DeSmet 6 - Chaminade 4

DeSmet put up their lowest goal total of the year as the Red Devils played their best team game of the year. Player of the Year candidate, Junior Matt Stipanovich, was marked all game by our defensive MVP, senior Jake Entwistle, and Jake held the big lefty to only one goal. That is a major improvement from this past weekend where Matt put up 8 goals on the Red Devils.

Chaminade's defense was relentless the entire game as we pressed hard everywhere and didn't give DeSmet any easy passes. Every pass was contested which led to 21 steals, many of which came from in front of the cage. The 2M defense was excellent as DeSmet couldn't get a goal out of set. After the first quarter, the team was very happy with how well were were matching up against the explosive Spartans.

To DeSmet's credit, they capitalized on the few mistakes the Red Devils made. Two counter-attack goals by senior Danny Holtgrewe came from perimeter steals. Juniors Stipanovich and Schonhoff scored off fouls outside 5M (two of maybe four such opportunities). Senior Bob Morrisey unloaded on one of DeSmet's two 6-on-5 opportunities and senior goalie Kyle Dolan scored on a last second lob.

As I said after the game, DeSmet is a very good offensive team, and 6 mental mistakes led to 6 goals. We need to be perfect if we plan on beating them next time around.

Things that went right:

• Defense...everywhere
• Getting open on offense, through driving hard ball-side
• Mental toughness - the boys were focused coming into this game and there were very few moments of rest as we were short two starters.

Things that went not so right:

• Passing under pressure - still too many wayward passes to open guys, too many passing attempts with defender hanging on arm.
• Shooting - need improvement in accuracy and aggressiveness. We get open shots and hit the goalie in the hands.
• Aggressive moves with the ball - when I ask officials why we don't draw any kickouts when we have position to the goal, they all tell me we don't make a move, that we give up. While I think this has more to do with the defenders using our boys the way swimmers use lane ropes while the coach isn't looking, I do think we need to be more aggressive when trying to relieve pressure. There have been moments where we try and turn our defender (Junior Ed Rose made a nice one tonight), I think we should try to make aggressive moves more often, to either turn the guy and head to the goal, or force the defender to foul.

Goals: Faust - 2, Meara - 1, Watkins - 1

Assists: Hoette - 3, Meara - 1

Steals: Entwistle - 5, Hoette - 5, Faust - 4, Lauber - 2, Meara - 2, Watkins - 2, Rose - 1

Kickouts: Duncan - 1, Rose - 1

Saves: Lauber - 9

Player of the Game: Faust and Hoette. Faust had 2 goals and 4 steals and handled DeSmet's Michael Schonhoff very well. Hoette had 3 assists and 5 steals, doing all of the little things that we need to win; play tough perimeter D, force bad passes, make steals, guard hole well if taken in, wing out to get the ball from the goalie and make good passes. Great games by both seniors.

Up next: Thursday April 9th v. MICDS at Chaminade. JV will begin at 7PM, varsity follows at 8PM.