ah cmon now, check your messages!
this was one of the sloppiest games ive ever seen- both teams. hard to watch. there were more than 3 scrums where over 10 players fiddled around for a GB and no one came up with it.
couldve gone either way- the GWG was a rebound right into haun's stick; shot high while goalie was still on the ground.
the bad: stopak has one move and it worked 4 times in the second half. some late slides or non-slides. missed an open cage in a tight game. at this level, we should never get trail checked. i like that we are physical but some of our body/stick checks are obvious penalties. sometimes it's as if we dont know there is a shot clock. throwing the ball away. missing the cage (19/33 SOG). 14 first half turnovers.
the good: gutsy road win at archrival. we kept tierney in check. improved faceoffs. penalties minimal. 9 CTs (that's unusual). 2-0 road record. Hof was getting votes in both top 20 polls. avenge 14-2 drubbing last year. we ran man defense and id say it worked, until stopak inside-rolled. two-way mids create transition threat.
difficult to say who gets the game ball here. bollinger made at least 3 kick saves (plus one buzzer). enneguess won big draws late (6GB). haun scored a bunch including the go-ahead. pugal made plays all over the field. matsuoka and dugan and morrell form a nice trio of speedy two-way mids. haun and cassidy 7 GB each (abnormal for even FOGOs).
but i'd give it to dugan (two transition goals and good defense) and daly. daly doesnt speed by his man, but uses his size to back in and draw doubles. on two doubles, he moved the ball, another pass, and we scored. so he doesnt show up in the box, but in a 1 goal game, he gets my game ball.