MAC 2022

[OddDuck]

In the slew of conference games this week, most intriguing for each MAC looks to be -

Commonwealth- Stevenson vs an Eastern team who lost by 2 to RPI and by 4 to Cabrini.

Freedom- Stevens vs Misericordia who beat Eastern by 4 a week before their 2 goal loss to RPI

Stevens will continue there walk through the Mac Freedom conference. Misericordia may put up more resistance than their previous Mac opponents but there really is nobody that measures up to Stevens in conference right now because the conference on it's whole is not terrific. Eastern barely beat DeSales (who Stevens beat handily) before losing a close one to Mis. Look for Stevens to win out in the Mac and lose a not so close game to Stevenson next week. I will say it has been nice to see some new faces off the bench for Stevens. Some seem to have outplayed some of the starters statistically and perhaps could merit moving up the depth chart??? (Hint: don't count on it!)

Sounds like a “dad” of a bench player. I am sure airing out your issues all season on this forum is going to do the trick and get your son more PT

I love the dads that coach their kids the entire youth career, then acting surprised when the child doesn’t start in high school or college when they finally have a coach that isn’t related.

Not a Dad or a relation to anyone on the team, actually. But thanks for reading my posts.

[laxrules]

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[quote=DeepPocket post_id=352322 time=<a href="tel:1649098210">1649098210</a> user_id=609]
In the slew of conference games this week, most intriguing for each MAC looks to be -

Commonwealth- Stevenson vs an Eastern team who lost by 2 to RPI and by 4 to Cabrini.

Freedom- Stevens vs Misericordia who beat Eastern by 4 a week before their 2 goal loss to RPI

Stevens will continue there walk through the Mac Freedom conference. Misericordia may put up more resistance than their previous Mac opponents but there really is nobody that measures up to Stevens in conference right now because the conference on it's whole is not terrific. Eastern barely beat DeSales (who Stevens beat handily) before losing a close one to Mis. Look for Stevens to win out in the Mac and lose a not so close game to Stevenson next week. I will say it has been nice to see some new faces off the bench for Stevens. Some seem to have outplayed some of the starters statistically and perhaps could merit moving up the depth chart??? (Hint: don't count on it!)
[/quote]


Sounds like a “dad” of a bench player. I am sure airing out your issues all season on this forum is going to do the trick and get your son more PT
[/quote]
I love the dads that coach their kids the entire youth career, then acting surprised when the child doesn’t start in high school or college when they finally have a coach that isn’t related.
[/quote]

Not a Dad or a relation to anyone on the team, actually. But thanks for reading my posts.
[/quote]

Ha ha ok!

[viper]

Now things are getting exciting! LOL

Having had one college lax grad and another in currently playing, first rule of thumb is that nobody of “importance” reads these and if they do I can’t imagine they care what anyone here has to say. From my experience I can’t imagine any parent offering negativity that could come back on their kids. Same philosophy that has parents sitting on their hands with their mouths shut at showcases in HS to not bring negative attention to their kids.

It’s often those “less connected” that can grind axes with nothing to lose.

[DeepPocket]

Eastern almost caught Stevenson. 13-12 Stevenson in a tight game all the way through.

[NElaxtalent]

Messiah & York 5-5 with 8 min left in Q2.

Not sure if that says more about Messiah or York...

[DeepPocket]

15-7 York in the third. Looked like York wasn’t taking things too seriously at the jump, coming off Gettysburg and looking ahead to Stevenson in a week. Glad they woke up.

[DeepPocket]

17-7 York end of third.

[DeepPocket]

22-7 York final. Another 6 point night for the freshman Mayer, 62 on the year…

[NElaxtalent]

York starting G let in 7 G on 8 shots (0.125%) vs a Messiah offense over 40+ min? Unless they were all layups, that's more than a slow start...and doesn't instill much confidence for anyone in a lengthy post-season run.

[DeepPocket]

Having watched it, they were not all layups. Some fast breaks and some screened shots. It is a rough stat to be sure. He didn’t leave the game injured, and was coming off a .50 S% vs Gettysburg. I can only hypothesize that he just wasn’t seeing the ball well (in goalie speak). It was one of those bright sunset games. If I recall correctly the goals all came in the first 2.5 quarters, before/during sundown.

I don’t think I’ve ever looked at an individual element of a win, with a score such as 22-7, as a team confidence shaker but that’s just me.

He is well over .500 every year of his career (including this). He will have an opportunity to quickly put this behind him, as they visit Widener tomorrow afternoon.

[DeepPocket]

Big MAC matchup tomorrow as Stevenson travels to York for a rematch of the 2021 conference championship.

It should be a good game. These teams always play each other tough, regardless of the ranking next to their names.

York needs to dominate the faceoffs, and not let the Mustangs jump out early. Stevenson needs to push the pace and get a strong performance in goal from Poust.

[DeepPocket]

12-8 York final, in a game that was 7-7 in the 4th. Great game. They’ll see each other again.

[OddDuck]

Mac Freedom game of the night, Stevens squeaks by Arcadia 10-8. Neither team wanted to win this one. 47 turnovers by both teams (24 Stevens) and neither team could clear at 80%. Game.ball to Jake Wright with a hat trick on 4 shots. Rest of the team was 7 of 40 (18%)

Both goal keepers played well. Arcadia’s gk had double digit saves, but I believe that most of Stevens opponents end up with double digit saves (win or lose). I’ll do a little research and follow up in another post.

I don’t think any tournament teams are worried about either of these teams. The only big take away tonight is that it is now clear that Stevens will NOT be assured of a Mac Freedom Championship - which would be it’s only shot at the NCAAs.

[DeepPocket]

… The only big take away tonight is that it is now clear that Stevens will NOT be assured of a Mac Freedom Championship - which would be it’s only shot at the NCAAs.

What’s going on in Hoboken?

The MACs need a strong squad coming out of the Freedom side.

[OddDuck]

… The only big take away tonight is that it is now clear that Stevens will NOT be assured of a Mac Freedom Championship - which would be it’s only shot at the NCAAs.

What’s going on in Hoboken?

The MACs need a strong squad coming out of the Freedom side.

I think there are several things going on. The first (and biggest) was the loss of several impact players last year (Gebhardt, Brennan, Crotty, Coulter). The second was the fact that the coaches never shy away from their strength of schedule (a good thing). As a result this year they have not beaten an out of conference team in the top 20.

IMHO the coaches become overly dependent upon their studs and are reticent to utilize younger players even in situations where games are decided one way or another. An example of that was this year's DeSales game when the starters were not pulled until 2 minutes left despite a 10 goal lead going into the fourth quarter. As such, when it's time for the youngsters to step up and replace them, they lack necessary experience and thereby go through trial by fire without enough development. Last year they graduated 25% of their shots and 28% of their goals with Gebbie and Coulter. Add in other graduating seniors and those numbers go up. Other younger participants who did well benefited from Gebbie being out there. While those players are still performing well - there has been a drop off in their production due to the loss of Gebbie - freeing up other teams best defenders, etc.

This issue will only get worse next year with the graduation of Ryan, Burns and Caplis (three of their top point scorers). It appears that their is talent to step up in all of their younger classes, but the general lack of development/experience for the younger players is concerning. I am not advocating for any individual to get more time (as some have implied to be my ulterior motive), but I would advocate for more utilization of younger players in general in situations that are appropriate for development and experience.

The other (and perhaps more immediate issue) is that fact that for several years now shooting has been an issue for this team. If its not now, they should be working on teaching these guys some fundamental concepts that seem to haunt them - like changing levels, shooting for corners, etc. Most games (especially this year) the opponents gks are registering in the double digits in saves. Even when they score 20, the opposing GKs are having career games with save percentages well over 50/60 and even 70%. Well above their season averages. As a result Stevens falters in games where they don't get 45-50 shots off because of their poor shooting percentage. A great example of that was from one of their best teams in recent memory (2019) when St John Fisher held them to just 31 shots - and only 6 goals - to end a season in the Empire 8 final when they averaged 49 shots per game. (BTW that was the same year when they almost beat Tufts at home in a great game).

Seems to me that this would be something pretty easy to fix with better shot selection and perhaps time on shooting outside of games.

Through all of this Stevens still remains the favorite in the Mac Freedom - but teams like Misericordia and Arcadia continue to improve and last night's game demonstrated that there are no guarantees. Unfortunately, this year in particular, I don't think there is anyone in the Freedom side that can touch teams like York and Stevenson (as we have seen through the season).

[DeepPocket]

So, is it your thought that things could improve after next year, during which the talented youth will have gotten their experience/trial by fire?

Or does a downward trend continue?

[DeepPocket]

Commonwealth conference championship has #1-4 making it in with a #4-5 “play-in game” to lead things off. Close rankings between the teams with games remaining makes things quite interesting leading up.

1. York (8-0)- Locked in the #1 seed with their win over Stevenson. No games left.

2. Stevenson (6-1)- Has #3 Widener on Saturday. A win locks #2. A loss slots them in at #3.

3. Widener (5-2)- Can flip to #2 if they beat Stevenson. Drop to #4 with a loss and an Eastern win.

4. Eastern (5-2)- Has #5 Messiah Saturday. Can flip to #3 with a win and Widener loss. Drops to #5 with a loss.

5. Messiah (4-3)- Can flip to #4 with a win vs Eastern. Cannot be caught by those below.

[OddDuck]

So, is it your thought that things could improve after next year, during which the talented youth will have gotten their experience/trial by fire?

Or does a downward trend continue?

This team is extremely dependent on the seniors like Burns, Ryan and Caplis, all seniors. There is talent to fill the gaps, but with very little experience and almost zero experience against top tier teams. Most of the younger guys who have gotten on the field are complementary players. Maybe a guy like Jake Wright can take over a game, but right now I don’t see good replacements for the likes of Burns and Ryan, but it’s hard to know because they don’t advertise much off the bench.

[DeepPocket]

This team is extremely dependent on the seniors like Burns, Ryan and Caplis, all seniors. There is talent to fill the gaps, but with very little experience and almost zero experience against top tier teams. Most of the younger guys who have gotten on the field are complementary players. Maybe a guy like Jake Wright can take over a game, but right now I don’t see good replacements for the likes of Burns and Ryan, but it’s hard to know because they don’t advertise much off the bench.

I see. I guess time will tell.

Commonwealth conference championship has #1-4 making it in with a #4-5 “play-in game” to lead things off. Close rankings between the teams with games remaining makes things quite interesting leading up.

1. York (8-0)- Locked in the #1 seed with their win over Stevenson. No games left.

2. Stevenson (6-1)- Has #3 Widener on Saturday. A win locks #2. A loss slots them in at #3.

3. Widener (5-2)- Can flip to #2 if they beat Stevenson. Drop to #4 with a loss and an Eastern win.

4. Eastern (5-2)- Has #5 Messiah Saturday. Can flip to #3 with a win and Widener loss. Drops to #5 with a loss.

5. Messiah (4-3)- Can flip to #4 with a win vs Eastern. Cannot be caught by those below.

Looks like it’s 1.York 2.Stevenson 3.Eastern 4.Widener 5.Messiah.

Stevenson escaped Eastern by 1 goal 3 weeks ago. They’ll see each other again this coming Thursday.York will see the winner of Widener vs Messiah.

[laxrules]

So, is it your thought that things could improve after next year, during which the talented youth will have gotten their experience/trial by fire?

Or does a downward trend continue?

This team is extremely dependent on the seniors like Burns, Ryan and Caplis, all seniors. There is talent to fill the gaps, but with very little experience and almost zero experience against top tier teams. Most of the younger guys who have gotten on the field are complementary players. Maybe a guy like Jake Wright can take over a game, but right now I don’t see good replacements for the likes of Burns and Ryan, but it’s hard to know because they don’t advertise much off the bench.

Here we go again! OddDuck why don’t you tell the coaches when and how much you want your son to play. Seems like they are playing lots of people over there. College lacrosse. Star players graduate, role players step in, and new role players wait to become star players…you need to stop with the “second level players not getting chances to play” jazz. You sound very bitter!! Like someone who would rather see his kid play and the team lose! You only comment after a close win or a bad loss and you play the whole “shooting percentage” and “not using other players” message…it is comical and sad.

I think Stevens has always put a quality team on the field. Best in the country? Maybe not, but quality team that plays quality schedule…also some incredible academic success stories.