Men’s Lacrosse Travels to No. 20 Lehigh For Saturday’s Opener
- Thread starter LaxDadd
- Start date
Saw Michigan and PSU were winning and the Terps were destroying Richmond. Wonder how Hopkins will do at Denver.
Nice win! No shortage of things to clean up.
Very good win on the road. Obviously sloppy play and silly turnovers needs to be cleaned up but the D was very solid, faceoffs were very good, and you can see the athleticism we have all over the field.
You could see the offense is new and guys aren’t as comfortable as they will be. Big win on the road to start the season.
You could see the offense is new and guys aren’t as comfortable as they will be. Big win on the road to start the season.
Granted, I was unable to watch the game, but the stats say we were only 8-20 on FOs [IN EDIT - final stats say 9-21]
Regardless, tremendous top 20 road win to start the season.
Last edited:
Good road win vs a team expected to be in the thick of things come Tourney time. Now we get to clean up things vs LIU at home.
My takeaways (as a washed up club lax bro) from being at the game:
1) man it was cold. says 32 degrees but it felt like 22. I was trying to keep the stats/notes on my phone but honestly was too cold to keep taking my gloves off
2) our SSDMs completely shut down their dodgers, even when brought behind the cage. 13 and 26 were just stonewalling guys.
3) Stoller started out rusty with some missed outlet passes and a few shots he probably would say he should save, but he made some amazing saves in the 3rd.
4) Kelly has a cannon. His last goal looked like it was at least 15 yards out. Offense needs time to gel. Lot of empty possessions, but its game 1 with a young team and suboptimal playing conditions
5) #12 on Lehigh had what looked like the goal of game in the 2nd Quarter. Looked like a on the run submarine shot through traffic.
Shoutout to Bob (last name?) for welcoming me to their group. I live in the area so just decided to go to the game by myself since Rutgers was in town. The group was very nice and even invited me to future tailgates. Not sure if any of them are on this board, but they definitely live up to the Rutgers family name.
1) man it was cold. says 32 degrees but it felt like 22. I was trying to keep the stats/notes on my phone but honestly was too cold to keep taking my gloves off
2) our SSDMs completely shut down their dodgers, even when brought behind the cage. 13 and 26 were just stonewalling guys.
3) Stoller started out rusty with some missed outlet passes and a few shots he probably would say he should save, but he made some amazing saves in the 3rd.
4) Kelly has a cannon. His last goal looked like it was at least 15 yards out. Offense needs time to gel. Lot of empty possessions, but its game 1 with a young team and suboptimal playing conditions
5) #12 on Lehigh had what looked like the goal of game in the 2nd Quarter. Looked like a on the run submarine shot through traffic.
Shoutout to Bob (last name?) for welcoming me to their group. I live in the area so just decided to go to the game by myself since Rutgers was in town. The group was very nice and even invited me to future tailgates. Not sure if any of them are on this board, but they definitely live up to the Rutgers family name.
Just touched down in San Diego. Swore I wasn’t go to check this board or the score and just watch the replay. But of course as soon as I landed that plan ended. Nice scrolling down to see the scores.
looks like SSDMs is back to a strength?
And OSU, all that money for almost nothing.
looks like SSDMs is back to a strength?
And OSU, all that money for almost nothing.
FOs started slow, got better during and fell back in the latter portion of the game. Shade under 45% shows it needs work but not a crisis.
SSDMs played well and got a goal. Not '22 caliber (yet) but a definite positive .
Goal is to be 50%. Lehigh guys legit. One of the better guys we will see along with Armys. It’s a good sign we were closed to that.
Only OSU lost out of the B1G teams. Michigan held Marquette to ONE goal. Is their defense world class or does Marquette just suck?
OSUs HC should be very nervous.
I’ll say it again for those in the cheap seats. We’ve had an antagonistic poster here who won’t be named but he’s come on here saying how bad the recruiting has been under Brecht and used Inside Lacrosse rankings as justification. I said at the time to not put that much stock in those.
Lehigh routinely, according to IL, out recruits us. For those that watched the game, would you say that’s true based on what you saw? Our size and speed alone makes that laughable.
I’ll say it again for those in the cheap seats. We’ve had an antagonistic poster here who won’t be named but he’s come on here saying how bad the recruiting has been under Brecht and used Inside Lacrosse rankings as justification. I said at the time to not put that much stock in those.
Lehigh routinely, according to IL, out recruits us. For those that watched the game, would you say that’s true based on what you saw? Our size and speed alone makes that laughable.
My buddy was at the game. He said Michigan was bigger and stronger and Marquette, like Lehigh against us, was having real trouble getting decent looks. He also said, and this is something I’ve noticed, was the officiating was dreadful. Wouldn’t have changed the outcome of that game but he couldn’t believe how bad it was. Lacrosse is hard to officiate but man, it’s really getting bad.
The Lehigh announcers noted a couple times RU is the bigger, more athletic team.
The old coach did a pretty good job covering the game. Pro Lehigh, but that's expected given his background.
It was very obvious. They had a lot of trouble running by our guys in open space and even more creating separation on settled sets.
Army will be big and athletic but outside of some of the Ivy teams the B1G/Acc, are starting to see a real separation in size and speed that is very noticeable. Villanova scrimmage was a good example. We bullied them all over the field I was told.
You can still compete with smaller players but they have to be very slick and play mistake free. The most noticeable area is in the middle of the field. We routinely ran by them and caused numerous turnovers. Difference in size and speed typically shows itself there more than anywhere.
Army will be big and athletic but outside of some of the Ivy teams the B1G/Acc, are starting to see a real separation in size and speed that is very noticeable. Villanova scrimmage was a good example. We bullied them all over the field I was told.
You can still compete with smaller players but they have to be very slick and play mistake free. The most noticeable area is in the middle of the field. We routinely ran by them and caused numerous turnovers. Difference in size and speed typically shows itself there more than anywhere.
Good win. My biggest takeaways are that that we played significantly better team offense and defense and SSDM is back to a strength. #13 is a bad man.
We were pretty fluid in the slide game and had a number switches and timely doubles that simply would not have happened last year and often resulted in giving up easy goals. We still play a style that relies on guys winning their 1:1 battle but the they seem more connected and doing a much better job of anticipating when help is needed and not waiting until it is too late to slide. This is a very good thing.
Our SSDMs are bullies and very fluid flipping from defense to offense. They dominated the middle of the field. This is probably the most critical component to our style of play. Having Dmids that can carry and are threats offensively is a huge advantage.
We relied a lot less on hero ball which is great to see. No way to replace all time greats like Knobloch and Scott, but without them everyone has to step up and take what the defense gives us without forcing. I think that will result in a more cohesive offense when defenses have to defend all 6 positions. I like the make up of the attack. Having a big, outside threat that can create his own shot in Kelly is the biggest missing piece from last year. Frees up Kulas to just snipe. Looks like they are grooming Aiello to take over at X. We have some good experienced depth with Murphy Sommers and Peters.
Sloppy play and turnovers are a concern. I’m also a little confused why we are still plagued by a low shooting percentage. We have a bunch of guys that can get open looks and can absolutely rip but we don’t seem to finish at the rate we should. This game honestly shouldn’t have been as close as it was. Turnovers and not finishing kept Lehigh hanging around. I think we will clean up the sloppy play because that is not typical for us. Less confidence in fixing accuracy issues because that seems to be an ongoing problem. But volume can make up for that.
We were pretty fluid in the slide game and had a number switches and timely doubles that simply would not have happened last year and often resulted in giving up easy goals. We still play a style that relies on guys winning their 1:1 battle but the they seem more connected and doing a much better job of anticipating when help is needed and not waiting until it is too late to slide. This is a very good thing.
Our SSDMs are bullies and very fluid flipping from defense to offense. They dominated the middle of the field. This is probably the most critical component to our style of play. Having Dmids that can carry and are threats offensively is a huge advantage.
We relied a lot less on hero ball which is great to see. No way to replace all time greats like Knobloch and Scott, but without them everyone has to step up and take what the defense gives us without forcing. I think that will result in a more cohesive offense when defenses have to defend all 6 positions. I like the make up of the attack. Having a big, outside threat that can create his own shot in Kelly is the biggest missing piece from last year. Frees up Kulas to just snipe. Looks like they are grooming Aiello to take over at X. We have some good experienced depth with Murphy Sommers and Peters.
Sloppy play and turnovers are a concern. I’m also a little confused why we are still plagued by a low shooting percentage. We have a bunch of guys that can get open looks and can absolutely rip but we don’t seem to finish at the rate we should. This game honestly shouldn’t have been as close as it was. Turnovers and not finishing kept Lehigh hanging around. I think we will clean up the sloppy play because that is not typical for us. Less confidence in fixing accuracy issues because that seems to be an ongoing problem. But volume can make up for that.
Last edited:
I think we are just a booing shooting team. We take some tough angle shots but we make them too. We missed a few dunks in front and hit two pipes. Could have been easily 14 or so scored.
If we get 50 shots up we will score 16-18 goals. With our D that will win games.
I watched the game again with a more critical eye. We were setting a ton more picks which is a great thing for creating more team play. It was sloppy but the more they play the more comfortable they will get. I didn’t see Peter’s at all. He must be dinged up.
The one thing that really stands out is how young we are. We are playing a ton of freshmen and sophs. The core of this team has a long runway together. This is the youngest team I’ve ever seen us have.
If we get 50 shots up we will score 16-18 goals. With our D that will win games.
I watched the game again with a more critical eye. We were setting a ton more picks which is a great thing for creating more team play. It was sloppy but the more they play the more comfortable they will get. I didn’t see Peter’s at all. He must be dinged up.
The one thing that really stands out is how young we are. We are playing a ton of freshmen and sophs. The core of this team has a long runway together. This is the youngest team I’ve ever seen us have.
I get that we are volume shooters and that’s fine. But we’ve consistently been under 25% shooting percentage for the last several years, which is bottom quartile for all of D1. If we finished at just 30%, which is about average, that would have been 3-4 goals in this game.
But maybe the only way to get the numbers up is to be more selective leading to fewer shots which might be a wash. I just wonder if they are trying to be too precise picking upper 90 which would explain why we seem to hit so many pipes, instead of just putting it on cage and forcing the keeper to make more saves.
I didn’t notice the increase in the pick game but I did notice more off ball movement, so that makes sense. The lack of involvement of players away from the ball has been my biggest frustration in recent years. We made it much too easy for defenses to double without consequences in part because we had players that could beat the double so I think we relied on that too much.
Even though there was some sloppiness, given how young this team is I am hopeful that they will quickly become more comfortable. If they can develop a proficient off ball game I think this offense can become very dangerous. We are always good at creating so we are really hard to defend if we are also working the pick game and getting to open spots off ball.
But maybe the only way to get the numbers up is to be more selective leading to fewer shots which might be a wash. I just wonder if they are trying to be too precise picking upper 90 which would explain why we seem to hit so many pipes, instead of just putting it on cage and forcing the keeper to make more saves.
I didn’t notice the increase in the pick game but I did notice more off ball movement, so that makes sense. The lack of involvement of players away from the ball has been my biggest frustration in recent years. We made it much too easy for defenses to double without consequences in part because we had players that could beat the double so I think we relied on that too much.
Even though there was some sloppiness, given how young this team is I am hopeful that they will quickly become more comfortable. If they can develop a proficient off ball game I think this offense can become very dangerous. We are always good at creating so we are really hard to defend if we are also working the pick game and getting to open spots off ball.
Im with you. Why can't we focus on quality shots over quantity? Play the analytics game and take more shots that should theoretically result in goals.
Based on the movement and picking I’m expecting our percentage will go up simply because it wil lead to better looks.
Yesterday was miserably cold there and windy. That’s going to impact shooting percentage.
Yesterday was miserably cold there and windy. That’s going to impact shooting percentage.
Watched the replay.
One, if you want to know how injuries really impacted last season, the two top scorers for this game missed most of last season with injuries.
Two, Splaine seems like the typical does all the little things right that don’t always show up in the box score type of player. Like picking off a couple of passes.
Three, if there’s one player that will benefit the most from a healthy roster, it’s Kulas. Just thought injuries the past two seasons really forced him into a role that didn’t fit his strengths.
One, if you want to know how injuries really impacted last season, the two top scorers for this game missed most of last season with injuries.
Two, Splaine seems like the typical does all the little things right that don’t always show up in the box score type of player. Like picking off a couple of passes.
Three, if there’s one player that will benefit the most from a healthy roster, it’s Kulas. Just thought injuries the past two seasons really forced him into a role that didn’t fit his strengths.
Great summary. Totally agree with our SSDMs. It makes such a massive difference when those guys can hold their own. Every teams offense is designed around attacking short sticks. When those guys are dogs who can stone wall guys, it’s throws a major kink in anyone’s offense.
Not surprised to hear you were welcomed in. I always say it’s the best part of being an alum. The R family is very tight. The fact it’s stayed connected through different coaches is a real testament. Like Coach Hayes, Brian is all about it.
He gets it. I’m sure you’d be welcome at any game you come to. Hope you can make more.
Agreed on all. The Kulas taken spot on. He’s a shooter/finisher. He was in a tough spot last year. We played so many young guys. It’s a game to game proposition but as a fan you can’t help but be excited about what this group will look like in a season or two. Talented experience is the formula to win big.
rbled has some great points and could have probably quoted the whole post but this has been stuck in my craw for years as I feel we ask our studs to act in isolation too much thus becoming predictable regardless of how good they may be.
To the point about shooting and trying to be too precise - there was a shot in the second half where our player (forgot who it was) had some space, wound up and before it left his stick I thought OK that is going upper left and that's exactly where it went except the goalie's stick was there. It would have been a great shot for our Jingle Bells video. This was directly in line with my seat so I had a good angle and I think he would have been better served with a change of level, high to low or even a bounce shot.
Anyway just one shot so it doesn't mean much but when we get to games where every possession matters we need to maximize opportunities.
Lehigh Offense: It seemed that half of their goals were lower angle, GLE shots, we might want to clean that up a bit.
#12 on Lehigh, a freshman with two high IQ goals, can we make him an NIL offer for next year?
Ride - Best I have seen in years, it was a pleasure watching Lehigh throw the ball away.
Justin Lawler played a good game, his size is an asset in the midfield and would love a breakout year for him.
Colin Kelly - Great to have him back, what a game!!
Aiello: That is a big body for a freshman, looks like he could run through a mismatch. Had some nice feeds, I think he sees the field well.
Murphy: Seems like a smart, composed player who puts himself in the right places and picked up two key goals.
Kurdylas: Great to have Brady back, Colin always answers the bell!
Defense: Was suffocating.
Juengerkes: Is fire.
It was a fun start to the year and we have a lot to clean up with turnovers and need to find more offense but it looks like we have the horses to do that if we can stay healthy.
I'd highlight Lawler too. I make at least one practice every year and I can honestly say for the last
three years Lawler always stood out. I'd ask about him playing and it was always the same response-
he's not ready yet but he will be at some point.
I always saw him as a dmid because he can run and play offense when we get the ball, but with our dmids now I can see why he is on offense. Great start to his super senior year. Funny how those work sometimes. He's a tough cover at that size and athletic ability.
Shout out to all of our shorties. They can all clear the ball with legs or sticks. And they are physical. I'm not sure if Mecheca is healthy- he was dressed but I saw his knee was wrapped, but assuming he's healthy or close, we have a legit 4 deep at short and 3 deep at long pole.
That position group was a real question mark going into the season. It's early days but that group now looks like a real strength. Bunch of athletic dogs in that group with real size.
three years Lawler always stood out. I'd ask about him playing and it was always the same response-
he's not ready yet but he will be at some point.
I always saw him as a dmid because he can run and play offense when we get the ball, but with our dmids now I can see why he is on offense. Great start to his super senior year. Funny how those work sometimes. He's a tough cover at that size and athletic ability.
Shout out to all of our shorties. They can all clear the ball with legs or sticks. And they are physical. I'm not sure if Mecheca is healthy- he was dressed but I saw his knee was wrapped, but assuming he's healthy or close, we have a legit 4 deep at short and 3 deep at long pole.
That position group was a real question mark going into the season. It's early days but that group now looks like a real strength. Bunch of athletic dogs in that group with real size.
