ODAC lax season is on

[FannOLax]

Winchester is a very pleasant place, but the campus is bisected by the interstate. I'd never heard of Shenandoah U before I started driving Route 81 regularly to visit my dad (whereas I'd been hearing about other ODAC schools for decades). With so many colleges playing lacrosse nowadays, those without a tradition really need something special and some special people to close the gap meaningfully on W&L and the other established programs.

[Nothinbutthelax]

Shenandoah and Ferrum had a couple nice wins earlier this week. LYN / Randolph and HSC / VA Southern play today. Starters should sit by 1/2 time in both games but ODAC is playing!!

LYN allowing 250 max spectators. 2 parents and 150 students 1st come/1st serve (not sure if that includes track viewing of social distancing?) Must test negative. Maximum 8 students allowed on McWane balconies overseeing field. No visitor spectators allowed which hopefully will be eased when Salisbury comes down 3/6

[islander]

Shenandoah and Ferrum had a couple nice wins earlier this week. LYN / Randolph and HSC / VA Southern play today. Starters should sit by 1/2 time in both games but ODAC is playing!!

LYN allowing 250 max spectators. 2 parents and 150 students 1st come/1st serve (not sure if that includes track viewing of social distancing?) Must test negative. Maximum 8 students allowed on McWane balconies overseeing field. No visitor spectators allowed which hopefully will be eased when Salisbury comes down 3/6

I wouldn't go that far with HSC/SVU. SVU is a talented team that can score in buckets looking at their scoring the last two years. HSC should win handily, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a tough game to start.

LC/Randolph on the other hand, was over as it should have been in the first few minutes.

Ton of lacrosse today. Love it.

[PapaDGee]

Shenandoah and Ferrum had a couple nice wins earlier this week. LYN / Randolph and HSC / VA Southern play today. Starters should sit by 1/2 time in both games but ODAC is playing!!

Someone obviously hasn’t been paying attention to the team from Buena Vista. After spotting HSC 4 goals in the first 2 1/2 minutes of the game, SVU comes back to tie it at 10 with about 11:30 left in the 3rd quarter. SVU got out-officiated from there on out and the 21-16 final is not indicative of the game as HSC scored 2 late empty net goals (both by HSC starters by the way).

[Nothinbutthelax]

You are correct PapaGee. Looking forward to Lynchburg coming in next Saturday. Their defense needs to be tested. SVU has some firepower but not sure they’ll hang 16 on the hornets..

[thescottharris]

Not gonna lie, I was impressed with SVU’s offense, they have some legit talent on that side of the field and it’s going to take a combination of very good defense and faceoffs to keep them from lighting up the scoreboard. Here’s to hoping for the HSC defense is looking a bit sharper going forward. Goalie play was a bit concerning but it is just one game so I’m not going to overreact when I know the coaches are confident in both Schlager and Perry.

But the question is like it has been for a few years now is rather SVU can stop anyone. Defensively, SVU really got up in their grill on defense but seemed to rarely slide to help. H-SC’s superior athletes were able to exploit this for a lot of one-on-one goals and their GK really bailed out the Knights a lot. If he hadn’t been outstanding HSC would have had challenged the school record for goals in a game of 26. I don’t foresee the high pressure strategy with little to no sliding is going to be a winning defensive strategy against quality offensive competition.

They didn’t have a classic Roanoke super aggressive ride but they really liked to pressure the ball and make it difficult to make passes. Both the settled and transition D worked to generate quite a few forced turnovers. Though admittedly the Tigers looked a bit sloppy and have several unforced turnovers, not unsurprising for their first game against outside competition (they didn’t scrimmage anyone in the fall or preseason) but was expecting it to be a bit better with it being overwhelmingly juniors and seniors on the field.

It was close to even on faceoffs. Brummett and the SVU FOGO rarely won any straight up, nearly all ended up being contested ground ball scrums by the faceoff units. Wonder if the faceoff rule changes impacted things a lot on the draw? I won’t pretend to act like I’d know either way though and will let far more knowledgeable folks provide their input.

[sipecoth]

Not gonna lie, I was impressed with SVU’s offense, they have some legit talent on that side of the field and it’s going to take a combination of very good defense and faceoffs to keep them from lighting up the scoreboard. Here’s to hoping for the HSC defense is looking a bit sharper going forward. Goalie play was a bit concerning but it is just one game so I’m not going to overreact when I know the coaches are confident in both Schlager and Perry.

But the question is like it has been for a few years now is rather SVU can stop anyone. Defensively, SVU really got up in their grill on defense but seemed to rarely slide to help. H-SC’s superior athletes were able to exploit this for a lot of one-on-one goals and their GK really bailed out the Knights a lot. If he hadn’t been outstanding HSC would have had challenged the school record for goals in a game of 26. I don’t foresee the high pressure strategy with little to no sliding is going to be a winning defensive strategy against quality offensive competition.

They didn’t have a classic Roanoke super aggressive ride but they really liked to pressure the ball and make it difficult to make passes. Both the settled and transition D worked to generate quite a few forced turnovers. Though admittedly the Tigers looked a bit sloppy and have several unforced turnovers, not unsurprising for their first game against outside competition (they didn’t scrimmage anyone in the fall or preseason) but was expecting it to be a bit better with it being overwhelmingly juniors and seniors on the field.

It was close to even on faceoffs. Brummett and the SVU FOGO rarely won any straight up, nearly all ended up being contested ground ball scrums by the faceoff units. Wonder if the faceoff rule changes impacted things a lot on the draw? I won’t pretend to act like I’d know either way though and will let far more knowledgeable folks provide their input.

Scott,

It's nice to see a well thought out, balanced post.

I thought HSC did a lot of nice things. They came out super hot, dominating the first 5 minutes of the game. Offensively, they exploited their matchups, and defensively did a good job against Danemann. If you like riding, this game was fun to watch. I thought HSC pressured SVU nicely, and SVU rides as hard as any team you will see.

It was a little sloppy all the way around, but it was an entertaining game for sure.

SVU is going to score goals against everyone, as they have the last few years. Last year their GAA was down significantly, so it remains to be seen if this was a bad matchup with a very good HSC team, or if it is a trend. If they keep GAA to 12 or 13 they will win a lot of games.

The SVU FOGO is a freshman and seemed to find his sea legs later in the game, which bodes well for the Knights.

Good luck to the Tigers the rest of the way. It's too bad that the ODAC only wanted SVU as a member in football, and the Knights had to look for a new conference. They would have been a nice fit in the ODAC.

[islander]

ODAC slate this weekend/next week

Friday:
CNU at HSC

Saturday:
SVU at Lynchburg
William Peace at Roanoke
Pfeiffer at Ferrum
Wesley at Randolph

Sunday:
Methodist at Randolph

Monday:
Saint Mary's at VWU

Tuesday:
Cabrini at HSC

Wednesday:
Methodist at Ferrum

[2laxers]

Tuesday:
Cabrini at HSC

Don’t think this game will be played. It’s not on the Cabrini schedule.

[thescottharris]

Not gonna lie, I was impressed with SVU’s offense, they have some legit talent on that side of the field and it’s going to take a combination of very good defense and faceoffs to keep them from lighting up the scoreboard. Here’s to hoping for the HSC defense is looking a bit sharper going forward. Goalie play was a bit concerning but it is just one game so I’m not going to overreact when I know the coaches are confident in both Schlager and Perry.

But the question is like it has been for a few years now is rather SVU can stop anyone. Defensively, SVU really got up in their grill on defense but seemed to rarely slide to help. H-SC’s superior athletes were able to exploit this for a lot of one-on-one goals and their GK really bailed out the Knights a lot. If he hadn’t been outstanding HSC would have had challenged the school record for goals in a game of 26. I don’t foresee the high pressure strategy with little to no sliding is going to be a winning defensive strategy against quality offensive competition.

They didn’t have a classic Roanoke super aggressive ride but they really liked to pressure the ball and make it difficult to make passes. Both the settled and transition D worked to generate quite a few forced turnovers. Though admittedly the Tigers looked a bit sloppy and have several unforced turnovers, not unsurprising for their first game against outside competition (they didn’t scrimmage anyone in the fall or preseason) but was expecting it to be a bit better with it being overwhelmingly juniors and seniors on the field.

It was close to even on faceoffs. Brummett and the SVU FOGO rarely won any straight up, nearly all ended up being contested ground ball scrums by the faceoff units. Wonder if the faceoff rule changes impacted things a lot on the draw? I won’t pretend to act like I’d know either way though and will let far more knowledgeable folks provide their input.

Scott,

It's nice to see a well thought out, balanced post.

I thought HSC did a lot of nice things. They came out super hot, dominating the first 5 minutes of the game. Offensively, they exploited their matchups, and defensively did a good job against Danemann. If you like riding, this game was fun to watch. I thought HSC pressured SVU nicely, and SVU rides as hard as any team you will see.

It was a little sloppy all the way around, but it was an entertaining game for sure.

SVU is going to score goals against everyone, as they have the last few years. Last year their GAA was down significantly, so it remains to be seen if this was a bad matchup with a very good HSC team, or if it is a trend. If they keep GAA to 12 or 13 they will win a lot of games.

The SVU FOGO is a freshman and seemed to find his sea legs later in the game, which bodes well for the Knights.

Good luck to the Tigers the rest of the way. It's too bad that the ODAC only wanted SVU as a member in football, and the Knights had to look for a new conference. They would have been a nice fit in the ODAC.

ODAC was at 13 member schools (will be 12 next year with Emory & Henry going D2) on the men's side, and 15 (14 next year) on the women's side. ODAC at the point where adding additional full-members doesn't really make sense. They've already gone to playing unbalanced schedules in a large # of the sports, and in a sport like soccer where you don't play everyone anymore, you only play each school like twice in four years unless it's like a designated rival that you play every year. Don't really think there was much interest in adding another full-member, don't know if that chnges with E&H leaving.

[thescottharris]

Tuesday:
Cabrini at HSC

Don’t think this game will be played. It’s not on the Cabrini schedule.

THey are trying to make it work but Cabrini had to cancel their spring break trip so it's complicating matters and they are having a hard time finding a neutral site in the middle that is willing to host the game. My guess is the chances of it happening are slim to none at this point.

[Nothinbutthelax]

HSC won 26 of 30 FO’s and lost 16-10..
2 of 8 HSC man up and only 18 shots on goal..
CNU only 8 saves. Their defense must be solid ..

[thescottharris]

HSC won 26 of 30 FO’s and lost 16-10..
2 of 8 HSC man up and only 18 shots on goal..
CNU only 8 saves. Their defense must be solid ..

Captains are loaded and added a Furman and UMBC transfer to their starting defense in addition to returning a ton of talent.

Tigers were, IMO, fairly sloppy again with their passing. Maybe the rain had something to do with it, but there were quite a few unforced passes that were thrown into the ground or just not close to being on target. At times it felt like there were stretches of 4-5+ consecutive possessions where they would turn it over before getting a shot off. Thru two games thus far the Tigers have not done a particularly good job valuing the ball.

Brummett absolutely dominated on face-offs, nearly winning all of them all by himself, but I don't feel like his teammates helped him out much once he scooped the GB as he was being swarmed by several Captains for most of the night. I'm pretty sure at one point they just conceded attempting to win the faceoff to just try to force chaos after the draw. Amazingly Brummett only had two turnovers, but it really prevented the team from being able to get anything going off the faceoff and resulted in a large chunk of time being wasted each possession trying to get into the settled offense and get all the offensive subs in. I suppose if you can't win the faceoff then that's the next best thing to do.

Hampden-Sydney might have a goalkeeper problem this year. Second game in a row the starter has been pulled after three quarters.

[thescottharris]

HSC won 26 of 30 FO’s and lost 16-10..
2 of 8 HSC man up and only 18 shots on goal..
CNU only 8 saves. Their defense must be solid ..

I may be misinterpreting what you are saying, but H-SC's offense was 2-5 manup, CNU was 2-8. Two of those opportunities for H-SC were back-to-back with a few second overlap though so it was like one 90ish second manup.

[thescottharris]

Lynchburg 8, SVU 5 at the half. Hornets only managed one goal in the second quarter . Looks like SVU really cleaned up some things on the defensive end in practice this week.

[thescottharris]

Lynchburg 8, SVU 5 at the half. Hornets only managed one goal in the second quarter . Looks like SVU really cleaned up some things on the defensive end in practice this week.

Knights hung with them through 44 minutes, trailing just 9-7, then they gave up a man-up goal with 1:15 left in the third and that just opened up the floodgates, six goals in about five minutes to push the lead to 15-7 with 11:45 to play.

[Nothinbutthelax]

I did mix up HSC man up. Not seeing the game the stats appeared that CNU D must have been really good. Thanks for the color. There’s time to clean it up before ODAC’s.
LYN let down and got to loose in 2-3rd quarters. Lots of SSDM and long poles breaking and taking shots. Coach K started rotating a 2nd line attack in the 2nd and seemed frustrated / out of sorts in the 3rd but credit the boys from Buena Vista’s defense and excellent goalie play (19 saves). Can’t remember seeing as many shots hitting pipes in a game..

LYN has Salisbury visiting next Saturday. LYN has excellent Poles, SSDMs and 2 LSM’s but won’t hold the gulls to 8.. They certainly won’t score 18 against the gulls and 1-6 man up won’t get it done. Will predict a physical game..

[2laxers]

I did mix up HSC man up. Not seeing the game the stats appeared that CNU D must have been really good. Thanks for the color. There’s time to clean it up before ODAC’s.
LYN let down and got to loose in 2-3rd quarters. Lots of SSDM and long poles breaking and taking shots. Coach K started rotating a 2nd line attack in the 2nd and seemed frustrated / out of sorts in the 3rd but credit the boys from Buena Vista’s defense and excellent goalie play (19 saves). Can’t remember seeing as many shots hitting pipes in a game..

LYN has Salisbury visiting next Saturday. LYN has excellent Poles, SSDMs and 2 LSM’s but won’t hold the gulls to 8.. They certainly won’t score 18 against the gulls and 1-6 man up won’t get it done. Will predict a physical game..

2nd line attack was in at the end of the 1qtr. I wonder what the SOG% was for the 2nd and 3rd quarters, it couldn’t be real high. They scored most of their goals in 2 quarters

[thescottharris]

I did mix up HSC man up. Not seeing the game the stats appeared that CNU D must have been really good. Thanks for the color. There’s time to clean it up before ODAC’s.
LYN let down and got to loose in 2-3rd quarters. Lots of SSDM and long poles breaking and taking shots. Coach K started rotating a 2nd line attack in the 2nd and seemed frustrated / out of sorts in the 3rd but credit the boys from Buena Vista’s defense and excellent goalie play (19 saves). Can’t remember seeing as many shots hitting pipes in a game..

LYN has Salisbury visiting next Saturday. LYN has excellent Poles, SSDMs and 2 LSM’s but won’t hold the gulls to 8.. They certainly won’t score 18 against the gulls and 1-6 man up won’t get it done. Will predict a physical game..

2nd line attack was in at the end of the 1qtr. I wonder what the SOG% was for the 2nd and 3rd quarters, it couldn’t be real high. They scored most of their goals in 2 quarters

2nd and 3rd quarters: 12 shots on goal on 29 shots, 41.4%
1st and 4th: 25 shots on goal on 33 shots, 75.8%

[Dehuntshigwa’es]

I did mix up HSC man up. Not seeing the game the stats appeared that CNU D must have been really good. Thanks for the color. There’s time to clean it up before ODAC’s.
LYN let down and got to loose in 2-3rd quarters. Lots of SSDM and long poles breaking and taking shots. Coach K started rotating a 2nd line attack in the 2nd and seemed frustrated / out of sorts in the 3rd but credit the boys from Buena Vista’s defense and excellent goalie play (19 saves). Can’t remember seeing as many shots hitting pipes in a game..

LYN has Salisbury visiting next Saturday. LYN has excellent Poles, SSDMs and 2 LSM’s but won’t hold the gulls to 8.. They certainly won’t score 18 against the gulls and 1-6 man up won’t get it done. Will predict a physical game..

Heard the Gulls handled Drexel. Thinking the Gulls throw a smack down on what is probably a very strong Bug team.