April 15, 2008

Marquette 6 - Chaminade 4

Marquette brought their defensive "A" game to the second Chaminade-Marquette matchup of the year, this time for 3rd place in the DeSmet Invite. Marquette played smothering press-no-foul defense on the permieter and forced MANY bad passes from the Boys in Red. If we did get passes off, goals were still hard to come by, and I partially blame myself for not substituting more often, not changing strategies when the game plan didn't work and not encouraging patience enough. Marquette's goalie played well and we made him look like an Olympian with 18 shots and only 4 goals. We refused to take the highest percentage shots (near-side low) and our refusal to fake has finally caught up with us and burned us when we needed goals. But, the story of the game is not entirely how our offense played (because again, even though we made bad decisions with the ball, our accuracy was off and if the goals just won't go in, it cannot be forced) but also how the defense played.

Junior Jake Entwistle did a magnificent job against Marquette's big 2M Tim Meyers. Tim only scored one goal all game and it was on a backhand with Jake resting on the bench. The rest of the Red Devils, though, just played OK defensively, which is enough to get by against weaker teams but gets you beat by a good team (and Marquette is a GOOD team). Our defensive woes were entirley comprised of Chaminade defenders having their hips down, not playing in the passing lanes and fouling on the perimeter. By relaxing and playing lazy defense against a good shooting team, you give up high quality shots and do not get as many steals, which results in goals against and a low amount of counter-attack opportunities.

For those of you wondering, "hips up" means getting your suit on the surface of the water. This position is ideal for a few reasons:

  • If you are facing the man you are covering, he has nothing to grab onto except your hands, which are easier to wrestle free.
  • If your man somehow gets a hold of your suit or leg, everything is close to the surface for the referee to see.
  • If you do get beat, or are even with your man, being high in the water allows you to knock down his shooting arm or foul if necessary. If your hips are down he can overpower you.
  • If your man drives or you need to help on a drive, it is easier to change directions if your body is on the surface of the water (less resistance)
  • In the same vein, if there is a turnover, you can get started quickly to offense because you are already in the ideal swimming position, with your legs behind you instead of underneath you.

Congrats to Marquette for winning third place and playing one of the better defensive games anyone has played against us. Maybe Coach Emde is taping our practices!

Things that went right:

  • 2M defense
  • 6-on-5 (3 for 6 is pretty good)
  • Having high expectations of each other (the boys screaming at each other, although not ideal, shows that they care and have passion...it's better than being indifferent, and it makes them want to work hard in practice to get better)

Things that went not so right:

  • Defending the perimeter, fouling too much on the perimeter
  • Shot selection and patience on offense (I cannot remember an instance where we took a foul in the hole and looked for a cross-goal pass)
  • Screaming at each other (passion is good, rage is not)
Goals: Benage - 2, Kubik - 1
Assists: Duncan - 1, Hoette - 1, Kubik -1, Meara - 1
Steals: Entwistle - 3, Benage - 2, Kubik - 2, Meara - 2, Arnold - 1, Faust - 1, Watkins - 1, Stabler -1
Kickouts: Benage - 1, Hoette - 1, Meara - 1
Saves: Stabler - 8

Player of the Game: Entwistle - 3 steals and fantastic defense throughout the tournament. If we had a team MVP for the tournament, he would have my vote. Now if we could only get him to go on the offensive end of the pool...

Up Next: Wednesday April 16th v. MICDS @ Chaminade. The JV plays against Parkway West at 7:00 PM and the varsity takes on MICDS at 8:00 PM.

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