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Message: [QUOTE="jdm22, post: 1623456, member: 5686"] I was at the navy and towson scrimmage, a few observations to assist the guess work: Both games starting attack was Donahue, Mariano, Evans (they will be very good but need time to jell ) Shewell, Voight, and Solomon all played which means they lost their redshirt. Shewell is the most ready of the three physically. He also seemed very confident and experienced. He had a goal and an assist against an Towson's excellent D and 2nd team AA goalie. I also think he had two goals in the Alumni game. Based on the fall, I see him playing first attack off the bench based on his physicality and offers the best inside scorer threat other than the great and sneaky Donahue. Voight was ok, I was hoping for more but it was tough D. Towson was tough, the cuse starting attack did nothing and the Goalie stopped a half dozen wide open inside shots including two by Donahue in the first half. Towson never really subbed much second teamers in the second half like Cuse. Goalie came out mid way through the 4th I think. Thorpe is the wild card and looked the best with significant playing time against Towson with a great behind the head goal and an assist. We need the best offensive players on the field and hope they try Thorpe at mid field...I have not heard you guys mention that so am I crazy? Which leads me to the Midfield and not great news as you guys have already lamented: Piroli hurt and DNP, so lost any chance to blend in but we need him to be good. Barber will start but did not look to be different than last year. Lane started at least one game and got tons of run , but that was all he did; run, dodge, run some more and then pass. Got by no one. But boy is he lean lost lots of weight and looks great, so there is hope. I was hoping Simmons and Weston would stand out but they looked exactly as they looked last year when getting runs on the second mid line team against first string D. Dejoe I think can be an answer on first or second line with the cannon and he ran around a bit. If he slows his shot and tries for accuracy maybe he is the surprise Cuse Sr. that takes a team from very good to great. Salcido looked very good and scored a goal on a nice dodge against navy first team and I think he scored or assisted on another (less mistakes and less forcing). McKinney played a lot but did nothing good or bad, so he may still be a year or two away. Ford and Carlin played little in these games when it mattered. Finally no freshmen middie played, so as of the fall the coaches did not think they could help the team enough to waste a redshirt. Not good news especially for Romano, but maybe he or another freshmen will figure it out and move in front of one of the upper classmen to play second line in the spring. Because of the above, I wonder again if Thorpe can play middie on the second line? One last point, lines were (including attack to mid) mixed and matched after almost every possession to give everyone ample run, so that obviously that effected the team offense rhythm and continuity. SSDM starters are Grimm and Ciferi (who keeps looking better and better and is a little bigger), but the great news is Schwasnick is a stud athelete who moved to SSDM. He looked great and we now have big ACC SSDM in him and Gillis when we need them. Fusco and Firman both played LS a lot and looked great. They split time on the face wings and did well. Ciferi, Schwasnick and salcido did a good job on the wings too as Cuse and Paduda dominated both Navy and Towson at the X. One of them was a top ten returning faceoff guy too. That is why they are excited about using Williams a bit differently. But I would rather rest him more and use Cal like 20% of the time in big games so teams have to prepare for both guys, and Williams does not lose late game or OT faceoffs cause he is exhausted. Mellen is a stud coming of the bus and looks like John Lade. No other of the freshmen D played so they are looking to keep their redshirt because the D does not need them this year. The greatest part of the scrimmage was Warren. He stopped every shot imaginable against Navy from door step stops to 15 yard rips to five yard hard dodges. He gave up one goal against 14 saves in three quarters. The D will have to carry the team until the attack jells. But I still have hope in the midfield just because there are so there are so many options and great competition. [/QUOTE]

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