Kind of surprised it took them a whole half to figure this out, it was kind of obvious and I feel like Army does this every year.
I am also a bit surprised Army chose to short stick and not slide to Dordevic and Curry - Tucker is struggling a bit so far this year but Curry is definitely in the top three of offensive weapons the Orange have. Wonder if Army's strategy would have worked better if they had shorted Cook and not slid? Also wonder why Desko and co didn't try something more creative, maybe moving Scanlan to midfield? They didn't try it often but when they did try and pick for Scanlan Army would not switch. Having him come out of the box may have thrown the Black Knights off a bit.
Kind of a fascinating game in the sense that it doesn't appear either side made any big adjustments and just tried to outplay one-another, like two rams smashing into one-another. Glad SU came out on top.
Defense on the whole played well, obviously Porter was the star. Kennedy had some rough moments but on the whole he played well, especially in the second half. Not sure if Army wore down, but Nichtern had a bad turnover late in the game when the ball seemed to fall out of the back of his stick (I think he was surprised to be as open has he was). Aviles had a bad moment and let up an easy Army goal late in the game, and the rest of the shorties had some bad turnovers (Dearth and Barlow), but on the whole they played well. Army likes to settle in and play 6v6 which I think the Orange does well. When things are unsettled and they don't know their markings, they seem to struggle the most. Obviously can't expect 18 save performances every game, but it's still good to know we can get them. Also I thought DiePetro looked good, FWIW.
Offensively, I could write for a very long time - I think a lot of it comes down to making smart decisions and shooting the ball better. A number of times I think Orange players over-trusted their shot making ability and took shots from bad angles. Quinn was especially frustrating today with a number of turnovers and one shot where he almost looked to be horizontal with the goal. He showed a lot of promise in the first two games, but reminded us today of why he can be so frustrating. Dordevic and Curry were beating their man pretty consistently but just couldn't get a lot of their shots on cage. Dordevic a number of times looked surprised that he had actually beat his man, and took too long to wind up and shoot, which led him to telegraph or work himself into a bad angle.
And probably goes without saying, but the attack, whether they are shut off or not, simply has to play better - the Army long poles looked impressive but the Orange attack could have done better. I worry the Orange will run into a Towson 2017 team when the SSDM's can handle our midfielders. Wonder if Seebold might start to see a little more time.
And lastly, I was really impressed with Phaup today, not only did he win the clamp cleanly, he made a number of really good "exit" moves to win the draw to himself and made good decisions afterwards. Have read a number of good Phaup articles this season and it really sounds like he worked extra hard this offseason. I know Army isn't the sternest test but he really dominated today.
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