Chaminade 14 - Parkway West 2

I was a little under the weather today, so the boys pretty much coached themselves and I liked what I saw. To the untrained eye, our offense looks a little chaotic, but the boys are executed the offense magnificently tonight. We would release for the goalie early, relieve pressure on the perimeter, get a good ball-side drive, know when to clear out of the middle, make the right pass, look weak side...it was quite a thing to watch and I'm very proud of the way the boys played at both ends.

West's two goals came on avoidable mental errors: not pressing an outside shooter and playing lazy defense by allowing a driver to get a goal-side drive. Those errors cannot be made against a very good Lindbergh team on Friday night. I'm fine with mistakes as long as the same ones aren't repeated over and over again.

Really good games from a lot of people: senior captain Jack Meara with 3 goals and 4 assists, junior Kevin Glauber had 3 assists (a career high) his best defensive effort of the year and I even caught him bridging a couple times (a VERY good thing), junior Jake Schott learned to fake and notched 2 goals, senior Andrew Spilling also had a great fake scoring his second goal of the season, senior Max Schwartz notched his first goal of the year on nice shrug move and far-side lob, but...

...the goaltending was awesome tonight. Senior Peter Hoette played the first half, passing better than I could hope for from our goalies, and he made 3 saves including one big save on a cross goal upper corner shot that prevented West from climbing back in the game in the first quarter. Junior Chris Lauber stepped in for the second half and shut-out West with 9 saves, the most we've had from a goalie in any two quarters all year. Chris' passing is also greatly improved from the start of the season. In case you haven't noticed, these two are battling for the full-time starting job, and I really like the way they are pushing each other to be better. Chris has put away his pride and has taken the challenge head-on. Peter has shown real leadership in going out of his comfort zone and pushing Chris by working with him instead of against him. I'm proud of both of them and clearly our team is responding to the improved goalie play.

Goals: Meara - 3, Rose - 3, Schott - 2, Watkins - 2, Entwistle - 1, Hoette - 1, Schwartz - 1, Spilling - 1
Assists: Meara - 4, GLauber - 3, Rose - 3, Entwistle - 1, Schott - 1, Watkins - 1
Steals: Hoette - 8, Rose - 5, Lauber - 5, Entwistle - 4, Schott - 2, Watkins - 2, Meara - 1
Kickouts: Entwistle - 2, Schott - 2
Saves: Lauber - 9, Hoette - 3

Player of the Game: Hoette and Lauber (See above paragraph)

Up Next: DeSmet Tournament Friday and Saturday