Detroit Catholic Central Recap

I have always believed in scheduling great competition early in the season.  Those kinds of games give you a clear indication of where your team is at early on, what you still need to work on, etc.  The questions like- is our offense good or do they just look good because our defense is struggling get answered really fast.  I see other teams that schedule well below their capability for the first 3 games of the season (or maybe most of the season)- they score a lot of goals, don't let in many, and never really get tested.  I don't get it- in my experience when you schedule like that, you are never really prepared for that first big test- being able to play at speed and put away those bad habits you can get away with against other programs.   I don't get it- not how I approach things.  

For the last 3 years, we have scheduled Detroit CC in our first one or two games.  The first 2 years, DCC really did us a favor by exposing our weaknesses, showing all of our players that we still need to work hard, despite how good we think we are.  We lost both of those openers in the past season to well coached, well prepared Catholic Central teams.

This year, DCC came to EGR to give us our first big test of the 09 season.  As the head coach, I tend to worry about EVERYTHING- but at the top of my mind was the defense- this would be the fastest, most physical and well coached team we would will see until well after spring break.  Our starting defense is inexperienced and I was, of course, worried about how we would react to the speed of play.  I was cautiously excited about "unleashing" our offense on them and testing them.  With Jacob back from his injury, our offense would have another dimension, allowing us to attack from all over.  

The keys to the game we covered with the team before the game were: 1) face offs 2)transition 3) defensive communication/positioning.  

FACE OFFS: We knew we had to dominate face offs to keep the ball with us as much as possible and break any potential momentum they might get when they did score.  At the end, behind great performances by Joe Glendening and Josh Drummond, we won 66% of the face offs (our team goal is 55%).   

TRANSITION:  As for transition, we are always looking to cross the midline with the ball in our stick and attack the cage- we didn't get any goals on this but we excelled in defending the transition.  DCC has big fast athletes that look to get up and out on turnovers and will create a lot of odd man rushes.  Their goalie is very good at outlet passes and can get the ball over the top if we don't get back.  I was really proud of our attack for slowing their transition game- especially Adam Lohner who had a tough job to prevent the upfield pass by screening the goalie, and then chasing the ball on the first pass.  Adam sprinted all day long and created havoc for their clears.  Mostly, he limited DCC's fastbreaks to just a couple.  Overall our ride was very effective and as a team we created 10 turnovers from the ride (our goal is 6 per game).  That is significant in our sport because those turnovers equate to 10 more scoring opportunities for us- and therefore 2 to 3 extra goals- it also takes 10 scoring opportunities away from the opponent.  

DEFENSE-

We have 12 goals we set for ourselves for a game- statistical benchmarks- that help us evaluate how successful we were.  We do this because we expect to  play at a consistently high level all of  the time, regardless of the strength of our opponent.  If you beat an over matched team or lose to a superior team, can you still be successful?  Of course.  

One of our 2 team defense goals is to have a 60% save percentage.  We consider goalie save percentage as a team defense stat because the 6 guys in front of the goal are tasked with taking away the key shooting areas (like 4 yards in front of the net).  The more successful we are at that, the more successful Cullen and Dan can be.  We did not achieve our 60% save goal, but Cullen was an impressive and much improved 45% on the day.  

Statistically, we are averaging around 40 ground balls/game which is added possessions for our team and can create unsettled (the best kind) offense.  

For his much improved play, we awarded Cullen Haskins with the game ball.

Get on the wall,

Coach V