Mr3Putt wrote: ↑Thu Apr 11, 2024 6:35 pm
This is a v good post. I’m
Close to this league . This team has players . Sb has players . And I’d say better than Delaware on offense. Palloneti is the biggest threat in this league.
May be correct, may not be. The same team you are going against Saturday played Cuse and Michigan better than even for a half, played indifferent @ Penn for the whole game and lost by 1. If the Hens (ever) play for four periods they are going to be a tough out.
If they play for less . . .
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Mr3Putt wrote: ↑Thu Apr 11, 2024 6:35 pm
This is a v good post. I’m
Close to this league . This team has players . Sb has players . And I’d say better than Delaware on offense. Palloneti is the biggest threat in this league.
May be correct, may not be. The same team you are going against Saturday played Cuse and Michigan better than even for a half, played indifferent @ Penn for the whole game and lost by 1. If the Hens (ever) play for four periods they are going to be a tough out.
If they play for less . . .
<><
I think eveybody knows who you are Mr3Putt. You tend to repeat your points during the Towson broadcasts.
It’s tough to figure out what is going to happen when the Hens meet up with the Towson Tigers this Friday evening at the Tub in Newark. Delaware has absolutely nothing to gain in this game unless they consider winning the CAA regular season for the fourth consecutive year something. I am not sure I do. It was pretty awful when the Hens won the regular season title in ’21 only to lose the first round to Hofstra by a goal. Total gut punch.
Anyway, the Hens gain no advantage by winning this game. Ever since they decided to move out of the CAA for football, the lacrosse team has been eliminated from hosting the CAA tourney for the next two years. Can’t wait for them to be fully rid of this small-minded conference. Although I am not convinced that their new conference will be any better.
The Delaware vs Towson matchup looks to be an extremely competitive game on paper. Both teams are undefeated in conference and the cumulative scoring versus the six CAA teams is Delaware (94-43 or +51 goals) and Towson (94-44, +50 goals). Towson has the 8th ranked scoring offense (14.46 goals per game) and Delaware has the 13th ranked offense (13.25 goals per game). Towson leapfrogged the Hens to become the #2 ranked scoring defense (8.54) after holding Monmouth to 2 goals last week, and Delaware is a hundredth of a point behind as the #3 ranked scoring defense (8.55). But the game is not played on paper and it is virtually impossible to imagine what each of these coaches want to show in this game when the two teams are on a collision course to meet up again eight days later @Towson. Motivation for this game is unknown. If the Hens win Friday night it will be the third time in four years that they would have won the conference and were screwed out of hosting the tournament. Bizarre.
What to expect from Towson
The Tigers are led on offense by Nick DeMaio (26G 36A) who is the most improved player in the conference. DeMaio was a prolific goal scorer from the high lefty wing with a shoot-first mentality over the last two years with the Tigers. His volume of shooting led to a less-than-stellar shooting percentage. This year DeMaio has transformed into the quarterback at attack and spends most of his time behind the net finding open snipers. But he is also shooting at a 38% success rate. The best part is that he has tons of great shooters on his squad. Slick lefty sophomore Mikey Weisshaar has 37 goals on 35% shooting along with 17 assists. He is complemented on the other wing by the huge righty sophomore Joaquin Villagomez (6’6” 220lbs) who has 26 goals as a primarily off-ball shooter at attack. They’ve also have a couple sneaky off-ball guys in Bode Maurer (21 goals) and Alex Roussel (12G 8A) who always find open seams inside to snipe at an extremely high percentage 47% and 53% respectively. The offense is helped by the possession advantage the Tigers have with Matt Constantinides winning 58% of their faceoffs.
Stony Brook and Fairfield did the best in limiting this prolific offense by playing man-to-man defense with limited slides and mixing it up with a zone from time to time. Towson does not have great one-on-one dodgers but they always seem to find the open man. Stony Brook played a very physical game against the Tigers and limited them to just 9 goals. Not sure what we will see from Coach DeLuca’s defense, but the Hens generally play straight up man-to-man with aggressive blind slides.
The defense is led by 6’5” Colby Barsz, the most dependable defender in the CAA, who has amassed 21 GBs and 17 caused turnovers this year. He has a lot of help in the caused turnover department with the extremely athletic LSM Sam Morin (38 GBs, 17CTs), SSDM Reese Potter (38GBs, 12CTs), Joe Petro (32GBs, 14CTs), Elijah Smith (24GBs, 9CTs) and Connor Spagnoli (28GBs, 12CTs). That’s a lot of ball hawking and not surprising that the Tigers are the #5 team in caused turnovers with 10.69 per game. The defense is backed up by goaltender Luke Downs who gives up just 8.8 goals a game with a .548 save percentage.
What can the Hens do to slay the Tigers?
The Hens will need to stay close in the possession battle. Constantinides is an excellent fogo who is helped tremendously by great wing play. OJ Morris and company will need to keep the Tigers to their average of 58%. If the Hens can win 42% of the faceoffs without their top LSM Joe Speers, they will have a chance to make this game competitive. I would not be surprised to see DeLuca put Mike Robinson on the wings for some of these draws since he is a GB machine.
The Hens will need to have a great defensive performance from Matt Montgomery who will try to slow down DeMaio from X. I would expect this to be a very physical confrontation. The Tigers have great outside shooting, however, Hen’s tender Kevin Ellington is pretty great at stopping outside shots. He is currently the #1 goalie in the nation with an eye-popping .615 save percentage. The Hens will need to limit turnovers and shoot at a higher percentage than they have in recent weeks. I think this is going to be a10-9 type of game. First team to 10 will probably win.
The Hens will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of their first NCAA quarterfinal team from 1984 that succumbed to an all-time great Hopkins team. I know some of these animals. If the squad on the field plays anything like that team, I feel pretty good about their chances of winning Friday evening. Can’t wait.
Good write up. I’d say Weisharr is improved as well, and injury free. I’d say Ellington could be MVP of Delaware, and the job he has done replacing Kilkeary. I agree tight game, and how either plays this game is a mystery. Neither wants to foul, both man-ups have been v good. I’m glad for any team the championship is out of the Philly area. Seems like there are a min of 10 man ups called in that area. I don’t know what it is.
Hosting the CAA playoffs should not matter. Either Delaware or Townson is good enough to win at each other's place. And Delaware still gets to advance to the NCAAT if the Hens win it all, right? Enjoy your CAA victories while you can.
Unbelievably fun game last night at the Tub. If I was questioning the motivation for both teams before the game, it became clear very quickly that this game meant a lot. Both defenses played with intense ferocity that led to huge hits and forced turnovers. The Hens played primarily man to man defense with very few slides while the Tigers were double and triple teaming from the word Go as they fought for every inch of the field. Probably the most intense regular season game I have ever attended. Colby Barsz stood out as the best player on the field in my opinion. He was terrific.
The Towson pressure didn’t provide immediate returns as the Hens took a 6-3 lead into the half. But the cumulative effect of this pressure sped up the game at times and forced many more turnovers for the Hens than they could cause themselves (18-10).
All the other stats were nearly identical- faceoffs 12-12, shots 44-44, ground balls D32-T29, saves D13-T14 and goals 11-10. I apologize for my incorrect prediction of a 10-9 final with the winning team being the first to 10 goals. Delaware actually got to 10 goals first before Towson scored two amazing goals to win late.
The game was a blast. Hoping for an encore next Saturday in Towson. I’m guessing both teams will have to play extremely well in the semis for that to happen. Can’t wait!
. This team has players . Sb has players . And I’d say better than Delaware on offense. Palloneti is the biggest threat in this league.