Chaminade 8 - Kirkwood 5

The Red Devils continued their winning ways in their second matchup with the Kirkwood Pioneers. Chaminade came out with 2 early goals from Junior Jack Meara on great cross-goal passes, but the Pioneers battled with tenacious driving in the half court to cut down the Chamainde lead and only trail 3-2 going into the 2nd quarter. The 2nd quarter was a hard-fought defensive battle with CCP knotting a 6-on-5 goal for the second consecutive game giving the Red Devils a 4-2 lead going into the second half.

The second half was more of the same as every time Kirkwood would fight to get one goal, Chaminade would counter with two. Only a late 4th quarter goal from the Pioneers differentiated the first half from the second.

Kirkwood is a talented team that Chaminade can shut down due to our tremendous half court defense, led by 2M guards Danny Faust, Jake Entwistle and Chris Duncan. Our boys would constantly swim around the Pioneers big hole-man Brian McVey and thus he couldn't keep his position. On a rare occasion that we had to play behind him, our perimeter guys would crash from the top and steal the hole pass. For this reason, teams that run their offense primarily through their big hole men don't give the Red Devils much trouble.

Things that went right:

• 2M Defense
• Offensive creativity - looking weak side and swimming to open water when offense breaks down

Things that went not so right:

• Communication - these boys talk so much in practice, why don't they talk during games?!?!
• Defensive awareness - goes hand-in-hand with communicating...if you get beat, you need to call for help, and if you are guarding wing, you need to be looking to help if the point gets beat

Goals: Kubik - 5, Meara - 2, Duncan - 1

Assists: Meara - 2, Arnold - 1, Faust - 1, Hoette - 1, Stabler - 1, Watkins - 1

Steals: Meara - 3, Stabler - 3, Faust - 2, Arnold - 1, Duncan - 1, Kubik - 1

Kickouts: Entwistle - 1, Fernandez - 1, Watkins - 1

Saves: Stabler - 12

Player of the Game: Meara - 2 goals on 4 shots, 2 assists, 3 steals and forgetting his cold-shooting of late and coming out strong with two quick goals to set the tone