DeSmet 5 - Chaminade 4 (OT)

This one is on me. There are two major mistakes I made in this game and, either through inexperience, stubbornness or stupidity, I couldn't realize what was going on. The most obvious mistake was the last play of the game. After the opposing team scores a goal (such as DeSmet did with 4 seconds remaining in overtime) you can call a timeout and then you are allowed to set up in the offensive side of half. Even though I have known this rule since I was a kid, it somehow slipped my mind in this instance and we settled for a half court shot...albeit a really good half-court shot by Jake Entwistle.

The second mistake is less obvious. We went into the 4th quarter leading 4-2 and we had DeSmet on their heels. We had our foot on their throats...and we let up. And I could tell we were letting up. I could see that we were playing not to lose, rather than playing to win. That, as you know, is a dangerous game to play. I had a timeout in hand and should have used it to wake the boys up to what was going on...but I guess I was playing not to lose as well. I figured our defense was playing so well that a timeout would only give their best players a rest and the longer play went on, the better our advantage would be. I was wrong, and the more tentative we played on our offensive end, the more aggressive they became.

The two lessons learned from this game are:

1. Our defense is nearly impossible to score upon if all 7 guys in the water are focused and working hard. If one guys lets up, the machine breaks down and a good team will take advantage of the break down. You can't relax against a good team or you get two back-door goals scored against you.
2. Against teams that hold and grab your legs or your suit, you cannot rely on the referees to call a foul. DeSmet likes to run plays that cause chaos so the referees can't see that a lot of the defenders are getting held. It's illegal, but a cheap way to get a goal if 11 seconds are left in overtime. My message to our players is this: you know you are going to get held, so you need to make sure you don't get held. Especially on those chaos plays, we need to have our hips up and keep our distance from their players. If you do get grabbed, don't sink and pray for a call, get your hips up and start swimming and kicking as hard as you can.

I say this a lot to the boys, there is a fine line between being aggressive and being dirty. There is a difference between kicking someone and someone getting kicked. When my suit would be held in college, I would get my hips up and flutter kick so hard and fast that either the guy holding me would let go or he was about to get a concussion. I would never aim for a defender or try to harm him, but I was determined to swim away from him and if he wanted to ride along he was risking getting hurt.

Overall, it was one of our best performances. Our game plan worked for the first 3 quarters and we were in control. We were very efficient in our shooting (4 for 10) and rarely rushed or forced a shot. But, I think we still have a lot of room for improvement. I want us to play a full game of defense, not just 90% of a game. I want us to finish teams off, too often we let teams back in the game. I want us to finish our drives, we do many great things on the offensive end but never get a quality shot off. I want us to know our roles, who should be guarding the back line and who should be guarding up top. I want us to have different offensive plays and different defensive schemes so we aren't so predictable.

One more conference game and then we are in the post season. We will get another chance at DeSmet in the conference tournament, so we need to be ready. I am looking forward to practice this week.

Goals: Kubik - 3, Benage - 1
Assists: Benage -1, Meara - 1, Stabler - 1, Watkins - 1
Steals: Entwistle - 6, Stabler - 6, Duncan - 4, Benage - 3, Kubik - 2, Meara - 2, Hoette - 1, Watkins - 1
Kickouts: NONE!
Saves: Stabler - 11

Player of the Game: Entwistle - 6 steals, fantastic 2M defense and did not take a sub once

Up Next: Monday April 21st v. John Burroughs at Chaminade. JV plays SLUH's JV at 6:00 PM and the varsity game against JBS will start afterwards at 7:00 PM.