Kirkwood 6 - Chaminade 5

The first game of the year proved to be a rough one for the Red Devils. The Red Devils were missing scorer Jake Schott who missed school with a fever. Jake is one of our best offensive players and was sorely missed as Chaminade scored only 5 goals on 18 shots.

A very physical, very confident Kirkwood team played hard for four quarters and really took advantage of every opportunity. Kirkwood took 10 shots all game and scored on 6 of them. That shooting percentage is hard to beat.

The first quarter ended 1-1 as Senior Jack Meara scored for CCP on a counter attack and Kirkwood's Brian McVey scored on a free throw outside 5M. CCP added two more goals in the first half. One came on a 5M goal by Meara created by fellow Captain Chris Watkins' great drive. Ed Rose added the other on a rebound. The score would have been 4-1, if not for a great effort by a Kirkwood player to get back and knock down an Ed Rose breakaway. Down 3-1 at half, the Pioneers battled back to even the score 3-3 in the 3rd quarter.

The 4th quarter was intense as Kirkwood took an early two goal lead off of a Jake Entwistle kickout and a counter-attack goal on a missed Red Devil 6-on-5. The Red Devils answered with a Jack Meara laser from 7 meters out and another Ed Rose rebound goal. The death blow came with 24 seconds left as Kirkwood put the Red Devils away for good. A last second weak-side drive attempt failed and sealed Kirkwood's upset.

Overall, the game came down to opportunities. Kirkwood made the most out of theirs, the Red Devils did not. Our defense was solid and so was our effort on the offensive end. What was missing was the execution.

Things that went right:

• Hole Defense - Jake Entwistle and Chris Duncan did a magnificent job stopping the Kirkwood 2M's when they went inside
• Perimeter Defense - I counted only one goal that came from set offense. The other 5 came from either broken plays or counter-attacks. The defensive pressure was great and lead to 22 steal.
• Offensive effort - the drives were executed very well and we had a LOT of open people on drives.

Things that went not so right:

• Passing - too many missed opportunities. When under pressure, our wings couldn't get separation to make a good pass, or it would take too long to get separation, resulting in a previously open losing his open water.
• Counter-attack passing - if we are going to be successful, the first pass off of a steal or from the goalie needs to be on target
• Closing teams out - Kirkwood scored 1 goal in the first half and 5 goals in the second half. A would-be 4-1 lead turned into a 3-1 lead which quickly became a tie game. We can't expect to win a game when we don't score for an entire quarter.

Goals: Meara - 3, Rose - 2
Assists: Entwistle - 1, Meara -1
Steals: Entwistle - 6, Hoette - 5, Watkins - 3, Duncan - 2, Glauber - 2, Meara - 2, Faust - 1, Rose - 1
Kickouts: Entwistle - 1
Saves: Lauber - 4

Player of the Game: Entwistle - 1 assist and 6 steals

Up Next: 7:00PM on Thursday March 19th v. SLUH at Chaminade.

Tonight v. Kirkwood

Tonight the Red Devils open the 2009 season against the Kirkwood Pioneers at Chaminade. The JV game will begin at 7PM, with the varsity game to follow at 8PM.

Kirkwood has a strong group this year, five of which I am somewhat familiar with. Mitchell Bequette, Christian Bopp and Jim Tucker all played Jungle Cats and are all big strong kids who are good swimmers. Mitchell is Kirkwood's primary 2M guard and does a very good job. The two offensive players for the Pioneers are Christian Stanza and Brian McVey (Brian may or may not be injured according to the boys). Christian in particular is a handful as he is a tireless worker in the hole and has a real knack for scoring.

Kirkwood is a top 6 team that we cannot overlook. We need to come out hard at both ends and show the defensive prowess that everyone praises us for. I hope we can get a big crowd out for the home opener.

Starters for Varsity:
#1 Chris Lauber
#2 Chris Watkins (c)
#4 Jack Meara (c)
#5 Kevin Glauber
#8 Danny Faust (c)
#9 Jake Entwistle
#10 Jake Schott

Chaminade 8 - Kirkwood 5

The Red Devils continued their winning ways in their second matchup with the Kirkwood Pioneers. Chaminade came out with 2 early goals from Junior Jack Meara on great cross-goal passes, but the Pioneers battled with tenacious driving in the half court to cut down the Chamainde lead and only trail 3-2 going into the 2nd quarter. The 2nd quarter was a hard-fought defensive battle with CCP knotting a 6-on-5 goal for the second consecutive game giving the Red Devils a 4-2 lead going into the second half.

The second half was more of the same as every time Kirkwood would fight to get one goal, Chaminade would counter with two. Only a late 4th quarter goal from the Pioneers differentiated the first half from the second.

Kirkwood is a talented team that Chaminade can shut down due to our tremendous half court defense, led by 2M guards Danny Faust, Jake Entwistle and Chris Duncan. Our boys would constantly swim around the Pioneers big hole-man Brian McVey and thus he couldn't keep his position. On a rare occasion that we had to play behind him, our perimeter guys would crash from the top and steal the hole pass. For this reason, teams that run their offense primarily through their big hole men don't give the Red Devils much trouble.

Things that went right:

• 2M Defense
• Offensive creativity - looking weak side and swimming to open water when offense breaks down

Things that went not so right:

• Communication - these boys talk so much in practice, why don't they talk during games?!?!
• Defensive awareness - goes hand-in-hand with communicating...if you get beat, you need to call for help, and if you are guarding wing, you need to be looking to help if the point gets beat

Goals: Kubik - 5, Meara - 2, Duncan - 1

Assists: Meara - 2, Arnold - 1, Faust - 1, Hoette - 1, Stabler - 1, Watkins - 1

Steals: Meara - 3, Stabler - 3, Faust - 2, Arnold - 1, Duncan - 1, Kubik - 1

Kickouts: Entwistle - 1, Fernandez - 1, Watkins - 1

Saves: Stabler - 12

Player of the Game: Meara - 2 goals on 4 shots, 2 assists, 3 steals and forgetting his cold-shooting of late and coming out strong with two quick goals to set the tone

Today v. Kirkwood

It's Chaminade-Kirkwood Part II this morning at 11:00 AM out at Lafayette. The JV game starts at 10:00 AM. We are still in the round robin phase of the Rockwood Invite and a win against Kirkwood would put us in the finals later today, most likely against Marquette. We will again be short Kevin Rejko, Jack Benage and JV loaner Kevin Glauber.

We defeated Kirkwood earlier in the season by playing suffocating passing lane defense. Their 2M's were frustrated and their perimeter players were forced into a lot of bad passes. I expect this to be another Battle Royale not unlike our previous two games in this tournament. I expect this will be a very tough test.

Starter for Varsity:
#1 Blake Stabler
#2 Michael Kubik
#4 Jack Meara
#5 Kevin Arnold (c)
#8 Danny Faust
#9 Peter Hoette
#12 Chris Watkins

Chaminade 9 - Kirkwood 3

The first victory of the season came against a very tough Kirkwood team. It was a physical game and the referees were letting the boys maul each other. Cooler heads prevailed as the Red Devils worked hard, played aggressively, but also played fair. I'm proud to say that I saw no sign of any CCP players taking cheap shots or retaliating to offenses against them.

The game started off slowly as neither team could find the net for the first 5 minutes of the game until Michael Kubik broke free on a counter attack to net the first goal of the game. The Red Devils would tally three more goals, including a no-look hammer from Dan Fernandez, before Kirkwood scored their first goal 3 minutes into the 3rd quarter. Unfazed and bolstered by a staunch defense, Chaminade netted 3 more goals in the 3rd, highlighted by Kevin Arnold's tee shot. Going into the 4th quarter up 7-3, the boys locked down defensively and shut down Kirkwood's offense for good, netting two more goals of their own in the process.

In the absence of Senior Kevin Rejko and primary 2M defender and Captain Jack Benage, Danny Faust, Jake Entwistle and Chris Duncan picked up the 2M defending duties and allowed only one goal out of the set (a push-off in my opinion). I do believe that we have a very gifted and defensive-minded team and if we get our back-door problem fixed, we will have one of the stingiest and hardest to score upon defenses in the state.

Things that went right:

• Half Court Defense - for the second game in a row, the 2M defenders did a great job fronting the 2M and the perimeter guys did a great job staying in the passing lanes and not fouling the passer.
• Driving - especially the first series of drives during a possession. The boys work hard to get ball side and maintain their position.
• Shot Selection - I don't know what I said since the DeSmet game, but all shots came within 7M of the goal and in between the posts. It's easy to score 9 goals on 19 shots when you take high percentage shots.

Things that went not so right:

• Counter-Attack Defense
• 6-on-5 offense (stats were fine, execution was lacking)
• Resetting offense after first drives

Goals: Kubik - 4, Fernandez - 2, Meara - 2, Arnold, 1

Assists: Arnold - 1, Entwistle - 1, Faust - 1, Glauber - 1, Kubik - 1, Meara - 1, Stabler - 1

Steals: Stabler - 9, Kubik - 4, Watkins - 3, Glauber - 2, Faust - 1

Kickouts: Schwartz - 1

Saves: Stabler - 11

Player of the Game: Kubik - 4 goals, 1 assist, 4 steals and 1 "no retaliation" to a punch attempt by an opponent

Up Next: Tuesday March 18th v. SLUH @ Forest Park Community College. JV at 4:15Pm, Varsity after JV at approximately 5:15PM.

Kirkwood Game Moved to Chaminade

For whatever reason, we cannot play this afternoon's games at Meramec Community College. Instead we will move the games to Chaminade and play the JV game at 4Pm and the varsity game afterwards at about 5PM. I hope everyone that was planning on going to the game gets this message in time. See you at Chaminade.

Today v. Kirkwood

This afternoon we travel to Meramec Community College to battle with the Kirkwood Pioneers. The JV game starts at 4:15PM followed by the Varsity game at about 5:15PM. We will be missing Senior Captain Jack Benage this afternoon as he is interviewing for a college scholarship in Texas. Water polo is important, but sometimes you got to look at the bigger picture and I think missing this game for a chance to get a great scholarship to a great college is more important. We wish him luck and a safe return.

Kirkwood surprised a lot of people (not me) when they won the Founder's Cup tournament this week. They went thru a lot of tough teams, including Ladue and MICDS. I watched a couple of their games and Kirkwood is a big physical team with a lot of swimmers. A few of their players played for me this summer, including Senior goalie Matt Berry, who is highly underrated in my opinion. They got a lot of kids who can play and have a legitimate shot at being in the final four this year.

It's on their home turf, so we will need all the fan support we can get. See you at the game.

Starters for Varsity:
#1 Blake Stabler
#3 Michael Kubik
#8 Danny Faust
#9 Peter Hoette
#10 Max Schwartz
#12 Chris Watkins
#13 Chris Duncan