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Message: [QUOTE="Powellfan, post: 4533239, member: 4819"] I would disagree about the goalie part. Will Mark is a preseason All American and comes in with a ton of experience. I know that he has a learning curve when it comes to ACC play, but given where the team was last year I have to imagine he will be big upgrade. I'm not really worried about that part of the field. Plus they have a five star goalie waiting in the wings in Jimmy McCool. 1. FOGO - my hopes of a midseason transfer appear to be dashed. Huge question mark for the team. I'm surprised/disappointed no one at media asked about the FOGO spot given that Syracuse are trying to replace the guy who took every meaningful draw last year. Jack Fine seemed to be the first guy up in the Loyola scrimmage but not sure if he is the starter. Would think Richiusa has the leg up given he was the starter for Canisius last year. I feel like if we look back on this season and it's a disappointment, the Face-off situation will be the main culprit. 2. Defense - The Petro led defense was just flat out bad last year. We can debate the reasons for it, but a lot is riding on the defense being a lot better this year, especially if the team is struggling at the face-off dot. Perhaps a lot of new faces for this unit is best. Is Caccamo the number one guy? Losing Figuerias for the season is a blow as I think he would have had a big impact. Communicaiton was bad last year, that seems to be a point of focus this year. Petro's Hopkins defenses were on a downswing before he left, and it's troubleing that Hopkins relative strength these days is in fact their defense. Mark should help things, but the defense cannot leave shooters wide open with the frequency they did last year. 3. Offensive chemistry - There are a lot of new faces on offense this year, from players returning from injury (Hiltz, Cook) to transfers (Simmons, Kirst) to freshmen (Spallina, Thomson, Leo, Rhoa). How will they all integrate with one another? If someone is struggling, how long before they see the bench? Does it make sense to play all freshmen on one midfield line (like they did against Loyola) or split them up? How do some veteran players get integrated? I do think the offense will be really good this year, but with so many options, sometimes it can get overwhelming. If face-offs are a struggle, the offense will be under a lot of presure to score each time they get the ball. Can a young offense live up to that pressure? [/QUOTE]

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