SAA 2020

[HornsLax]

Sewanee promotes interim DiBernardo to Head Coach.

[JunkD]

Centre beat Transylvania last night 9-5 in a game that at one point they appeared determined to give away. After a 3-0 lead in the 1st quarter they appeared to lose focus with repeated turnovers, many unforced, especially in the clearing game. Struggles in the clearing game can often be an early-season phenomenon, and for a time it looked like it would lead to their undoing. They finally righted the ship in the fourth quarter against a solid Pioneers squad. Freshman recruits made strong contributions at the X, attack, and on close D.

According to the Presser:

Centre men's lacrosse surged past in-state rival Transylvania Wednesday evening, winning 9-5 inside Farris Stadium.

The Colonels (2-0) finished the game scoring four unanswered goals to while shutting out the Pioneers (1-1) in the fourth quarter.

Will Hubbs scored three goals and added two assists for a game-high five points, and Anthony DiMichele followed with a pair of goals and assists.

Wills McCutcheon recorded 11 saves in the win.

[CarolinaLax Dad]

Great to see Will Hubbs name! He is the real deal. My son played travel ball with him. Centre seems to have a very talented team with depth.

[southlaxfacts]

Today's SAA Games
BSC vs. Piedmont

Berry vs. LaGrange

[JunkD]

The Colonels lost a close nonconference game at home yesterday 11-10 against Wisconsin-based Carthage. Turnovers generally and problems in the clearing game specifically finally came back to bite them. It was a potpourri of errors on the clear that ultimately doomed their effort yesterday. The coup de grace was a turnover off an intercept by the Centre goalie with 50 seconds left after the Colonels had rallied for two quick scores in the last minute fifty. They never got the ball back and Carthage ran out the clock. Coach Z must be itching to do more full-field practices to try to squelch the pesky turnover bug.

Meanwhile, Carthage has a solid team with some size and good athletes. In addition to recruiting from the nearby Chicago and Minneapolis suburbs they also seem to have a pipeline to some boys from Colorado.

From the press release: In a very statistically close contest, Carthage held a 40-36 advantage in shots on the Colonels. Centre held a 32-22 edge in ground balls, led by Shannon with eight and JR Brockman with seven. The Colonels held a 17-7 advantage in faceoffs, with Dylan Croft winning all 17 of them for Centre. Seven different Centre players scored in the game, with Hubbs, Knowlton and Malubay each scoring a pair of goals.

[saltlaxcity]

So..
Are we going to breeze past the fact that Rhodes lost to Transylvania?

[southlaxfacts]

Looks like Rhodes just had an awful 4th quarter against Transy.

Centre looks like the early front runner in the SAA. Expecting a lot of close games between the top 4 teams (Centre, Rhodes, BSC, Berry) this year.

[JunkD]

Centre rebounded from their first loss with a 12-4 win at home over Hanover. The game got out of hand early for the Panthers, with the lead at one point stretching to 12-1. Great game for team morale, as Coach Z was able empty the bench. Next up is a nonconference game at home on Saturday against Wittenberg.

[JunkD]

Colonels played their best game of the year yesterday, beating Wittenberg 14-6 at home in Danville. The lead stretched to 11-1 early in the third quarter before the Tigers finally got something going in their first game of the year. Centre looked much improved in the clearing game, played physical defense, had strong goaltending, and got offensive contributions across the board. According to the writeup, Centre had an advantage of 37-17 in ground balls. They also dominated at the X, winning 18 of 24 face-offs -- most of those by their freshman FOGO. Next up is a conference game next Saturday vs. Berry.

[southlaxfacts]

Shameful news out of Sewanee....

"So pronounced were the shouted slurs in the third quarter that the game officials on the field ordered that Sewanee fans be cleared before play could continue," wrote Brigety, who is Black.

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/sto ... rosse-game

Their game against Oglethorpe this coming Saturday has been postponed. Not sure if that's due to this issue or because of Covid

[Dehuntshigwa’es]

Glad the refs stepped in but the students within the group, should have squashed that. Plus the Coach of the team and or players should have gotten a time out from the official and let it be known play would not be continued until all the fans were removed and if not they’d forfeit the game. At a minimum the team and coach should get a one game suspension so the word gets out that there will be zero tolerance for that type of BS

[saltlaxcity]

Conference play begins!
Predictions for Centre/Berry and Rhodes/BSC?

[JunkD]

Centre handed Berry their first loss of the season in Danville yesterday by the score of 15-4. The game was 10-0 after three quarters. Berry had some opportunities to keep it competitive but either misfired on passes into the paint or failed to get off their shot quickly enough and were swarmed by Centre defenders. Will Hubbs was on fire and scored six for the Colonels. Senior middie Jack Shannon had a hat trick to follow on his SAA player of the week award from the week before. The Colonels again won the GB war 28-24 and also controlled the X, winning over 60% of the faceoffs. Next up is Birmingham-Southern.

[HornsLax]

Rhodes handled BSC 17-6... Game was close through the first quarter tied 2-2, Rhodes went on a 8-1 run to close out the first half which really ended the contest. Rhodes first year attackman Matt Leone with 9 points (6G,3A) in his first start.

[JunkD]

Perhaps reflective of a 10:30 am Sunday start, the Colonels began slowly against BSC but eventually cruised to a 12-4 victory in Danville. Centre trailed 3-1 after the first period, with their defense looking disjointed on several slide packages and in covering midfield cuts. But the Colonels stormed to the lead in the second period and entered halftime leading 8-3. Centre outshot the Panthers 46-30 and held a 31-19 advantage in ground balls, with their freshman FOGO picking up a game high eight. Centre's goalie followed up on his SAA player of the week award with a career high 13 saves. BSC has some quickness at midfield and their goalie played well. Oglethorpe is next up for Centre a week from today.

[JunkD]

Centre beat Rhodes 8-5 in on a warm Sunday afternoon in Memphis to win the SAA regular season title. More details later, but for the most part the Colonels were able to control pace and keep the game a battle of settled offenses and goaltending. The Centre keeper had a very strong day, aided by a strong defensive effort that mostly kept the Lynx in their half-field set. Next up is the SAA championship tournament in Danville.

[Nosey Ned]

Centre beat Rhodes 8-5 in on a warm Sunday afternoon in Memphis to win the SAA regular season title. More details later, but for the most part the Colonels were able to control pace and keep the game a battle of settled offenses and goaltending. The Centre keeper had a very strong day, aided by a strong defensive effort that mostly kept the Lynx in their half-field set. Next up is the SAA championship tournament in Danville.

Congratulations to Coach Zimmerman and the Colonels. I characterized this hire when made, a great one. No surprise Coach Z has led his team to the top of the SAA - and in just his 3rd year. From Junks post it looks like the Defense was instrumental in the win. Again no surprise as Coach Z did a great job coaching the defense in his 3 years at Denison. Well done Coach!

Another of the numerous successful branches of the Coach Caravana coaching tree.

[JunkD]

Concur Z was a great hire and has been a wonderful mentor to the boys. If not for him I doubt DS would be playing college lacrosse. Couldn't be happier for Z and the rest of the coaching staff. From the write up:

"Several individuals stood out in Centre's seventh straight win, including rookie Dylan Croft, who claimed 14 of 17 faceoffs. Two-time SAA Defensive Player of the Week, Wills McCutcheon, recorded a career-high 14 saves, as well. The Colonels held a 32-18 advantage in GBs for the game...McCutcheon and the rest of the Centre defense held the Lynx to their lowest scoring output by far, and also kept Rhodes without a goal in the home team's lone man-up chance."

Centre also had a balanced attack, including two goals from league-leading scorer Will Hubbs -- one of them a spectacular behind the back shot just outside right GLE. Also getting goal in this game and emerging as a key contributor down the stretch has been Chase Poplin, who has developed into a dangerous time and room shooter. Centre is off next weekend and will host the SAA Tournament the week after, beginning with the semifinals Friday, April 23.

[JunkD]

Centre defeated Berry 10-7 last night in Danville to move to the SAA Championship. The Colonels will play Rhodes on Sunday. Centre played a plain vanilla offense that couldn't stretch out a big lead and sometimes struggled in the face of Berry's tactics of pressing out on the Colonel's midfield. In addition to face-guarding Will Hubbs most of the game, Berry also frequently double poled the faceoff X. However, the write-up notes that Dylan Croft still won 15 of 21 faceoffs for the Colonels.

Centre hosts Rhodes Sunday at 1 p.m. in the SAA Championship. It will be the third conference tournament finale for the Colonels and the first against the Lynx.

[JunkD]

Centre wins over Rhodes 11-4 to win the SAA championship and is tournament bound. A fantastic defensive performance by the Colonels, as they shut out the Lynx in the second half. Rhodes had the momentum for the first quarter and a half of play, primarily through using a pole at the X to stymie Centre's freshman FOGO and dominate time of possession. But the Colonels made their own adjustments on the face off and were finally able to stretch out a 6-4 lead at the half. Congratulations to all the boys, Coach Z and the rest of the coaching staff on a wonderful season for the Colonels.