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No. 8/9 Rutgers Men’s Lacrosse Hosted RV/RV Utah Saturday

The clearing issue was very odd to me. I don’t feel like their 10 man gave us that much trouble tbh. We didn’t get trapped much at all and didn’t turn it over a lot off the carry. We simply threw a lot of really bad passes, and many were not really under a lot of duress. And we mishandled a bunch of passes and let them dribble out of bounds. It was an inexplicable breakdown of basic fundamentals.
The wind didn't help yesterday as it was a bit of a windy day. That being said I'm not using that as a valid excuse for uncharacteristically sloppy play. Fortunately the offense was hot enough to overcome that. We better clean some things up quickly in practice this week as Princeton will make the team pay for those mistakes.
 
The clearing issue was very odd to me. I don’t feel like their 10 man gave us that much trouble tbh. We didn’t get trapped much at all and didn’t turn it over a lot off the carry. We simply threw a lot of really bad passes, and many were not really under a lot of duress. And we mishandled a bunch of passes and let them dribble out of bounds. It was an inexplicable breakdown of basic fundamentals.
This. Hopefully it was just a bad stick day.

My high school coach would have sat us for some of this errors. Can’t happen at this level.
 
It was hard to tell from the stands so I’ll need to watch the replay but it seemed like Utah did a great job of taking away the easy clear passes and put us in a position to make the lesser % pass. Also, seems like the goalie, as good as he’s been, is still hesitant to get the ball out of his stick like the past couple years. RU fans were spoiled by Kirst dropping dimes. Thoughts?
 
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It was hard to tell from the stands so I’ll need to watch the replay but it seemed like Utah did a great job of taking away the easy clear passes and put us in a position to make the lesser % pass. Also, seems like the goalie, as good as he’s been, is still hesitant to get the ball out of his stick like the past couple years. RU fans were spoiled by Kirst dropping dimes. Thoughts?
I mean, the point of the 10 man is to take away the easy pass. But the ones we were missing weren’t particularly long or difficult. They are throws and catches that any decent HS team should execute with little difficulty.

I’m just going to chalk it up to case of the yips that became contagious. It’s not an issue we have ever had before and I KNOW Brian is not at all pleased and will address it in a way that the players will likely not enjoy.

On the flip side, I think in the 3rd quarter we saw a glimpse of how explosive this team can be when we are clicking. For a stretch they were literally unstoppable. There are some things we are still figuring out, particularly in the transition game. But this might be the most lethal 6v6 offense we have ever had when we are firing on all cylinders.
 
It was hard to tell from the stands so I’ll need to watch the replay but it seemed like Utah did a great job of taking away the easy clear passes and put us in a position to make the lesser % pass. Also, seems like the goalie, as good as he’s been, is still hesitant to get the ball out of his stick like the past couple years. RU fans were spoiled by Kirst dropping dimes. Thoughts?
Agree 100% We all knew we would not see another Kirst this year and that is fine. But clears often start from the goal mouth so Mullin shares some of the responsibility when RU transitions poorly.

Also, we are so talented at attack that it's hard not to be at least a little unbalanced from a production standpoint. I`m not saying anything more knowledgeable posters have not said already but we gotta scheme a little more balance out of the mids to make a tourney run. Should we be inverting more? It just makes it so stressful on the opponent in their prep and play.
 
Agree 100% We all knew we would not see another Kirst this year and that is fine. But clears often start from the goal mouth so Mullin shares some of the responsibility when RU transitions poorly.

Also, we are so talented at attack that it's hard not to be at least a little unbalanced from a production standpoint. I`m not saying anything more knowledgeable posters have not said already but we gotta scheme a little more balance out of the mids to make a tourney run. Should we be inverting more? It just makes it so stressful on the opponent in their prep and play.
Not sure if agree that balance is an issue. The top three in points are all on attack, which is what you would expect. Aimone is not far behind, which on some level is a surprise because he was the biggest unknown coming into the season. But it is not a surprise in the sense that it is basically his role.

Knobloch is always going to draw the long pole and early slides. When he is on, there is not much you can do to defend him and he will score regardless. Otherwise the attention he draws should open up opportunities for the rest of the offense.

Sprock’s role is always going to be to force his man to play him at the top of the box, open up the middle and force long slides. I am seeing glimpses of his old form and when he is on, you can expect 1-2, 2-1 type performance from him consistently.

If Aimone can continue to fill the net, that really makes us difficult to defend. You have to pole Knobloch and if you slough off of Sprock to help on Knobloch and Aimone off the dodge, Sprock will kill your from 15 ft all day. And you obviously can’t let Kukas or Cameron get their hands free above GLE. It really is a nightmare scenario to defend.

We do need more production from the 2nd midfield and rope unit. It was good to see Teresky and Civetti chip in 3 goals (though 1 was on EMO I think) plus Neuman getting a make it/take it and an assist is a good sign. But we need more. We are usually good for a couple is goals from a pole and/or SSDM, and we are not seeing that yet.
 
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It was hard to tell from the stands so I’ll need to watch the replay but it seemed like Utah did a great job of taking away the easy clear passes and put us in a position to make the lesser % pass. Also, seems like the goalie, as good as he’s been, is still hesitant to get the ball out of his stick like the past couple years. RU fans were spoiled by Kirst dropping dimes. Thoughts?
We made a few home run type passes. We also dropped or mishandled a bunch.

Worst clearing day in years. That’s not us.
 
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