal stick penalty.

The man-down unit of Mike Hirsch '11, Ian Crumley '12, Matt Vernam '12, Jake Brosnan '10 and Marty Gallagher '11 in front of RJ Wickham '12 in goal.

It only took VMI 17 seconds to cash in on their first EMO opportunity.

Navy 7-1

VMI kept control by winning the Man-up face-off.

At the 14:00 minute mark, RJ Wickham '12 got another nice save and passed the ball to Nikk Davis '12 who ran the ball all the way into the box. Navy only held the ball 26 seconds until they gave it back to VMI with an errant pass. VMI cleared the ball into the offensive box and called a timeout at the 13:10 mark (with 70 seconds remaining in the penalty).

Coming out of the timeout, VMI scored and EMO goal at the 12:58 mark.

Navy 7-2

VMI won the face-off and ran straight down and shot.

With 12:51 remaining, RJ Wickham '12 made another save.

Marty Gallagher '11 cleared the ball and shot - VMI ball.

VMI cleared the ball at the 11:55 mark (Navy at even strength). VMI held the ball for over a minute, then threw it away at midfield.

At 10:01, the ball swung all the way around until Tim Paul '10 was able to take a nice shot from the far side of the field. VMI cleared the ball.

At 9:35, Matt Vernam '12 saw that his attackman had the ball, but was retreating to the corner.

Matt became the attacker. First, he got a nice butt-end check and put the ball on the ground. The VMI attackman picked up the ball, but now he was within 2 yards of the corner. Matt turned up the pressure and ran him out of bounds as he tried run away. It was a dominant play.

The teams traded turnovers in the next few minutes.

At 3:53, Navy was called for a cross check. In came the man-down unit.

At 3:25, Michael Hirsch '10 scooped the ball and cleared it to midfield.

At 2:56, Jordan Seivold '13, who played on the wings, and as a Defensive Middie, took a shot.

As VMI was clearing the ball, Kevin Doyle '11 executed a great body check, dislodging the ball, however an official came in from 40 yards out of the play to throw a flag for a push at the 2:11 mark.

At 1:54, VMI scored their 3rd EMO goal of the day.

Navy 7-3

Robby Battle '10 won the ensuing face-off (Navy's only face-off win in the 2nd period).

Joe Lennon '10 scored a nice goal on an assist from Tim Paul '10 with just over a minute until halftime (1:05).

Navy 8-3

VMI won the next face-off.

Halftime Navy 8-3

Robby Battle '10 won the opening face-off of the 3rd quarter.

Navy was not going to let the scoring lethargy of the second quarter carry over into the third.

The first midfield moved the ball well, and soon Patrick Moran '10 took a pass from Joe Lennon '10 and buried his second goal only 1 minute and 1 second into the quarter.

Navy 9-3

Frankie Coppola '10 took the next face-off, but VMI was doing the one thing they did consistently well today, and that was winning face-offs.

At the 11 minute mark, RJ Wickham '12 made another nice save.

After some passes and a ground ball, Brian Striffler '11 picked up a ground ball at the defensive restraining box. Brian became a 1-man fast break and outran the VMI pursuers.

As he was entering the box, he whistled a pass to Andy Warner '11, who caught the ball in the air and turned and scored before he landed. It was a very acrobatic play. At the 10:35 mark, Navy had regained their 7 goal lead.

Navy 10-3

Will Fields '13 was up next at the X, but VMI took another face-off.

The defense came up big again, and Navy was back on offense.

With 8:15 remaining, Patrick Moran '10 scored his third goal on a nice assist from Tim Paul '10.

Navy 11-3

At the 6:09 mark, Marty Gallagher '11 was clearing the ball when VMI was called for a cross-check.

The EMO got off 2 shots, but they were not on cage.

VMI burned off the penalty, and Navy actually took two more shots all even (Nikk Davis '12 and Patrick Moran '10).

About a minute later at the 4:09 mark, VMI scooped the ball and cleared the ball.

VMI moved the ball well and VMI's leading scorer crossed the face of the goal and put in a great shot. He was the one player who looked like he could play anywhere. That was also VMI's first goal scored at even strength.

Navy 11-4

Logan West '12 came out for the next face-off, but he anticipated the whistle slightly, so the procedure call gave the ball to VMI. (Although, Logan had the ball in his stick and he was heading downfield - he's gonna win a bunch this year).

At the 2:37 mark, Brian Striffler '11 picked up a ball at midfield, and he drove right down the right pipe and drilled a great right handed shot.

Navy 12-4

Logan West '12 took the next face-off that became a series of ground balls. It was hard to figure out who "won" the face-off, but ultimately VMI was whistled for "failure to advance" and Navy wound up with the ball.

In less than a minute, Basil Daratsos '10 found Timmy Paul '10, for Navy's 13th goal for the day.

Navy 13-4

Will Fields '13 took the next face-off.

VMI won the groundball, but once it got down to the defensive end, Zack Schroeer '10 came up with the ball and started the fast break, passing to Joe McAuliffe '10. Joe pushed the ball to the attack and was the beneficiary on the finish.

With 47 seconds left in the quarter, Joe McAuliffe '10 became Navy's 10th different player to score with an assist from Brendan Connors '10.

Navy 14-4

On the ensuing face-off, Marty Gallagher '11 was called for a push, and with the flag down, Tim Paul '10 was called for offsides.

With Navy 2 men down, the defense stepped up, and took the ball away on a great check by Michael Hirsch '11. Jake Brosnan '10 kept the ball away from VMI until the clock ran out.

Usually, the team with possession at the end of a period while either team has a penalty, will begin the next period with possession (no face-off).

End of 3rd: Navy 14-4

Of course, that possession rule can be negated by a dead-ball foul in between the periods. =:-(

And we found a way to make that happen.

This time, Tim Paul '10 was flagged for an illegal stick - 3 more non-releasable minutes.

So, we started the period down 3 men down for 10 seconds. Then Marty Gallagher '11 came in from the box and Jake Brosnan '10 came in from midfield to make up the man down unit for the next 2:50.

At 14:23, VMI shot and RJ Wickham '12 made another of his 12 saves, and Navy started the clear up the bench side of the field. VMI was offsides during the clear, so Navy forced the ball down into the box and Nikk Davis '12 and Andy Warner '11 played catch to hold the ball and run off some of the penalty.

At 13:17, the ball went out of bounds and the officials enforced the VMI offsides penalty - putting both teams at even strength for 30 seconds.

Jordan Seivold '13 and Brian Striffler '11 were the midfielders on the penalty-killing unit. Both are quick and very secure ball handlers. Jordan plays with a lot of composure, boding well for the future.

When the VMI penalty expired, the Keydets put the pressure on Jordan Seivold '13 and Brian Striffler '11. Soon (at 12:12) Navy turned the ball over - and VMI cleared it down to their EMO unit.

At 11:58, Mike Hirsch '11 stripped the ball from a VMI midfielder, and the ball rolled out of bounds in front of the VMI bench. Navy cleared the ball at even strength.

By the 11:01 mark, VMI had cleared the ball to Navy's defensive end. Bucky Smith '13 was on defense at D-Middie.

The next 30 seconds saw RJ Wickham '12 come up with 3 spectacular saves.

At 10:25, RJ saved the ball, then cleared it to Nikk Davis '12, however Nikk did not catch the ball and VMI was back on offense.

At 9:54, RJ made another save from close range.

Three seconds later, at 9:51, RJ came up with a very difficult point blank save and it seemed to energize the Navy team.

At this point, the Navy team was playing offense down at the Chesapeake Bay end of Rip Miller Field, and Tim Paul '10, Brendan Connors '10 and Andy Warner '11 were passing the ball around and frustrating the VMI defense.

At one point, Andy Warner '11 was standing on the crease, and Tim Paul '10 lured not only his defender, but Andy's as well, out away from the goal.

Andy did not move, and soon Tim passed to Andy directly over the shoulder of the defender who was double-teaming.

Andy Warner '11 scored his third goal of the day on the Tim Paul '10, and made it look easy with 8:30 showing on the clock.

Navy 15-4

At this point, Taylor Reynolds '12 and Kyle Kapron '10 came in on attack, while the midfield of Taylor Cook '12, Jay Mann '13 and Cade Norris '13 was playing the majority of minutes on offense.

Logan West '12 won the next face-off and Navy controlled the ball on offense.

With a little over 6 minutes remaining in the game, VMI was flagged for a penalty, yet we threw the ball away on EMO.

At the 4:42 mark, VMI's leading scorer came up with another D-I quality play crossing the goal from left to right drilling his third goal of the day.

Navy 15-5

VMI won another face-off, but Navy got the ball back soon enough (4:27).

Cade Norris '13, Jay Mann '13 and Taylor Cook '12 were now taking turns testing the defense by driving from the top toward the pipe, then turning and pushing the ball back to the top.

Evan Sullivan '10, a senior who tends to get most of his goals on EMO with his deadly outside crank shot, was now on the attack with Taylor Reynolds '12 and Kyle Kapron '10.

With 2:38 remaining, Cade Norris '13 drove across the face of the goal and became Navy's 11 different player to score a goal this season. This was Cade's first goal of his career, and probably not his last. =:-)

Navy 16-5

Navy gained possession again after the face-off, and held the ball for the remainder of the game.

Navy dominated most of the statistical categories - including the most important one - with 16 goals. =:-)

We did only win 6 of 23 face-offs. We were only 1 for 5 on EMO - although we held VMI to 3 of 9, with 7 penalties including two 3-minute non-releasables.

VMI did come up with more ground balls, 36 to our 28, but we were ahead 11 to 7 in the critical 1st quarter when we jumped out to the 7-0 lead.

We were nearly flawless in clearing at 21 out of 23 and RJ Wickham's '12 dozen saves earned him "Player of the Game" honors from the media. There were plenty of things to be happy about.

By the way, the NAVYLAX sightings were everywher - former Team Captains - John Pilli '73, and David Jones '82 (and his son, NAPSter Sam Jones) were there. Billy Dawson '82 (and his sons Wick and Riggs), Bob Capra '71 (without wife, Jonah - maybe it was the cold =:-) - Mikelis Visgauss '08 and dad, Mike came down from the Island. Joe Johnson '83 (my former teammate and now also a Dad - with Joe III now wearing #30 for Navy as a plebe attackman this year), Craig and Joan Crumley '74 are now parents as their son, Ian is wearing #34 and starting on defense.

Of course, the parents were also present in force. Ron and Anita Pastrana, Beahta Davis (and more family members), Larry O'Leary, Dave Paul, Joe Seivold, Walter and Gwen West, and John Schroeder and many more were in the stands.

Looking good NAVYLAX - let's see you next week.

Next up, Loyola on Saturday at noon, hopefully at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium.

So, shovel out, and let's get ready for the Greyhounds. This is going to be fun to watch. See you there.

Go Navy !!

Buddy Garland '84