Friday, April 3, 2009

We had a smooth trip to Detroit and subsequently Ann Arbor, Michigan for a couple of games that could make or break our season or at least our standing in the MCLA.  Tonight we play Michigan, a team that hasn’t lost in two years and currently ranks at #1 in all of the polls.  We got to see both our opponents play one another last night as Michigan spanked Minnesota Duluth something like 19-11.  Michigan had a player score 11 goals, quite impressive.  All his goals came from the inside, on the doorstep as it were, and I think he never had to pull himself up off the turf following any of them.  All he did was receive casual high fives from his mates, like he score 11 every night.  This surprised me because UMD is by no means small and they were quite physical in general, so I have no answer for the question of how they allowed one guy to score 11 apparently ‘easy’ goals.  One thing for sure is that the Michigamders didn’t wait for him to be very open.  They trusted him to catch and finish pretty much anything they threw his way.

Michigan dominates everyone at the face-off x and that is a concern for us, and something we want to defend more than ‘attack’.  Every time UMD scored Michigan answered off the face-off.  Every time Michigan scored they got the ball right back.  This is not a recipe for the opponents having success,

What does all this mean for us?  I don’t know for sure.  Michigan is quite good and well disciplined. T have talented players and they have like 8 coaches to our two, but I do know that we need to protect our middle to keep ourselves in the game.  I also know we must play with no unforced errors and no fear at the same time.  The polls are the polls but in my mind we have nothing to lose.  We haven’t had enough (weather) good practices lately either, but in my mind we still have nothing to lose and all the potential to put a great game together.  We don’t have an 11-goal scorer, but we are family, one that has its moments.  Tonight can be one of those.

Many of these teams like BYU, Michigan and a few others barely resemble “club” lacrosse teams anymore.  They certainly look funded with their cheerleaders and all that jazz.   By the way CU beat BYU last night in Provo, so predicting things in our division is downright impossible.  Anyway, we can’t even get a home game on our campus, so we remain very much a club.

So, what’s up for tonight?  We can play.  We need to play hard, play smart and hard, keep things simple, and just go for it like the family that we are. We will need to take care of the ball.  We will need a very connected effort on defense and certainly a few saves from the goal tender.  If we can somewhat neutralize the face offs that will contribute a great deal to our potential to pull off the upset.  We need the mindset of a bulldog, even though we don’t play them (bulldogs) until tomorrow.

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