Navy-UMd Links
Navy Insider Dick Long is still on vacation. Apparently he brought his laptop...We'll get to that below, as well as a little other business from there. We also are trying to find out whether Travis Reed will play against Hopkins.
Also--an assist to Lax Swami, with a hockey assist to Navy lacrosse SID Stacie Michaud, for the tidbit about the prominent late-game goals in the Navy-Maryland series. Lax Swami wrote about it, and Stacie told TFBO2F about it. Sometimes it takes a village to write a game story...
Coach Long
Navy out-hustled and beat UMD in just about ever phase of the game. Ground balls were the key. A 20 to 10 dominance in 1st half told the story. Navy's defense was outstanding. How many GBs did the long poles get in the 1st half? I can't remember poles getting this many GBs and doing it consistently throughout the game. The adage is groundballs normally equal shots, although with Navy's controlled offense this may be offset a bit but I'm betting the shot totals are close to Gbs.
Navy consumed face-offs, cleared flawlessly and shut down MD's offense. That is the story of this game.
Phelan's Big Game
Tommy Phelan in the goal was outstanding. He makes the saves he is supposed to and then makes saves in crtical points in the game. He is a winner.
UMD scored two goals on EMO, one on a loose ball transition and the last on a 6 on 6 breakdown at X. Meaning Terps had one goal on 6 on 6 offense. That has to be a concern for Coach Dave Cottle.
Navy's Second Half
MD's second-half goalie, Jason Carter, shut down the Mids in the 3rd quarter and had them second guessing their shots. When MD really started pressing out in the 4th qtr Navy had trouble controlling the ball. Was it the pressure or was Navy intent on just eating the clock? I believe it was the pressure and they have to be able to handle this as other teams will follow suit.
Washington Post, with an assist from Swami and Stacie.
Baltimore Sun's Mike Preston went with the same angle as TFBO2F--that Navy won a close game.
Annapolis Capital's Bill Wagner weighs in.
Also, check out The Diamondback. Eric Detweiler has done a very good job thus far on the beat.
By Christian Swezey |
April 5, 2008; 12:09 PM ET
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