Lacrosse 2012

[Swampy]

West was our best player today.  He made a ton of huge saves throughout the game.  I think he's not as good as AJ was last year in the clearing game, but his current play in making the saves is a significant upgrade from AJ, at least how he was last year.  That's a tough decision to demote a junior goalie who has started every game the last two seasons, but it seems to be the right decision.

Among the various talents I'd want from a goalie, clearing is third priority. First is stopping shots, but second is directing the defense. From what I could make out from the various reports and stats, both goalies played exceptional games stopping the ball. But I wouldn't be surprised if Denver's goalie -- Ryan LaPlante, a freshman getting his first start -- didn't give us some advantage by his inexperience directing Denver's defense.

Speaking of Lang, I wish he would be used more offensively.  I guess he's so valuable defensively, DeLuca doesn't want to tire him out.  I would hope that as the season progresses, he will be used more in key situations offensively.  I especially think he would be useful dodging and sniping against teams that play the zone like Virginia.  That was how he opened the scoring in this game.

I haven't been able to make it a game yet this year, but I hear Lang is playing SSDM. One way to get him involved in the offense would be occasionally to refrain from substituting an offensive middie and let Lang join the offense zone, just like in the old days of two-way midfielders. This would have to be a situational and a coach's call based on match-ups. There's always a danger of him running out of gas with this strategy.

I also saw that Denver was called for being offside towards the end of the game. I wonder if Tierney was trying to pull something like this (hold back a middie and let a defender cross over) and it backfired. Since you were at the game, what do you think?

[semsox]

Awesome highlight video (among many!) of the Denver game provided by a Cornell Fan over on laxpower.  The videos are up to 720p, and there's highlight videos from most of the biggest games over the past year or so.  Highly, highly recommended.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m16FoQlsQRg

[billhoward]

There was a 3-4 videocamera team capturing the game for ... not sure, but not RedCast. A bunch of Cornell fans had Canon or Nikon DSLRs with 300mm lenses. Maybe some of the Cornell / Cornell sports / Cornell lax alumni in the business might have some insights on how to make for a better RedCast.

[Swampy]

Cornell comes from as much as 5 points down to beat Penn today, 16-11. GO RED!!! ::banana::

[ugarte]

Got home, checked the livestats on today's game against Penn. We started the game down 7-2 after 2:15 into the second period. We battled back, but a Penn goal 12:02 into the 3rd period made the score 11-8 and that's how the period ended. In the fourth quarter, Cornell outscored Penn 8-0 and ended up with a comfortable 16-11 win.

EDIT: Damnit, Swampy!

[RichH]

Cornell comes from as much as 5 points down to beat Penn today, 16-11. GO RED!!! ::banana::

Nice balanced offense. 3 attackmen with hat tricks,

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Just got home from the game.  One of the more "interesting" games I've ever seen.

Penn simply packed 5 guys around the goalie in a zone D.  Our guys never really had a clear shot at the net and had to be incredibly patient.  Combined with the wet slippery field we had real offensive problems.  OTOH Penn didn't try for extended possessions.  All they did was shoot.  And we couldn't stop anything they put on net.  Frankly I expected West to be replaced at halftime.

As I understand it, deLuca ripped them a new one during a timeout midway through the second.  At that point we finally found something of a scoring touch.  But we couldn't stop Penn because we couldn't win a faceoff to save our lives.  Even so we got it within 2 at the half.  

The third quarter went back and forth, in part due to really crappy officiating, but also due to some sloppy play on our part.  Penn still ended up outscoring us in the quarter.

In the 4th quarter they put Noble in on faceoffs.  And that changed everything.  I think he only lost 1.  We also scored a few goals on the breakout.  This was critical because we didn't let their defense set up and block in the goalie.  Actually we probably could have scored another couple goals but once we had a lead we played a little more of a possession game and pulled up when we could have shot.

All in all, a win is a win, but I hope they guys learned that there are no easy games and you have to show up and play.