Holy Cross

[HCBosfan]

Pretty good scrimmages this weekend. SHU had posession for the first 7 minutes of the game. HC held them to only 1 goal. Within a minute Lynskey had it tied up at 1-1, he follow up with a Hat Trick for the day with another Hat trick against Dartmouth later. Both teams left their 1's in for 3/4 of the game. HC ended 3 at 10-9. basically eveyone scored on offense. Mullaney, Waldron, Babiak, Kodzis and even Murphy got in the mix. FOGO was domintated in the game. O'Connell and Keating played well. Defense was strong and really made the difference early. The team is shooting well. Dartmouth was the second Game.

They look good going into next week to start the season.

[HCDC]

Found some brief highlights from this past Saturday:
https://youtu.be/m4hXunBaZm0

What happened in the scrimmage v Dartmouth?

Noticed that Providence put 31 shots on goal vs BU in their opener last weekend. BU stopper came up with 24 saves for the one goal win.

[HCBosfan]

Did not see much of the Dartmouth game. I heard we ended up winning, it was 10-6 HC at half time.

Should be a good game this weekend. The offense has been putting up good numbers this fall and this Winter. Lots of guys getting points.

McSorley is a great goalie. Providence graduated most of their D poles last year.

SHU, has a good team.

[Flyersfan]

Dartmouth did not do a whole lot Game was a little chippy. Starters had a good lead when they left ; HC ‘s d was solid; Dartmouth did not Dodge much . Tesoro was solid in net both games ; made a couple fantastic saves . HC scoring was balanced
Second half Dartmouth dominated the third quarter lots of young
D in ; they really did not understand the defense . Fourth quarter they started to figure it out HC eaked out a win .!

[Atticus]

Was 6-4 HC after a competitive first half. Some good lax by both teams and HC had possession time but also a big advantage with several man ups. Both goalies played well. Dartmouth was up at least 12-6 (or maybe 7) at one point with a very tilted 3rd quarter, subs v subs, and then HC pulled close but probably ended with D up a couple. End results mean nothing. Seemed like a good scrimmage for both teams to me.

[crusader66]

Big game this weekend with Providence to kick off year. We got something to prove and was tied most of game last year. Penalties was difference maker. Need cleaner game.

[X-Check]

Should be a good game this weekend. The offense has been putting up good numbers this fall and this Winter. Lots of guys getting points.

McSorley is a great goalie. Providence graduated most of their D poles last year.

Providence’s D seems to be adequate, unfortunately

The 10 SOG deficit becomes 5 goal deficit based on HC save percentage; HC D needs to reduce quality of opponent shots and cut opponent SOG in half, HC needs get twice as much of possession or offense needs to dramatically improve SoG/Shots %. Probably some of all 3.

Shots that aren’t on cage are only marginally better than errant passes (ok, you get another chance if your back-up hustles)

OT: Colgate highlights are worth watching

[FOLaxFan]

Based on the box score, it looks like HC used a very very short bench vs PC who utilized at least 2 OM lines (possibly 3) throughout the game? Tied at Q1, still close at half, but then I'm wondering if fresh legs may have helped in the 2ndH?

[Sllaxdad]

1st half was a fairly even game. 3Q was the difference. HC had advantages in FO and GBs. HC has 22 TOs (13 unforced) leading to 4 transition goals. HC scored twice in the 1st few minutes of the game and then only 3 goals over the last 3Qs and 13 mins of 1st. PC played better and deserved the W. Team will improve ... onto Vermont and UMass Lowell next week.

The Shot clock was an improvement. Fun to watch.

[HCBosfan]

My thumbs finally thawed out. Just didn't seem like the same team that we saw in the fall and pre season. A bit of the yips I would say for the first game of the season. The box score did look better than we performed. PC had 20 TO's, our offense just could not get it going after the first quarter and we came out hot and my first thought was here we go. PC settled in on D and our O just seemed like they could not get into a groove. They will have to make some adjustments. I thought Tosoro had a decent showing. Some of those goals were on his door step. 4 and 23 did not score and those two were having a great preseason. I would expect them to get back in the groove.

In the rearview mirror have to move on. Its going to be difficult for all teams in the PL this year, well maybe not Loyola, but all the other games are going to be hard. I was more surprised at Lehigh getting beat by Hofstra this weekend. Saw a bit of the Bucknell game. Not a lot of firepower in that game.

[crusader66]

Not really much to add. A clunker for sure. Need to dust off and move on

[HCDC]

Deja vu!

HC averaged 36 shots per game last year. Had 37 vs. PC.

HC averaged 17 SOG last year. Had 15 vs PC (40%).

HC was last in NCAA D1 in shoot % last year, at 0.184 and averaged 6.7 g/gm. They shot 0.135 vs PC and had 5 goals.

Compare to Loyola vs UVA. Loyola took 40 shots (3 more than HC), put 25 on goal (63%), and scored 17 times 0.425 shooting %)

The rest of the stat sheet from Saturday looks good for HC: picked up more gbs (including non faceoff gbs), won more faceoffs, did a much better job clearing than PC, caused more turnovers, had a positive possession margin of 12, saved over 50%.

That’s a win if the offense does it’s job.

The O needs to learn how to put the ball on cage. Period. Work the ball to get a good angle shot from with 12 yards and hit the cage. Obviously it’s easier said than done. But they won’t win if they can’t figure it out. Hope they’ve been working on it.

[HCBosfan]

HCDC yes. There are lots of adjustments that need to happen. The fellas that were scoring well in preseason need to continue that. There is no easy road going forward, each game will be a dog fight. I just felt like we need to pick up the aggressiveness on both ends of the field. My newly acquired sensitivity has me saying nobody FEELS good about that game. Let get at it Saturday.

[HCDC]

Another stat that illustrates shooting woes:

#1 goalie last year in sv % was Nick Washuta (VT) at 0.609. Combined sv % last year for all opposing goalies vs. HC was 0.614. So goalies on average last year had a better sv % vs. HC than the best goalie in the country (% wise).

So on it’s way to the worst shooting % in D1 last year, HC not only missed the cage a lot (472 sh and 225 SOG= missing the cage 53% of the time) it’s shots on cage were bad enough that the goalies we faced collectively had the best save % in the nation.

And last Saturday Boyce had had 0.666 sv %.

PL shooting comps:

Shooting % in PL last year (total sh/total goals):
Loyola-0.351
Bucknell-0.328
Lehigh-0.321
Colgate-0.315
BU-0.309
Navy-0.274
Army-0.246
Lafayette-0.235
HC-0.184

% of shots that hit the cage (total sh/SOG)
Loyola-0.638
Lehigh-0.600
BU-0.583
Bucknell-0.579
Colgate-0.579
Army-0.565
Lafayette-0.536
Navy-0.535
HC-0.477

% of SOGs that resulted in a goal. (total SOG/total goals)
Bucknell-0.566
Loyola-0.550
Colgate-0.544
Lehigh-0.534
BU-0.531
Navy-0.512
Lafayette-0.439
Army-0.435
HC-0.386

HC was 4th in the PL in sh/gm but had the lowest % of shots that hit the cage and of its shots that hit the cage, it had the lowest % that resulted in a goal.

Lack of good shooting is a major problem. Not sure the it could be any more clear.

I’m not trying to throw cold water on the team to begin the new season, just trying to identify the core problem (that seems to have carried over from last season) in hopes that the team will fix it.

There are guys on the team that can beat their man. There were games last year where the offense clicked. Last year’s team was very young. They have another year under their belts. The rest of the team is setting them up to succeed. Good luck.


By the way, Washuta is still at Vermont, and they should expect that he’ll be in the cage tomorrow.

[Sllaxdad]

The next 2 games will provide more data. Hoping for improvement.

[Sllaxdad]

https://www.goholycross.com/fls/33100/s ... eamgbg.htm

The team showed improvement from game 1 to 2. Face off X, goalie and D play are ahead of O. 1Q was rough, (down 4-1) with less than 3 minutes of possession despite huge FO advantage. Too many poor/quick shots and unforced TOs. Settled down over the balance of the game (ahead Qs 2-4 6-5). 3 transition goals by VT off TOs was the difference. Big improvement from same game last year (L 15-3). Next 2 are winnable. Go Saders..

[crusader66]

Agreed. Goalie, faceoff and defense played well against a good team. And after rough first Qtr, offense settled down and look improved over prov game. Good positive step. Lets keep building on that.

[FOLaxFan]

Nice W! Curious why Dan O'Connell wasn't playing?

[Sllaxdad]

https://www.goholycross.com/fls/33100/s ... eamgbg.htm

Nice W. Game time temp was 25 degrees. More improvement on both sides of the ball. Terrific energy and enthusiasm from the coaches and bench, just nice to see the boys having fun and playing well. O played relaxed, fluid and with urgency with the boys zipping the ball and putting shots on net with pace and accuracy. It was good to see them back to the form shown during the Fall and Pre-season.

Competition level increases with games against Harvard and then @ Loyola and Bucknell. PL could be one of the top 2 or 3 conferences with 5 top 25 teams ranked this week. There will be several opportunities on the schedule to make a program statement.

Go Saders.

[crusader66]

Tru Dat. Great overall game by both sides of ball