Another year another disappointing tournament exit (long post to follow)

[laxsummit]

If anyone transfers this season and comes in and starts at another high end program, I am probably no longer going to follow the program and the team. I had no idea the Trimboli's felt this way. Did you hear if through the grape vine or was there a big

Winaukaus transfer hurt but he wanted home. Lipka is another Maryland kid but think he sees a bigger role. Trimboli a lead n local

 

[laxsummit]

A lot of what were clean body checks of the 20th century have become non-releasable fouls of the 21st. To me, the jury is still out as to whether that's better or not.

The pendulem has swung too far in college lax regarding contact. HS lax I watch is more physical n refs more lenient. Good D kids now coming have to adapt to strict adherence to NCAA rules regarding checking n this is why we see kids pulling up or relying on sticks too much. Physical defenders who are slow footed are a thing of past but even quick footed kids are being inhibited on their closeouts.

 

[CreaseRat]

Winaukaus transfer hurt but he wanted home. Lipka is another Maryland kid but think he sees a bigger role. Trimboli a lead n local

Agree, I dont see why Trimboli would leave after being a 1st line middie as a frosh and soph. I could see someone like Quinn leaving and a couple close poles.

1st mid line and close D come back in tact, need to 2 guys to fill in the 2nd line. Voight will probably fill in for Bomber, I would love to see Desko let Solomon and some others battle for a spot. Solomon is talented but his immaturity has bitten this team before. It happened his freshman year vs Maryland in the tournament, the hit vs UVa and following suspension (off the top of my head). You would think he would have learned his lesson after the suspension but not yet. I think keeping Dearth at SSDM is the smart move but I have no idea what goes through the coaches heads. Dami needs to dramatically improve to see as much playing time as he did this year. Gotta wonder how many of the RS Juniors return for another year

 

[PhatOrange]

Technically speaking, I Sunday night second guessed not throwing the ball oob.

If Pulver is smart enough to know not to pick it up then our team should be smart enough to know they need to stop the play ASAP.

Pulver was the D guy on Solomon? Appeared to me he couldn’t pick up the ball because his stick was being held. If he is that smart though maybe that’s why he’s at an Ivy school

And yeah we were second guessing it right after it happened but there’s just no way the majority of players have that sense. They’re trying to score before the buzzer, it’s not natural to throw the ball out of bounds.

 

[JeremyCuse]

Agree, I dont see why Trimboli would leave after being a 1st line middie as a frosh and soph. I could see someone like Quinn leaving and a couple close poles.

1st mid line and close D come back in tact, need to 2 guys to fill in the 2nd line. Voight will probably fill in for Bomber, I would love to see Desko let Solomon and some others battle for a spot. Solomon is talented but his immaturity has bitten this team before. It happened his freshman year vs Maryland in the tournament, the hit vs UVa and following suspension (off the top of my head). You would think he would have learned his lesson after the suspension but not yet. I think keeping Dearth at SSDM is the smart move but I have no idea what goes through the coaches heads. Dami needs to dramatically improve to see as much playing time as he did this year. Gotta wonder how many of the RS Juniors return for another year

I would be shocked if Voigt was starting at attack next year. If Staats makes it he is a lock to start and I don't see Desko dropping a Sr in Solomon from the line though I think all the spots should be open. Cook could/should challenge for PT right away. I think he's going to open eyes right away and force the staff's hand to find PT for him, kid is a stud. Give me a starting attack of Staats, Rehfuss, Cook with Solomon, Voight, Seebold and one of the other frosh (Berkman?) rotating in. If Staats doesn't make it here I think the starting attack is Rehfuss, Solomon, Cook with Voigt and Seebold battling for that 4th spot and Berkman as a dark horse.

I think Dearth has now been moved to SSDM permanently. I suspect he and Helmer or he had Murphy will be the starting SSDM duo with the guy who comes in third the top option on the bench along with Dami.

Starting middies should be the same. 2nd line will be interesting especially when taking into account everyone who returns and the newcomers. Could be a mass exodus of midfield types from the roster ie Ford, McKinney, O'Sullivan etc. I could see a second mid line of Lipka, Quinn, ( if he's back) and Buttermore. That said Dekso always gives his seniors first crack so Carlin will likely be there. Fiorini could make a push for PT, Magnan seems like a near lock to RS.

 

[laxsummit]

Any returns of RS jrs or vets should not come without any promises of pt. You play best talent when its ready or u risk losing that best talent.

 

[HSPORANGE]

Well here we are again another season and another shake your head finish. When we went into the half up 7-5 I head a feeling we were going to be in trouble if we didn't come out and grab a goal or two year. Unfortunately we scored two freeking goals the entire second half, just an utter embarrassment. While there were certainly some bright spots yesterday and the season as a whole but a lot of the same issues came back to haunt SU time and time again and they were on full display yesterday as well. This post is going to be brutally honest so if your not into my takes now would be a good time to leave the post.

Yesterdays game turned on 4 things: Turnovers, coaching, officiating, crease defense.
The turnovers were brutal and many unforced. Yes Cornell definitely got away with a bunch of stuff they shouldn't have but SU has struggled with turnovers all year and we had another 15 yesterday. The worst part of those 15 was that at least half were from defenders (long poles/SSDM). As someone astutely pointed out in the game thread, SU players were under attack on the clear especially our long poles who had to try and avoid multiple players and split defenders, where the hell was the attack to help out? I don't believe Cornell was in a 10 man ride just a good hard ride, the attack should have come up to help out so SU could pass out of it, instead they were no where to be found and our defenders were left for the most part to clear on their own. Terrible.

I am not one to blame a loss on the officials and I won't blame yesterday's loss on them either but they were horrible. I don't have a problem if your going to allow a physical game like that but we haven't seen that kind of physicality allowed in a decade +. While certainly not every Cornell hit should have been flagged (several were clean) there were at least a half dozen no calls and I am being conservative with that estimate. Not to mention on at least 2-3 occasions an SU player was rocked late with absolutely no call but we get it with an interference call late in the game. There were multiple blatant loose ball pushes right in front of the officials and of course zero call. The next time I hear a Hopkins fan complain about "Dome officiating" I am going to rip them a new one because no "blue blood" gets less home officiating then we do. I am not looking for favoritism but SU clearly was on the short of the end calls once again in a big game at home, its amazing. Lastly the rules need to change on flags and the game ending. The fact that Cornell mugged Solomon but the game ended before play stopped for the man up means were SOL is ridiculous, what kind of rule is that?

As PhatOrange and Creaserat have pointed out the last few years the man up unit was abysmal. After the first man up where Bomberry missed a wide open look it was a total disaster. Ball not moving crisply, minimal rotating/flashing, ball not being reversed quickly to force slides etc etc etc. You had zero faith SU was going to score on the man up in the 2nd half, absolutely zero. On the other hand Cornell was 3-4 and you knew once they went on the man up they were likely to score. Again so frustrating. Also Cornell didn't cover Lane at all and he had at least 3 or 4 wide open looks where he started to crank and then passed, good god man let it fly your out there because of your shot. If he isn't going to rip let Dordevic or Lipka or someone else with a long range shot get out there who will shoot. Man up unit needs more shooters, to many crease guys in Bomberry, Voight and Solomon.

Defensively I thought SU did a great job on Teat and overall did a pretty good job slowing down Cornell's offense. Unfortunately they again had issues with communications and slides and gave up 5 goals to Petterson none more then 5 yards a way. Individualy SU was again solid but when it came time for slides and communication it was again a Chinese fire drill, guys sliding late or Mellen taking off when SU is in a zone etc etc. You keep waiting for SU to clear up the communication issues with slides but every year its an issue and every year we complain about it. Still SU only gave up 7 6 on 6 goals and one of those was a fluke rebound. Giving up 3 of 4 man up goals was the dagger. Next year will be interesting as SU brings back everyone plus they add Fernandez who should be back from injury and Jerry Staats who won best D player in the JUCO tourney this past weekend. I think Bomberry is still dealing with nagging injuries as he never looked like himself this year and struggled to be that big time crease defender outside of the ND game, way way way to many penalties as well.

Give Varello and Madonna credit, both played excellent I thought. Varello took advantage of Cornells faceoff issues and really dominated. For SU to win 16 of 22 but lose the game is sickening and infuriating. I thought Madonna did a nice job, made some nice saves and didn't let in any bad shots save for 1. Also had a few doorstep saves, he and Varello deserved a better outcome.

Offensively it was all about the attack unit or lack there of. Bomberry had two goals and did what he could but I thought Rehfuss and Solomon were completely shut down and really struggled. Both had a a goal but they came on fluke plays and were pretty much non factors. Its hard to win any game when 2/3rds of your attack is zero factor can't score or force a slide. I hate to even mention this but even though he was the best of the three Bomberry unfortunately left at least 2 goals out there. He had 3 or 4 great looks that he missed that he normally nets at least half of. Again not putting it on him but that missed man up goal and one or two other point blank looks would have changed this game completely. Rehfuss needs to play as a 2, SU was forced to play him as the #1 attackmen/main dodger and thats tough to do for a guy seeing every teams #1 defender for the first time. He had some monster games this year but looked overmatched yesterday, He would do better as a Robin to someones Batman. Solomon is what he is, a decent attackmen who struggles against upper echelon or elite defenses and who hasn't learned to stop with the awful penalties. His performance yesterday was the most dissapointing. SU really needs to overaul the attack unit next year, Staats (if he makes it and Cook should be starting from day 1.

The biggest issue for me was the coaching staff and Desko. We were once again out coached in a big game and made zero adjustments in the second half. Whether you want Desko fired or not there is no rationalizing yet another poor SU performance when it counted most and staff that continues to have zero answers other then shrugging their shoulders and tipping their cap. First of all I am beating a dead horse here but why the hell were we playing the second line every other possession? It wasn't Memorial day and 85 degrees outside, it was 60 something and we hadn't played in a week plus and the 1st line was dealing. 2nd line should have played every third possession at most and probably not at all in the fourth quarter. Instead we got to watch Simmons and Carlin dodge to nowhere and the offense screech to a grinding halt in the latter part of the 4th when SU had a 2 min possession and couldn't put a decent shot on cage. Why no one from the media called out Desko on this in the post game is unbelievable. As someone astutely noted its probably Donahue who does the offensive substitutions, what the hell was he thinking playing the second line that much when the 1st line was playing so well. Again zero awareness from this staff, ZERO. Don't even get me started on the two timeouts in the last 1:30 with SU down a goal, did we even draw up a play, what the heck was that? Plus where was Dordevic the final 30 seconds?

So where do we go from here? I have never been a fire Desko guy but were reaching a point where Wildhack and the admin have to get off their asses before we become Princeton. First off a staff shake up is needed, period. Whether its Rogers or Donahue a young Coordinator needs to come in to inject some youth and emotion and energy on this team. Desko, Rogers and Donahue have become way to complacent and there is zero emotion on the sideline. The calm demeanor thing works when SU is winning games and advancing in the tournament that crap is infuriating when were losing. The end of the game summed it up when after the flag was thrown and the clock ran out, was Desko out there yelling or demanding answers, hell no he sauntered over to the Gatorade cooler shaking his head, Jesus man show some freeking emotion here and maybe fire your team up for a change, I saw more energy at an 85 year olds bday party this past weekend. How about working the officials after all of those missed calls, were Syracuse at home, you think Marr or Tierney is letting that crap happen in a home playoff game?

Going into next fall I assume the staff will remain the same because I doubt the administration will do anything at this point so its' hard to expect wholesale changes. We do need to find away to get Staats here and we need to overhaul the attack unit. The #1 objective has to be Staats, period. I don't care how we do it, get him here. Second Desko needs to get a transfer FOGO here and he needs to make sure we don't get hit to hard by transfers. It's no secret Trimboli's family wasn't happy with the lack of PT for the first line this year and I am sure yesterday isn't going to help. I am sure we will lose some guys to transfer but we need to keep the Quinn's and Buttermores of the world here and make sure Trimboli doesn't do something foolish. We also need to go back to our roots and get more run n gun in our offense. We saw flashes of it this year and it really seemed the team was playing its best in that kind of style. Now I am not advocating we try to go back to the Gait and Powell eras and do that 100% of the time because as UVA has shown thats not going to work but when transition is there push it and don't be afraid to take some risk. This was a mostly young team so I am not going to go over the deep end on this outcome but there needs to be noted improvement next year in all facets. SU needs to clean up the mistakes that haunted this team all year and we need to see growth next year and a solid tourney run or its time to call Galloway and make some difficult decisions.

Has there been talk of Trimboli transferring?

Positives:
-Mellen shutting down Teat
-Madonna was excellent and made some nice doorstep saves
-Kennedy is a beast

Negatives:
-lack of adjustments in 2nd half by staff
-run the 1st line middies more, especially when they are hot
-what happened to Lane? He struggles with basic fundamentals you learn in modified lacrosse
-officiating was inconsistent

I think if Cornell can find a way to win 40% or more of the faceoffs against the Terps, they have a very good chance of wining.

 

[ForCuseSake]

Pulver was the D guy on Solomon? Appeared to me he couldn’t pick up the ball because his stick was being held. If he is that smart though maybe that’s why he’s at an Ivy school

And yeah we were second guessing it right after it happened but there’s just no way the majority of players have that sense. They’re trying to score before the buzzer, it’s not natural to throw the ball out of bounds.

Yes, Pulver was #34 defending Solomon.

And you’re correct - Solomon was for a few seconds idiotically holding Pulver’s stick while on the ground.

I had a hs coach who would tell us late in quarters to let the clock run as much as we could if we were flagged for a penalty.

He knew it would take teams more time to work it around for a shot and wasn’t afraid to take a faceoff down a man.

 

[laxsummit]

Has there been talk of Trimboli transferring?

Positives:
-Mellen shutting down Teat
-Madonna was excellent and made some nice doorstep saves
-Kennedy is a beast

Negatives:
-lack of adjustments in 2nd half by staff
-run the 1st line middies more, especially when they are hot
-what happened to Lane? He struggles with basic fundamentals you learn in modified lacrosse
-officiating was inconsistent

I think if Cornell can find a way to win 40% or more of the faceoffs against the Terps, they have a very good chance of wining.

Agree on all. . Team played well, a few mental mistakes costly n diff in emo execution. Officiating is consistently inconsistent and as Jeremy said tbere has been no advantage in Dome, actually seems to bw the reverse. Varello had nice game. Gotta rewatch to see why Petersen was so wide open on crease.

 

[newmexicuse]

The usual comprehensive and sensible Jeremy post. Agree with the vast majority of what you say.

A lot to be desired on our end.

However, sometimes the opponents have something to do with a Cuse loss.

I thought in this particular game that the critical difference was their goalie in the second half. I thought he absolutely took over the game with multiple amazing stops. We also had bad luck one time when we did beat him, but hit the post.

I thought the officiating was atrocious.

They need to institute the football rule, where a game can't end on a penalty. We should have got the ball and our 30 second opportunity to tie with the game only ending at the end of the penalty time.

We have had our problems all season with face offs and goal-tending, but not today. Those issues aside, I think our biggest flaw this season was that we could not seem to execute the tight interior passes to set ourselves up for the doorstep shots. We always seemed to be scoring from ten feet or more outside whereas how many time did they score from within five feet in. Yes, i know our D breaks down, but i am talking about the o end of the field where our execution is lacking.

Overall, it is easy to blame the staff. Not saying they can't improve, but the truth is that this team just did not have enough talent. If you want to lay bad recruiting on the staff that is fair enough, but this was not a FF team any way you slice it.

 

[Cusejuicy]

Well here we are again another season and another shake your head finish. When we went into the half up 7-5 I head a feeling we were going to be in trouble if we didn't come out and grab a goal or two year. Unfortunately we scored two freeking goals the entire second half, just an utter embarrassment. While there were certainly some bright spots yesterday and the season as a whole but a lot of the same issues came back to haunt SU time and time again and they were on full display yesterday as well. This post is going to be brutally honest so if your not into my takes now would be a good time to leave the post.

Yesterdays game turned on 4 things: Turnovers, coaching, officiating, crease defense.
The turnovers were brutal and many unforced. Yes Cornell definitely got away with a bunch of stuff they shouldn't have but SU has struggled with turnovers all year and we had another 15 yesterday. The worst part of those 15 was that at least half were from defenders (long poles/SSDM). As someone astutely pointed out in the game thread, SU players were under attack on the clear especially our long poles who had to try and avoid multiple players and split defenders, where the hell was the attack to help out? I don't believe Cornell was in a 10 man ride just a good hard ride, the attack should have come up to help out so SU could pass out of it, instead they were no where to be found and our defenders were left for the most part to clear on their own. Terrible.

I am not one to blame a loss on the officials and I won't blame yesterday's loss on them either but they were horrible. I don't have a problem if your going to allow a physical game like that but we haven't seen that kind of physicality allowed in a decade +. While certainly not every Cornell hit should have been flagged (several were clean) there were at least a half dozen no calls and I am being conservative with that estimate. Not to mention on at least 2-3 occasions an SU player was rocked late with absolutely no call but we get it with an interference call late in the game. There were multiple blatant loose ball pushes right in front of the officials and of course zero call. The next time I hear a Hopkins fan complain about "Dome officiating" I am going to rip them a new one because no "blue blood" gets less home officiating then we do. I am not looking for favoritism but SU clearly was on the short of the end calls once again in a big game at home, its amazing. Lastly the rules need to change on flags and the game ending. The fact that Cornell mugged Solomon but the game ended before play stopped for the man up means were SOL is ridiculous, what kind of rule is that?

As PhatOrange and Creaserat have pointed out the last few years the man up unit was abysmal. After the first man up where Bomberry missed a wide open look it was a total disaster. Ball not moving crisply, minimal rotating/flashing, ball not being reversed quickly to force slides etc etc etc. You had zero faith SU was going to score on the man up in the 2nd half, absolutely zero. On the other hand Cornell was 3-4 and you knew once they went on the man up they were likely to score. Again so frustrating. Also Cornell didn't cover Lane at all and he had at least 3 or 4 wide open looks where he started to crank and then passed, good god man let it fly your out there because of your shot. If he isn't going to rip let Dordevic or Lipka or someone else with a long range shot get out there who will shoot. Man up unit needs more shooters, to many crease guys in Bomberry, Voight and Solomon.

Defensively I thought SU did a great job on Teat and overall did a pretty good job slowing down Cornell's offense. Unfortunately they again had issues with communications and slides and gave up 5 goals to Petterson none more then 5 yards a way. Individualy SU was again solid but when it came time for slides and communication it was again a Chinese fire drill, guys sliding late or Mellen taking off when SU is in a zone etc etc. You keep waiting for SU to clear up the communication issues with slides but every year its an issue and every year we complain about it. Still SU only gave up 7 6 on 6 goals and one of those was a fluke rebound. Giving up 3 of 4 man up goals was the dagger. Next year will be interesting as SU brings back everyone plus they add Fernandez who should be back from injury and Jerry Staats who won best D player in the JUCO tourney this past weekend. I think Bomberry is still dealing with nagging injuries as he never looked like himself this year and struggled to be that big time crease defender outside of the ND game, way way way to many penalties as well.

Give Varello and Madonna credit, both played excellent I thought. Varello took advantage of Cornells faceoff issues and really dominated. For SU to win 16 of 22 but lose the game is sickening and infuriating. I thought Madonna did a nice job, made some nice saves and didn't let in any bad shots save for 1. Also had a few doorstep saves, he and Varello deserved a better outcome.

Offensively it was all about the attack unit or lack there of. Bomberry had two goals and did what he could but I thought Rehfuss and Solomon were completely shut down and really struggled. Both had a a goal but they came on fluke plays and were pretty much non factors. Its hard to win any game when 2/3rds of your attack is zero factor can't score or force a slide. I hate to even mention this but even though he was the best of the three Bomberry unfortunately left at least 2 goals out there. He had 3 or 4 great looks that he missed that he normally nets at least half of. Again not putting it on him but that missed man up goal and one or two other point blank looks would have changed this game completely. Rehfuss needs to play as a 2, SU was forced to play him as the #1 attackmen/main dodger and thats tough to do for a guy seeing every teams #1 defender for the first time. He had some monster games this year but looked overmatched yesterday, He would do better as a Robin to someones Batman. Solomon is what he is, a decent attackmen who struggles against upper echelon or elite defenses and who hasn't learned to stop with the awful penalties. His performance yesterday was the most dissapointing. SU really needs to overaul the attack unit next year, Staats (if he makes it and Cook should be starting from day 1.

The biggest issue for me was the coaching staff and Desko. We were once again out coached in a big game and made zero adjustments in the second half. Whether you want Desko fired or not there is no rationalizing yet another poor SU performance when it counted most and staff that continues to have zero answers other then shrugging their shoulders and tipping their cap. First of all I am beating a dead horse here but why the hell were we playing the second line every other possession? It wasn't Memorial day and 85 degrees outside, it was 60 something and we hadn't played in a week plus and the 1st line was dealing. 2nd line should have played every third possession at most and probably not at all in the fourth quarter. Instead we got to watch Simmons and Carlin dodge to nowhere and the offense screech to a grinding halt in the latter part of the 4th when SU had a 2 min possession and couldn't put a decent shot on cage. Why no one from the media called out Desko on this in the post game is unbelievable. As someone astutely noted its probably Donahue who does the offensive substitutions, what the hell was he thinking playing the second line that much when the 1st line was playing so well. Again zero awareness from this staff, ZERO. Don't even get me started on the two timeouts in the last 1:30 with SU down a goal, did we even draw up a play, what the heck was that? Plus where was Dordevic the final 30 seconds?

So where do we go from here? I have never been a fire Desko guy but were reaching a point where Wildhack and the admin have to get off their asses before we become Princeton. First off a staff shake up is needed, period. Whether its Rogers or Donahue a young Coordinator needs to come in to inject some youth and emotion and energy on this team. Desko, Rogers and Donahue have become way to complacent and there is zero emotion on the sideline. The calm demeanor thing works when SU is winning games and advancing in the tournament that crap is infuriating when were losing. The end of the game summed it up when after the flag was thrown and the clock ran out, was Desko out there yelling or demanding answers, hell no he sauntered over to the Gatorade cooler shaking his head, Jesus man show some freeking emotion here and maybe fire your team up for a change, I saw more energy at an 85 year olds bday party this past weekend. How about working the officials after all of those missed calls, were Syracuse at home, you think Marr or Tierney is letting that crap happen in a home playoff game?

Going into next fall I assume the staff will remain the same because I doubt the administration will do anything at this point so its' hard to expect wholesale changes. We do need to find away to get Staats here and we need to overhaul the attack unit. The #1 objective has to be Staats, period. I don't care how we do it, get him here. Second Desko needs to get a transfer FOGO here and he needs to make sure we don't get hit to hard by transfers. It's no secret Trimboli's family wasn't happy with the lack of PT for the first line this year and I am sure yesterday isn't going to help. I am sure we will lose some guys to transfer but we need to keep the Quinn's and Buttermores of the world here and make sure Trimboli doesn't do something foolish. We also need to go back to our roots and get more run n gun in our offense. We saw flashes of it this year and it really seemed the team was playing its best in that kind of style. Now I am not advocating we try to go back to the Gait and Powell eras and do that 100% of the time because as UVA has shown thats not going to work but when transition is there push it and don't be afraid to take some risk. This was a mostly young team so I am not going to go over the deep end on this outcome but there needs to be noted improvement next year in all facets. SU needs to clean up the mistakes that haunted this team all year and we need to see growth next year and a solid tourney run or its time to call Galloway and make some difficult decisions.

Jeremy. I am certainly no lacrosse expert but I think you nailed it. Never a Desko fan, I don’t see any changes as long as he is in charge. Thought after the first half we might pull this one out but it was all down hill in the second with no help from the coaches.

 

[Cusejuicy]

It is all my fault, I attended the game.

Talked to OrangeXtreme at halftime with a 2 goal lead...sigh

I think I'm like 1-6 in NCAA playoff games.

Maybe that’s our problem with football too.

 

[Purple Haze]

I would be shocked if Voigt was starting at attack next year. If Staats makes it he is a lock to start and I don't see Desko dropping a Sr in Solomon from the line though I think all the spots should be open. Cook could/should challenge for PT right away. I think he's going to open eyes right away and force the staff's hand to find PT for him, kid is a stud. Give me a starting attack of Staats, Rehfuss, Cook with Solomon, Voight, Seebold and one of the other frosh (Berkman?) rotating in. If Staats doesn't make it here I think the starting attack is Rehfuss, Solomon, Cook with Voigt and Seebold battling for that 4th spot and Berkman as a dark horse.

I think Dearth has now been moved to SSDM permanently. I suspect he and Helmer or he had Murphy will be the starting SSDM duo with the guy who comes in third the top option on the bench along with Dami.

Starting middies should be the same. 2nd line will be interesting especially when taking into account everyone who returns and the newcomers. Could be a mass exodus of midfield types from the roster ie Ford, McKinney, O'Sullivan etc. I could see a second mid line of Lipka, Quinn, ( if he's back) and Buttermore. That said Dekso always gives his seniors first crack so Carlin will likely be there. Fiorini could make a push for PT, Magnan seems like a near lock to RS.

Disagree with you about Cook - he's got a great stick but he is undersized and needs a year in the weight room before he's ready to see any serious time (and I know I'm in the minority). I think when all is said and done that Berkman is going to be the better of the two.

Curious why you think Mangan is a lock to redshirt? I see him as the most D1 ready kid in the class - I'd put him on the man up team on day 1.

 

[tbonezone]

madonna and mellen were both excellent. we seem to have no one who can curl from behind the cage and score. (paging mr. mariano)
except for rehfuss when the goalie inadvertently passes to him behind the cage and he has an open net. even there he almost stepped in the crease . rickb kept saying we had a cornell defender hung up . no. up 2 goals they knew we were zero threat behind the cage and let us stand there all day. (almost a full minute once).

 

[tbonezone]

Good point on the late hit...with 7 secs left. Should be a clock stopped and maybe a do something like womens lacrosse with a free shot on goal.

that's not lacrosse. call it what you will. bring back field hockey. i miss the skirts.

 

[TexanMark]

that's not lacrosse. call it what you will. bring back field hockey. i miss the skirts.

What I'm getting at...is Cornell benefited from a defensive penalty and it shouldn't be able...the rules need to be changed (like the shot clock was implemented) so something like this doesn't happen again.

 

[tbonezone]

it was a smart takedown . whistle blows on possession. bigger issue was why wasn't the ball in front of the goal. one pass. you got one shot. end of game was so badly managed you can't bust it down to one play. but that one on one call on somewhat epitomizes the awful coaching we saw in the second half. you play by the rules you're given. perhaps if it's flagrant enuf player sits out next game ( where have i seen that ?)

 

[Dinkyspond]

Beardsley and Brent Axe both said on radio they think Desko is safe but a "shakeup" is coming on staff. I guess they are insinuating Donohue will be gone. Is Rogers in trouble? Any thoughts? Shakeup means to me that assistants will be replaced.

 

[ks orange]

I understand the hand wringing. Like others, I was crushed by the outcome. But I also think the "law of averages" caught up with the Orange (think "regression to the mean"). Last year, we won far more than than our fair share of one-goal games (and yes, I know that, with Mariano and Salcido, we had alpha males you could count on in the last minute). This year, we lost the last three one-goal games. Think pipes, injuries, questionable officiating, and other issues and all three could have gone the other way. I don't think this year's team is markedly inferior to last year's. And call me Pollyanna, but I think the prospects for next year are pretty darn encouraging.

 

[swish7]

Nice post JeremyCuse. I watched all the lacrosse this weekend. Lots of great games. JHU had an utterly amazing comeback, led by Marr's kid. Yale, nice stuff. Albany, tough win. Some beautiful up and down, up-tempo, insanely fast play. To cap it off with such a disappointing loss, what a huge letdown. Nice to come here and read the musings of some like-minded folks.

Nothing to add to your post, but the brutality of the Cornell defense and how our players just bent to their will was a thing to behold. Where is the heart? The hustle? We need tougher players.

I do agree with the poster whom 'doesn't know what a foul is anymore'. The Solomon play was one thing, our goose was already cooked, but there were some brutal hits in the last 1:20 before that. Some right in front of the refs. The one where the two attackers overwhelmed and steamrolled our defender seemed egregious. Crazy stuff. The hits were as brutal as anything I see on the NCAAs 2018 point of emphasis video,
Don't want to fire anybody, but ya lost to an interim coach. Not good.

There was a moment there at the end or near the end where the camera flashed on a sideline huddle. I recall seeing an expression on Donahue's face that was just like "I don't have any answers for what is happening right now." They seemed overwhelmed.

Hope they can start recruiting better and turn this ship around.

Rehfuss was so studly fast last year. What happened?

Cannot believe Bomberry whiffed that shot.

Too many of our 10,000 middies won't shoot. Cannot have that.

 

[JeremyCuse]

Beardsley and Brent Axe both said on radio they think Desko is safe but a "shakeup" is coming on staff. I guess they are insinuating Donohue will be gone. Is Rogers in trouble? Any thoughts? Shakeup means to me that assistants will be replaced.

Didn't want to post this until after tge season but rumor is Donahue is the #1 target to take over at W. Genny.

 

[Bill Orange]

Didn't want to post this until after tge season but rumor is Donahue is the #1 target to take over at W. Genny.

That would be a logical choice, unless WG wishes to look for someone younger from their alumni base to take over, like Jamie Archer did at J-D.

 

[ForCuseSake]

That would be a logical choice, unless WG wishes to look for someone younger from their alumni base to take over, like Jamie Archer did at J-D.

Except Archer went to Nottingham.

Which I’m sure you knew. There’s not a lot of tradition at Ham so I feel obligated to defend what we’ve got.

Especially since I’m outnumbered by JD & FM folk.

 

[laxsummit]

I understand the hand wringing. Like others, I was crushed by the outcome. But I also think the "law of averages" caught up with the Orange (think "regression to the mean"). Last year, we won far more than than our fair share of one-goal games (and yes, I know that, with Mariano and Salcido, we had alpha males you could count on in the last minute). This year, we lost the last three one-goal games. Think pipes, injuries, questionable officiating, and other issues and all three could have gone the other way. I don't think this year's team is markedly inferior to last year's. And call me Pollyanna, but I think the prospects for next year are pretty darn encouraging.

Refreshing to read a post that has logical reasoning that expresses our present state in proper context.

Glad someone can see the forest through the trees .

 

[laxsummit]

Nice post JeremyCuse. I watched all the lacrosse this weekend. Lots of great games. JHU had an utterly amazing comeback, led by Marr's kid. Yale, nice stuff. Albany, tough win. Some beautiful up and down, up-tempo, insanely fast play. To cap it off with such a disappointing loss, what a huge letdown. Nice to come here and read the musings of some like-minded folks.

Nothing to add to your post, but the brutality of the Cornell defense and how our players just bent to their will was a thing to behold. Where is the heart? The hustle? We need tougher players.

I do agree with the poster whom 'doesn't know what a foul is anymore'. The Solomon play was one thing, our goose was already cooked, but there were some brutal hits in the last 1:20 before that. Some right in front of the refs. The one where the two attackers overwhelmed and steamrolled our defender seemed egregious. Crazy stuff. The hits were as brutal as anything I see on the NCAAs 2018 point of emphasis video,
Don't want to fire anybody, but ya lost to an interim coach. Not good.

There was a moment there at the end or near the end where the camera flashed on a sideline huddle. I recall seeing an expression on Donahue's face that was just like "I don't have any answers for what is happening right now." They seemed overwhelmed.

Hope they can start recruiting better and turn this ship around.

Rehfuss was so studly fast last year. What happened?

Cannot believe Bomberry whiffed that shot.

Too many of our 10,000 middies won't shoot. Cannot have that.