New England West-1 2019

[grelch]

So, so, so many unforced mistakes. From both sides. Fortunate to win this. St. Seb’s were tough. Another huge night from McNaney. He’s more or less won the last 3 games for them.

[pcowlax]

Here is a hot take. This game was like many this year for Salisbury. They played so much less than the sum of their parts. This should have been a 6-7 goal win, St. Sebs had a few nice players but nothing threatening at all on offense, yet so should several others they played this year that weren’t. Wynn is not getting out of this team or, truthfully, the past few teams, what is there. You obviously can’t argue with undefeated but numerous, numerous close games had no reason to be so.

[TopShelf585]

I agree that this shouldn’t have been a one goal game. Good teams find ways to win and that has been the case with Bury all season. Hopefully they have one more in them as it will be a great way to cap off a historic season.

[admin]

i think the same thing. So many mental errors, let downs, unnecessary mistakes and... then I remember that they're high schoolers. Not a huge insight but... Sometimes I forget. with this said, they're all HSers so, the best team(s) should have less mental errors, let downs, etc.

[Peter Brown]

i think the same thing. So many mental errors, let downs, unnecessary mistakes and... then I remember that they're high schoolers. Not a huge insight but... Sometimes I forget. with this said, they're all HSers so, the best team(s) should have less mental errors, let downs, etc.

Bullis will be an interesting game for Salisbury because it depends which Bullis team shows up. Bullis is somewhat erratic, more like a football team that also plays lacrosse. They have kids who clearly have not played lacrosse forever but they are big and fast; Bryson Shaw of Bullis is faster than any Salisbury kid, but then again, he's faster than pretty much anyone he's played against. This Bullis team will hit you hard, much like Salisbury is used to in NE West, and their defense is legit. But like many before them, Bullis' achilles heel is FOGO and that might be where this game is decided.

[ctbagataway]

Certainly didn’t look like the same Salisbury team that beat Brunswick. Not as crisp or as energetic. Has to be tough to get up for a game this far after the regular season and with graduation looming, but St Sebs has the same challenge. I wonder if the Brunswick game wasn’t Salisbury’s most complete game of the season? Maybe Avon and Choate rival it, I suppose. Hope ‘Bury gets up for the next one.

[grelch]

I was impressed with Bullis, and fairly unimpressed with Hill, particularly since Hill dominated on FO's. That was the only place Hill imposed themselves. They were well beaten everywhere else on the field. Salisbury handled Bullis fairly easily last year, but I'd be surprised if we saw that happen again.

[admin]

Bryson Shaw of Bullis is faster than any Salisbury kid, but then again, he's faster than pretty much anyone he's played against...

Shaw is the OSU kid?

[Peter Brown]

I was impressed with Bullis, and fairly unimpressed with Hill, particularly since Hill dominated on FO's. That was the only place Hill imposed themselves. They were well beaten everywhere else on the field. Salisbury handled Bullis fairly easily last year, but I'd be surprised if we saw that happen again.

I have said this for years, and some more knowledgeable lax folks have taken me to task, however I believe that Hill always starts their season incredibly strong in March, then they slowly lose their focus. I have no idea why.

I watched the Bullis/Hill game; Hill looked somewhat disorganized or at least off-key. And mind you, that's after winning every FO plus having a decent goalie game. To Hill's credit, Bullis is a strange team to play. If they show up to muscle you, they can intimidate and I think they did that to Hill, leading to some sloppy Hill play and some chippiness too. Salisbury will not be intimidated by Bullis' size. Ironically, if you averaged the ages of the starters tonight, Salisbury has about 1.5 years age plus differential versus the Bullis starters, even though the Bullis defense will tower over the Salisbury attack.

[pcowlax]

And you found all of the starters’ birthdays where?

[Peter Brown]

And you found all of the starters’ birthdays where?

It's not too hard to factor out listening to last night's broadcast, I believe I heard that Salisbury plays 6 post-graduates on their team. Correct me if that is wrong, honestly I don't know. I'm guessing that most PG's are over 18, and some obviously above 19. So far as I can tell, Salisbury starts zero sophomores.

Bullis starts 3 sophomores, and plays 4 regularly. I have one friend who's kid plays for Bullis. I don't think they have any, as one might call them, 'older' players.

My gut tells me were we to be able to get those 'records', +1.5 years is a relatively reasonable guess.

[Laxxal22]

From what I've seen/heard, the IAC schools re-class students as much or more than other private school leagues. And Bullis has the rep of being as aggressive as anyone in bringing kids in or "poaching" if you want to be nasty about it. Those practices tend to produce older rosters. I'd bet Bullis is closer in age to Salisbury than you think.

[TopShelf585]

It's not too hard to factor out listening to last night's broadcast, I believe I heard that Salisbury plays 6 post-graduates on their team. Correct me if that is wrong, honestly I don't know.

They were wrong-
Bury has 4 PGs- two are starters- one on defense & one on attack.
The other PG is a middie- not a starter but plays and the last PG has been injured the whole season.

[grelch]

Carrying over the unforced errors to tonight. Not going to keep getting away with this. Level after one, but holy moley, got to stop chucking the ball away.

EDIT: 2nd qtr has been even worse. They need to calm down, possess the ball, string some passes together, pick up a few ground balls, play themselves back into this game. Calm it all down boys.

[Matnum PI]

8-4 bullis.

[grelch]

Could be a whole lot more.

[grelch]

If you're going to lose you want to go down giving it your best shot. This will have been approaching the opposite of that. This was a very bad day at the office for Salisbury. They're going to be very disappointed. I feel for the kids. This happens sometimes. Sometimes you just can't get out of your own way. That said, credit and congratulations to Bullis. They were the better team. They did what they had to do, and made it look easy. Championes.

[Justafan]

I’ll admit, I turned it off halfway through the 4th quarter, but Bullis just played better. Same mistakes that bury has made throughout the year happened tonight, and happened a lot. Too many turnovers. With that said, congrats to Bury on a great season.

Is it too early to start talking about next season.

[beastboyz99]

Never too early

[Peter Brown]

First of all, props to Salisbury for doing the tourney. There is no way that is an easy trip. They risked their undefeated season on a tourney with three very good teams.

The rub with Salisbury and 'all that talent' is at this stage of the year (end of May), and after the NCAA's, it's not wild to speculate that their heads might not be 100% screwed on tight. For high school teams, it's hard to make generalizations after seeing one or two games. I thought like many others that Salisbury would dominate FO's and basically ease their way to a win. What I saw, and I watched, was a Bullis team which seemed more athletic than Salisbury. And having a player like Schain does not hurt. Or Bryson Shaw.

Salisbury is what their record says it is. Same with Bullis. For this 2019 Spring, there was not one dominant HS team, though if you asked me to tell you who ended the strongest, I'd say Calvert Hall and Culver; they both seemed to accelerate as the season wore on. (and of course a few states are still playing, but even there, I do not see any dominant team)