Game 1- Manhattan at SB
2/7 1pm
no video coverage
i havent seen the jaspers play in a few years, but their schedule (especially early on) is tough. dare i say tougher than ours?
manhattan was selected by the MAAC coaches in 6th place out of 7 (monmouth last, not one Jasper on the preseason team). arguably the weakest conference in D1. but yet i still think this has the makings of a close game- early season, lots of question marks, cold weather, no scouting, etc.
what i do know about manhattan is that theyve graduated some key players- they run nearly two lines at mid and all graduated (except hurst), including their main feeder. it seems to be an iso offense and not so much off-ball (zero assists against SB in 2014). on attack it looks like two seniors graduated (including their finisher). the two returning attackman combined 11 points in 2014, neither sniffed the scorebook against SB in 2014.
they also graduate mcmahon (who may have run LSM not sure) and lots of defensemen return. its a huge roster. also their goalie graduated. he had a big game against SB last year.
not sure about the incoming class though. all i can add here is that its a big class and comes from pretty good HS teams- on the national level that is. but really, not a lot of info to go off of, because, well, no games have occurred yet.
so looking at 2014, 12-8 SB at Manhattan, SB did mostly everything from attack, with Easty and Rooney totalling 8 goals and Schultz with 3 helpers. Rowe dominated the X and enabled SB to shut down the Jaspers in the second half. it was a tight game through the second Q.
there's a lot of new faces at SB, yet, a lot of returning starters. rowe is the key departure, now maybe andreassi too.
there's been inklings that a lot of positions have been changed around at SB... we will find out details starting with saturday. the team ended last season on both a heartbreaking and positive note. the program hasnt captured much attention in the offseason (good?) because everyone is talking about UA.
it should be cold and cloudy at LaValle. GO SB