DeSmet 9 - Chaminade 6

Riding high off of yesterday's victory over Parkway North, the Red Devils gave a tremendous effort against #2 DeSmet. The Red Devils overcame two separate three goals leads in the first half to tie the game 6-6 after 3 quarters. In the fourth quarter, DeSmet tightened up defensively and a couple of Red Devil mental mistakes led to two DeSmet goals by junior Matt Stipanovich off a kickout and a 5M penalty shot. The Red Devils could not recover and gave up one more at the end as DeSmet shut down the Chaminade offense in the 4th.

This game boils down what it usually boils down to, mental mistakes. Our effort is always there, as we work hard for 4 quarters at both ends. We are a smart team that can adjust when teams run different schemes (i.e. when DeSmet started dropping on the 2-meter, we started driving through to move the drop man and started to shoot more aggressively), but there are often times when we don't adjust (we refused to help on the 2M when almost all of their goals came from the hole). We certainly have the ability to play mistake free (the win v. Lindbergh at Rec-Plex, yesterday v. North), but we haven't been able to consistently bring that focus every game.

That said, we are playing VERY well right now and if we can get a healthy Danny Faust (flu-like symptoms) and Ed Rose (swollen knee) we can beat anybody. For the 8th time this year, Jake Entwistle was our player of the game. Not only did he do a good job on arguably the best player in St. Louis (Stipanovich), Jake also chipped in two goals and two assists. Jake is probably our most talented player and when he makes the effort to pitch in on the offensive end, this team is lethal.

Things that went right:

• Shooting aggressiveness - finally, we are confident taking shots when we are open. Now we just need to do it sooner and off of cross-goal passes
• Protecting the ball - for the most part the passing was better in the half court, although too many times we would set the ball when a defender was sluffing off on the 2-meter. But I recall maybe one perimeter steal by DeSmet.
• Mental toughness - three times we were looking at 3-goal deficits and we roared back on two of them, including taking a brief lead at the end of the third. We never gave up until we ran out of gas after the ejection and 5M calls (the 5M was heavily disputed by me, but we can't let the refs dictate the game for us).

Things that went not so right:

• Counter-attack passing - goalie Chris Lauber was pretty good actually, but during fast breaks, the second pass was too often a 50-50 ball, thrown too long or too high or sometimes too late. This can only be fixed by the boys using their legs to get out of the water and passing with confidence. Good passes are always thrown with confidence and aren't "wished".
• Shooting accuracy - Entwistle stepped up with some big outside shots, but he also had 6 others miss. Ed Rose was also 2 for 8. Chris Watkins was 1 for 4 (although his goal was a GREAT shot). In total, the team shot 23%. I think there might be a mental barrier that comes with playing DeSmet. We need to play looser against them.
• Helping the 2M - if your man isn't a threat, don't guard him
• Fouling outside 5M - our Achilles heel

Goals: Entwistle - 2, Rose - 2, Glauber - 1, Watkins - 1
Assists: Entwistle - 2, Hoette - 2, Meara - 1, Rose - 1
Steals: Entwistle - 4, Watkins - 4, Hoette - 3, Lauber - 3, Duncan - 2, Meara - 2, Glauber - 1, Rose - 1
Kickouts: Entwistle - 2
Saves: Lauber - 4

POTG: Entwistle - tied for lead in every field category, except kickouts (which he held the lead all by himself)

Up Next: SLUH @ Lindbergh