Hobart 2019

[manyhats]

Congratulations to Chris Aslanian Being drafted in the second round of the MLL draft by Denver

[TopShelf585]

Love the way we are pouring in goals week after week. They’re clicking.

[oldbartman]

I'm surprised Matt Pedicine wasn't drafted by anyone in the MLL. Maybe he didn't put his name in or is focused on the PLL. Anyone have any insights?

[Jimmy2Times]

Great trip down to Ct this past weekend. Both teams came out with loads of energy, am sure somewhat buoyed by the nice weather and the large crowd. New Canaan High School's facility would be the envy of many a college. UVm played a ton of zone and our ball movement and shooting were stellar. Their goalie was terrific but our shooters were just better. Aslanian, Scott, Holden etc put on a show. What was also impressive was the way we handled the ball and the silly turnovers that have plagued us were held to a minimum. We also did a much better job clearing the ball. One area of concern was on the defensive side of the field specifically in the first half when their middies were able to get a clear path to the goal without facing a whole lot of resistance. Slides need to come quicker and harder to prevent that from taking place in the future.
We also won in the parking lot but that should not surprise anyone either.

On to Wagner and the beginning of the NEC season.

[LRoggy]

I'm surprised Matt Pedicine wasn't drafted by anyone in the MLL. Maybe he didn't put his name in or is focused on the PLL. Anyone have any insights?

He was definitely in the pool and I know some MLL coaches had him on their list of potential craft picks. This was a strange draft due to the implied influence of PLL. Looked like most teams focused on players that were not specialists. After the college season ends someone in MLL will give him a look.

[joewillie78]

Love the way we are pouring in goals week after week. They’re clicking.

Your team is clicking on all cylinders and right now are a team nobody wants to face. Cornell had all they could handle with The Bart, and all us upstate fingerlakers are rooting for the Bart to win the NEC. In my opinion, you should be in the top 20 as your only loss was by 3 goals to the #3 team in the country, who just took down the #1 team in the country.

Some of your weapons like Aslainen, Archer etc are scary.

Good luck in the NEC and beyond.

GOBIGRED
Joewillie78

[Bartman]

Top 20? Why not us? Win the FO, work the offense, take a good shot...score...do it again....it is that simple with the weapons we have....Defense getting better every week...Don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves, but this is starting to feel like the old days....stay focused , play as a team and this COULD be a special year

[stupefied]

Hobart has a legit claim to be in Top 20. Beat Colgate and leave no doubt

[oldbartman]

Hobart has a legit claim to be in Top 20. Beat Colgate and leave no doubt

Easier said than done. Wagner first. Never look past anyone. Gate will be looking for revenge after they felt they let last years game slip.

[Jimmy2Times]

Completely agree, beating Wagner is a must and they need to do so convincingly. Wagner is 1-6 and has lost 6 straight. Really good teams come out and impose their will and do not take their foot off the gas. This is a great opportunity for Hobart to do just that.

[Laxgunea]

Forget Colgate. Wagner is up next ... all eyes there. Would love to see another 16+ goal game on the O side. But what I'll be looking for most is how the D comes out. Is it another cold D first quarter? Or do they come out fully engaged from the opening whistle? I have not thought that the slides were slow. When the D has broken down I have thought it was because of over-committing on slide or because of occasional ball watching. I wonder if they need a quarter under their belts to settle down a bit.
Believe it or not, I think we still have more offensive threats to let loose. I am looking for Simas to have a breakthrough one of these days. I expect Mott to breakout one day too.

[Farfromgeneva]

Five and a half years in and this staff still can’t break a zone

[Farfromgeneva]

That penalty call on madonna is a joke. Those home Wagner refs like at sHU are always shady and bad but that’s beyond pathetic.

[Farfromgeneva]

Good win, 5-1 now and agate just lost to canisius 5-1 (those weak early opponents are now above .500 at 4-3 and 4-2 with wins over RMU, Colgate and St John’s in the last two weeks).

Refs blew and at home. Our guys were getting baseball batted in the head and knocked down amongst other absurd calls. Nice to see Simas get one. Thought Gilbertson was terrific both ways, Knox looked good and Synnott and Delpha played well. I hope Managan doesn’t just get handed 1st NEC SSDM w/o stanny geting. Or at least being considered.

Shooting wasn’t great and we sill can’t break a zone which I’d hoped this team could Overcome so we don’t lose a slowdown 5-4 championship game like two years ago but now has me concerned. Seemed like a lot of forced skip and crease passes today.

Ultimately 5-1 wit a competitive loss to whatever Cornell is (not as bad as they’re claiming and just trashed Towson but two tough losses as well to excellent teams, probably a quarterfinal 6-11 type ranked team at year end). Depth is sill good. Hope we held koko and Christiansen our by voice and they can play tues because we have a short turn around and a opponent who beat cuse this year and will be doubly motivated by our comeback win last year and the loss today.

[LRoggy]

Five and a half years in and this staff still can’t break a zone

Are you giving the zone too much credit and the Wagner goalies not enough? 18 saves total by them . . . 3 more get by them and are you saying this? 13 goals in a D1 NCAA game wins a lot of the time. Save percentage across the country is way down, making the Wagner save numbers look even better.

[manyhats]

Give the Wagner goalie credit, he was hopping around on one leg going from post to post making some real nice saves.

Onto Colgate Tuesday need a big effort to keep this rolling.

[oldbartman]

Like Colgate, we may have been bit to confident/cocky going into ydays game. Yes Wagner's goalie played well. But, a number of our shots were not that good. The refs seemed to be bird watching when it came to making cross check and check to the head calls against Wagner. I would expect more of the same when we travel east on Tuesday. Hope the ref crew is different.

[Farfromgeneva]

No doubt Sefcik was excellent and made some terrific doorstep stops. Seemed like a lot of low shots even after it became evident that was his strong suit, especially after the knee got hurt. Their FOGO was surprisingly effective too vs Ped. Most teams win against him via wing play (Dan Ryan was excellent IMO) but that kid was winning man up cleanly like I haven’t seen against him since his soph year, even against guys like the younger massa and others.

Maybe I was having flashbacks to the bingo game and worse he 2017 NEC champ game vs Bryant because if these two can be effective in a slow down game what happens when a better team in terms of personnel put that in us? Bryant looks pretty down this year and I’d like to take some old duke playoff shopping’s out on him like he’s back at Ohio Wesleyan, but would never, ever disregard his ability to manage a game like belichek and pull it out (gotta stop oRourke, like Cleveland on tues). MSM proves they could win a 10-7 game against a conference opponent with a excellent coach who’s had our number for like 25rs now). Reality is their offense wasn’t equipped to put up ten goals on us, respectfully. We’ve looked amazing for most of the start of the year with some areas in need of improvement. I’d just like to see the team always continue to push their pace and not take the foot off the neck until the body is cold which they were capable in these two games, Binghamton came much quicker. Colgate has a ton to play for on Tues and I just hope their fully prepared getting off the bus, and healthy, because while I have a ton of confidence in our offense, all our guys can and have had rough shooting days, it’s not inconceivable that all or too many are off on the same day and there won’t be any 6 goal comeback heroics this time around.

That’s all. I’m generally cautiously optimistic that we can get to 8-1 going in the Cuse game, at the Boz I believe. Even in the defensive side, despite the top frequent lapses/slow slides season to date, I am sure many of these kids can become studs, think one or two already are, just don’t know how, or if, they get there and when. Not to ignore others but I look at a group that includes Mueller, delpha (cc dpoy), Dan Ryan, EBF, Christiansen and Synnott have looks very competent as FR and seniors like Marquet and Schweiter and see a group that could easily be the top overall defense in the conference. Put that with the offense and Ped and the potential for a potentially groundbreaking DI season out of this team. But it’s not there yet and I see these sluggish and funky stretches and worry that it won’t come together fast enough with the next stretch through 04/6 is at Colgate, at SHU (and those home refs are definitely near the top Tommy Heinsons in DI), home for SBU, home Cuse and at SJU (how’s talented but very young and could be trouble if they’re on a fast growth curve).

Hope that spells out my belief, expectations, fear and paranoia while optimistically hoping for the best case scenario.

[Laxgunea]

IMO, it was a solid NEC win. I thought we could have put in a few more goals, but it was a cold day both in temperature and how the O was selecting shots. I also got a strange feeling that Aslanian was feeling the pressure of the record, and that make him a bit less aggressive. The 12 minute no goal first quarter was really worrying ... had it been against another team, it would not have been a 0-0 game. Basically, I think the O was off today.
The D looked pretty good, but I am not convinced Wagner had the firepower to challenge them. Our D will have to step up against better opponents.
There were some nice zone busting plays with Knox cutting through the center ... there were a few misses with feeds, but if 2 more of those had gone in the O side would be holding its head higher. Mott took on a feeder role, but I wish he had fired some from outside too. I think that could have helped break up the zone.
Colgate will be a good challenge and a good gut check.

[FL-GO]

Interesting enough over the wkd we go from underdog to favorite, at least in the eyes of the pollsters. I’ve seen at least
One voter who had the Statesmen in at 20 which I think is appropriate (and a little overdue).

Hopefully we can shoot better and get things going early. Gate hasn’t put up a ton of points in their games, so if we can crack 12-13 that should be enough to get to 6-1.

Hoping the boys get it done.

PS - hip Hobart to the Skatesmen who are back in the frozen four. They will likely be big underdogs against “D3” UW-SP but they have a tough team and beat Oswego St pretty handily. Fingers (Lakes) crossed.