LaxPower Back-Up Stick

Last time out, Loyola played like garbage. I'm a Loyola fan and watched this team all year. Unfortunately, last night's win against GT was an anomaly. And the Hounds haven't been able to string 2 games together all year. They aren't starting now. I think Navy wins the rematch pretty easily.

Despite having more to play for (needing to win for a bye), Army looked flat against Colgate.
Trouble clearing & ball watching on D.
Colgate's offense looked good vs Army's vaunted D.
BU vs Colgate could be an offensive shootout.

The Army webcast announcers are funny. They say Army is a better team than Navy. Army just had a bad day in Annapolis. They prefer to see an Army rematch vs Navy rather than Loyola in the PLT SF because of Coach A's record of twice beating Navy in the PLT after losing to the Mids in star games. ...wonder if they heard about the coaching change at Navy.

They also said that Army's the best overall PL team, they can beat Lehigh if they can win 20% of FO's, & both teams will go to the NCAA's.

Good job, Navy -- weathered an early deficit against a fired up Lafayette squad after an early flat stretch, got in gear, and socked away another win to finish 6-2 in the regular season.

Go Navy, beat Loyola!

No worries at all. And I think it is cool they are playing again. But I was just curious as to why Loyola and Navy are playing three times in the regular season.

gymman1031 wrote: ↑Sun May 02, 2021 4:20 pm No worries at all. And I think it is cool they are playing again. But I was just curious as to why Loyola and Navy are playing three times in the regular season.

Actually, take that back. I just saw that is Navy's Quarterfinal match-up. My bad!!

Did some old fool ask if deLyra could shoot with the young guns ?

Perfect regular season ending, with Tyler Perreten hanging one over the net for Joe Byrne to put away,
with firstie scout team members on the field.

...hope 17's ok & 28's good to go on Tues.

old salt wrote: ↑Sun May 02, 2021 5:51 pm Did some old fool ask if deLyra could shoot with the young guns ?

Perfect regular season ending, with Tyler Perreten hanging one over the net for Joe Byrne to put away,
with firstie scout team members on the field.

...hope 17's ok & 28's good to go on Tues.

+1. The Mids are all “Amp’d Up” , ready to go and will be a handful once again for the Hounds on their home field. Go Navy!

Unfortunately, I will be in a zoom class from 5 to 7 but will catch tonight's game on replay.

Sorry to see this short season come to an end -- Loyola was the sharper team today from the get go and responded forcefully to all Navy attempts to make a game of it. The 2021 Navy team created some great moments for fans, most notably with the win over Army, along the way.

Fair winds and following seas to the Navy MLax class of 2021 as they go on to the Fleet and to the Corps.

Navy's FO % in ...
6 W's = 54.0%
3 Ls = 27.5%

old salt wrote: ↑Wed May 05, 2021 5:19 pm Navy's FO % in ...
6 W's = 54.0%
3 Ls = 27.5%

I hate the faceoff game of our sport....personally I think the way it is constructed ruins the essence of the game. But, knowing this is the rule, you have to prepare for it....as Nova did last week. Wish I could have seen the Nova vs Lehigh game to see how Nova handled them. Nova went 5/21 on FOs and smacked Lehigh. Lehigh also had 24 TO's, and were 8/15 on clears....if you can't win FO's cleanly you better be super efficient on offense, play disciplined pressure D, ride like hell...essentially not eff up anywhere else in the game. No other successful sport has a way for a team to play make-it take-it...successful mainstream sport; I digress.

In the end, and as I have mentioned every season since RS was here, and even RM played this way....if you are going to rely heavily on midfielders dodging to score, you are going to have a tough time getting very far in this sport; the game has evolved, which means midfielders and coaches need to evolve. You need more than 1-2 lacrosse smart players on the field at any given time...you need 6 players in concert.....Loyola, Lehigh, and Army are those 3 in the PL. Our midfielders and attack are often out of phase with one another and have been for quite some time; it's like two offensive teams out there. We saw glimpses of what could have been vs Bucknell and some vs Army. Players like Wade, Hanzsche, Hull, Jones, Ray, Keena were the catalyst in years past.....but the damned same exact problem.

Take a look at the top 4 teams historically in the PL....these numbers are not new for 2021. I summed the two columns that are glaring in yellow and green.

youthathletics wrote: ↑Wed May 05, 2021 8:40 pm

old salt wrote: ↑Wed May 05, 2021 5:19 pm Navy's FO % in ...
6 W's = 54.0%
3 Ls = 27.5%

I hate the faceoff game of our sport....personally I think the way it is constructed ruins the essence of the game. But, knowing this is the rule, you have to prepare for it....as Nova did last week. Wish I could have seen the Nova vs Lehigh game to see how Nova handled them. Nova went 5/21 on FOs and smacked Lehigh. Lehigh also had 24 TO's, and were 8/15 on clears....if you can't win FO's cleanly you better be super efficient on offense, play disciplined pressure D, ride like hell...essentially not eff up anywhere else in the game. No other successful sport has a way for a team to play make-it take-it...successful mainstream sport; I digress.

couple things.
- we aren't another sport. and to your point of "mainstream" sport... volleyball serve goes to the winner of the point. and in many (most?) forms of official scoring, the point goes only to the serving team. i digress...
- teams can go on runs. and late runs. like no other sports (besides volleyball).
- the break between goal and restart works for the flow and celebration.
- it is my educated/uneducated guess that faceoffs (full faceoffs/wingplay/play it thru hard to a clear to the attack) is undercoached. by miles. lots of evidence especially by wing play and play after the gb pickup.
- does bringing it in 5 yards change things? i think it does. that is, if faceoffs are coached. even without... if coaches truly knew and cared about the true cost of possession, that 10 seconds after a face would be better positioned by wings, and more mayhem everywhere.

Going into the PL tourney, PL FO team rankings were :
1. Lehigh 2. Loyola 3. Colgate 4. Army 5. Navy 8. BU

In the 2 first round games, FO's were determinant.

wgdsr wrote: ↑Wed May 05, 2021 9:54 pm

youthathletics wrote: ↑Wed May 05, 2021 8:40 pm

old salt wrote: ↑Wed May 05, 2021 5:19 pm Navy's FO % in ...
6 W's = 54.0%
3 Ls = 27.5%

I hate the faceoff game of our sport....personally I think the way it is constructed ruins the essence of the game. But, knowing this is the rule, you have to prepare for it....as Nova did last week. Wish I could have seen the Nova vs Lehigh game to see how Nova handled them. Nova went 5/21 on FOs and smacked Lehigh. Lehigh also had 24 TO's, and were 8/15 on clears....if you can't win FO's cleanly you better be super efficient on offense, play disciplined pressure D, ride like hell...essentially not eff up anywhere else in the game. No other successful sport has a way for a team to play make-it take-it...successful mainstream sport; I digress.

couple things.
1- we aren't another sport. and to your point of "mainstream" sport... volleyball serve goes to the winner of the point. and in many (most?) forms of official scoring, the point goes only to the serving team. i digress...
2- teams can go on runs. and late runs. like no other sports (besides volleyball).
3- the break between goal and restart works for the flow and celebration.
4- it is my educated/uneducated guess that faceoffs (full faceoffs/wingplay/play it thru hard to a clear to the attack) is undercoached. by miles. lots of evidence especially by wing play and play after the gb pickup.
5- does bringing it in 5 yards change things? i think it does. that is, if faceoffs are coached. even without... if coaches truly knew and cared about the true cost of possession, that 10 seconds after a face would be better positioned by wings, and more mayhem everywhere.

1- In volleyball, 'the ball' is first put in to play, equitably.
2- exactly, which often determines the entire lax game, record, seeding, RPI; volleyball has sets,,,not one game, not ONE person determining outcome.
4- I agree completely, especially the under-coached comment. But because the game has changed (WRT to the rules and contact)we are seeing more and more Holds and Pushes on F/O's. For instance, a F/O player wins clamp, if you check down on his stick before he gets out of the crouched position and the ref believes your stick stayed there a millisecond too long....its a hold. Then when the ball is loose and you go to scoop it with a trailer, just fall forward and get the push call.....it is a debacle and an officiating nightmare.
5-If we are not going to change the way the ball is set in to play, instead of bringing them in 5 yards, set them 5 yards off the ball. I agree, again, about the coaching. I even argued earlier this season that we could triple pole as an option to combat. And again, to your point...it burns me up when I see wing men getting beat in to the scrum/loose ball or just dropping in 'try' and avoid a 4v3 break.....old school coaching.

I hesitated bringing up the FO stats because I don't want them to be read as a criticism of the Navy FOGO's or the Coaching staff.
Rather, I'm illustrating the significance of FO's in the PL style of play & the disruptive effect of the rule change, inconsistent officiating, the lack of fallball & covid interruptions. I like the rule change, for the long haul, but it hasn't yet helped Navy.

These factors affected all teams, with differing effects. Consider Lehigh -- they brought back their 5th year, repeat all-PL FOGO who got beat out this year by their #2 last year, who is the current national leader. Meanwhile, Loyola's FOGO adapted to the rule changes with no dropoff.

Navy's gone with the same 3-4 FOGO's the past 2-3 seasons. They were combined > 50 % before the rule changes.
This year, the deck was shuffled, with previous #3 & #4, starting games this year, with previous #3 emerging as #1.
They should all return next season &, with a full fallball & preseason, should (along with their wingmen) continue to adapt & improve.
Next season, Lehigh, Colgate, Army, Buck, HC & Laf all return their current #1 FOGO.

old salt wrote: ↑Thu May 06, 2021 9:14 am I hesitated bringing up the FO stats because I don't want them to be read as a criticism of the Navy FOGO's or the Coaching staff.
Rather, I'm illustrating the significance of FO's in the PL style of play & the disruptive effect of the rule change, inconsistent officiating, the lack of fallball & covid interruptions. I like the rule change, for the long haul, but it hasn't yet helped Navy.

These factors affected all teams, with differing effects. Consider Lehigh -- they brought back their 5th year, repeat all-PL FOGO who got beat out this year by their #2 last year, who is the current national leader. Meanwhile, Loyola's FOGO adapted to the rule changes with no dropoff.

Navy's gone with the same 3-4 FOGO's the past 2-3 seasons. They were combined > 50 % before the rule changes.
This year, the deck was shuffled, with previous #3 & #4, starting games this year, with previous #3 emerging as #1.
They should all return next season &, with a full fallball & preseason, should (along with their wingmen) continue to adapt & improve.
Next season, Lehigh, Colgate, Army, Buck, HC & Laf all return their current #1 FOGO.

I di not view It as a criticism on players....its actually the praise of a select handful or two.
The rules committee knows it is a mess and they also know it is an officiating nightmare; it's why they keep tinkering with it. Just fix it already. Even the PLL had a task force to help clean it up.

As soon as the Class of 2021 is commissioned, I'll change the thread title to Navy 2022, for continuity.

Thank you to the Class of 2021. You persevered & endured.
You successfully launched the newest era in Navy lacrosse.
Now go forth & shape history.
The Watch has been relieved.
Updating the title of this thread.

This will be Coach Joe Amplo's third overall, and second full season in Annapolis. With his system being more in-place, will 2022 be the year he leads Navy to their first NCAA Tournament appearance under him?

Ditto, Old Salt. That was one helluva good bunch of players.

There are some big voids to back fill...2 poles, 2-LSM, HM-AA Goalie, top 2 SSDMs, lefty Attackman. Unfortunately, the last handful of classes (pre 2020) regressed developmentally, primarily on the offense...Wellner certainly set us up for success.

Looking ahead: As noted an an earlier post this season, I have concerns that our midfielders are not very good at seeing the field and are primarily only concerned with shooting (29 got better)...we left a lot of goals on the field by not playing team lacrosse and sharing the rock, not to mention many GLF's. Dating back to 2016, Navy has primarily only had 1-2 guys with a robust amount of assists, followed by a handful of tricklers. Compare this to UVA, UMD, Duke, and even Loyola (Although Spencer tripled up on assists to cover for others ).

If I am coaching Navy, my entire off-season would be built around the ball not being in any one persons stick for more than two seconds....if it is, get them out and send in another person, then proceed to chew out the off-ball guys for not working to transfer with one another/get open. Ross does not need to choreograph their each and every movement, just give them basic fundamentals, but push the off-ball guys hard. We saw glimpses of it this year when 17,21,32, and 57 were on the field....but then I wondered if the coaches were already looking ahead to next year to get 2022 players game reps....tough balance all around, not blaming anyone.