Hopkins Game Thread... | Page 5 | Syracusefan.com

Hopkins Game Thread...

In between those three is Jim Matteson. A convicted murderer who killed himself in prison.

The “Mummy Murderer”.

Your post reminded me that, with Rogers, Matteson and Green at consecutive weights, they were called Section 3’s “murderers row. “ At least Rogers and Green went on to bigger and better things!
 
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4 goal win crickets

If they lost, spew city

It was an excellent win. Lots of things to clear up but this was an enormous win. Phaup and Varello are doing yeoman's work and Buttermore looks like our best middie since Galasso
 
Great win, plus I love reading the Hopkins threads when they lose.

I really thought this was going to be a repeat of last year after they went down 5-1. Silly mistakes that kept giving the ball to Hopkins. Porter looked like he couldn't stop a beach ball, defense out of sorts, offense falling back into bad shot selection. I think it was shortly after that fifth goal that Desko took a timeout and things seemed to kick into gear.

I like the decision to put Kennedy and Fernandez on the wings, though it feels like Varello and Phaup need to communicate more with them before popping the ball out. Probably not something to do every game but they needed ground balls from the scrums today and the two of them did great.

Ball movement was much faster and more movement on offense in the second half lead to some nice openings. Darby stole a couple, and some bad choices to go low when he already had his stick down there. And who doesn't love transition goals, Dearth with 2 and Kennedy with 1. Now comes the hard part though, Buttermore has been playing lights out and should probably be on the first line. Do you keep the swap permanent or leave him on the second to keep the lines "balanced". Box score says Seebold played but I don't remember seeing him, no Quinn though. Looks like Fiorini got a run as well.

Defense really clamped down after that first quarter. Porter put that first half behind him and made some great saves. I don't pay as much attention to match ups, but I'm assuming they switched some guys around to strangle the Hopkins offense. I'm still chuckling over Mellen bending his pole fighting through that pick. Losing Murphy hurts though, gotta hope the young guys are ready to step up.

Slow starts still an issue but they need to build on the strong finish they had today. Colgate was winnable in the fourth, Army made it close in the fourth, and last week it was lost in the fourth. Today they kept it going and made sure Hopkins wasn't going to come back.
 
Great win, plus I love reading the Hopkins threads when they lose.

I really thought this was going to be a repeat of last year after they went down 5-1. Silly mistakes that kept giving the ball to Hopkins. Porter looked like he couldn't stop a beach ball, defense out of sorts, offense falling back into bad shot selection. I think it was shortly after that fifth goal that Desko took a timeout and things seemed to kick into gear.

I like the decision to put Kennedy and Fernandez on the wings, though it feels like Varello and Phaup need to communicate more with them before popping the ball out. Probably not something to do every game but they needed ground balls from the scrums today and the two of them did great.

Ball movement was much faster and more movement on offense in the second half lead to some nice openings. Darby stole a couple, and some bad choices to go low when he already had his stick down there. And who doesn't love transition goals, Dearth with 2 and Kennedy with 1. Now comes the hard part though, Buttermore has been playing lights out and should probably be on the first line. Do you keep the swap permanent or leave him on the second to keep the lines "balanced". Box score says Seebold played but I don't remember seeing him, no Quinn though. Looks like Fiorini got a run as well.

Defense really clamped down after that first quarter. Porter put that first half behind him and made some great saves. I don't pay as much attention to match ups, but I'm assuming they switched some guys around to strangle the Hopkins offense. I'm still chuckling over Mellen bending his pole fighting through that pick. Losing Murphy hurts though, gotta hope the young guys are ready to step up.

Slow starts still an issue but they need to build on the strong finish they had today. Colgate was winnable in the fourth, Army made it close in the fourth, and last week it was lost in the fourth. Today they kept it going and made sure Hopkins wasn't going to come back.

Excellent post
 
Overall good win.

Buttermore needs more opportunities. I hear people saying you need to keep the lines balanced, but the counter to that is how do teams guard a first line mid of Trimbo, Curry, and Butter? Who gets the pole? Thyey have all shown they can scorch shorties. Cook scoring a goal is also a promising sign. I know it was on a rebound, but he needs to gain some confidence and seeing the ball hit the net should help.

Kennedy is a stud. He had back-to-back plays of the transition goal, then embarrassed that a** Williams with a nasty trail check. If Jack is half as good as Brett I'll be thrilled.

Happy for Varello today. He looked pretty good.

Porter was great in the second half.

One negative is Rehfuss. He cannot gain separation to save his life. Its perplexing and tough to watch. The flu is no longer an excuse. I'm sorry but he and Soloman are going to have to give us more production if we want to head back to Final Four weekend. Seebold needs some run too. He is in the plans going into the future at attack and needs experience. Same with Nelson. I think they need to pursue a transfer at attack. Very weak position group.
 
Great win, plus I love reading the Hopkins threads when they lose.

I really thought this was going to be a repeat of last year after they went down 5-1. Silly mistakes that kept giving the ball to Hopkins. Porter looked like he couldn't stop a beach ball, defense out of sorts, offense falling back into bad shot selection. I think it was shortly after that fifth goal that Desko took a timeout and things seemed to kick into gear.

I like the decision to put Kennedy and Fernandez on the wings, though it feels like Varello and Phaup need to communicate more with them before popping the ball out. Probably not something to do every game but they needed ground balls from the scrums today and the two of them did great.

Ball movement was much faster and more movement on offense in the second half lead to some nice openings. Darby stole a couple, and some bad choices to go low when he already had his stick down there. And who doesn't love transition goals, Dearth with 2 and Kennedy with 1. Now comes the hard part though, Buttermore has been playing lights out and should probably be on the first line. Do you keep the swap permanent or leave him on the second to keep the lines "balanced". Box score says Seebold played but I don't remember seeing him, no Quinn though. Looks like Fiorini got a run as well.

Defense really clamped down after that first quarter. Porter put that first half behind him and made some great saves. I don't pay as much attention to match ups, but I'm assuming they switched some guys around to strangle the Hopkins offense. I'm still chuckling over Mellen bending his pole fighting through that pick. Losing Murphy hurts though, gotta hope the young guys are ready to step up.

Slow starts still an issue but they need to build on the strong finish they had today. Colgate was winnable in the fourth, Army made it close in the fourth, and last week it was lost in the fourth. Today they kept it going and made sure Hopkins wasn't going to come back.

I thought Jack Fiorini's arm was still in a cast?
 
Apologies if previously mentioned but I’m so happy this team broke the streak of pooping the bed when celebrating past championship teams!!

Great job lads!
 
Just saw the replay. Peter Dearth is the absolute man! 2 goals, 1 assist, played a ton with Murphy out, not once was he beaten badly in a 1v1 situation, even when he had Epstein and Williams switched onto him.

Incredible performance by the d. Mellen shut down Epstein like it was nothing. Perfectly read his spin moves and was all over him once he was over gle. Seamed to scare him into passing it off to other guys instead of dodging. The only shots he got off were a couple extremely low percentage 1 handers. The dude is clearly dangerous though. That one handed shot he had on Cunningham was bonkers.

Cunningham and then later bomberry and Kennedy did a great job on Williams, who did not really impress me. The only other scary dodger was concannon who got a couple. But we handled him down the stretch. Desimone, Forrey smith, and Kyle Marr all looked weak on the dodge despite being great shooters. We should be thankful we have like 5 legitimately dangerous dodging middies. I like this team! Safe enough now to call the Colgate game a fluke?
 
Your post reminded me that, with Rogers, Matteson and Green at consecutive weights, they were called Section 3’s “murderers row. “ At least Rogers and Green went on to bigger and better things!
Yep. My era. My sport. Wrestling was huge locally in the early - mid 80s Big matches were televised locally. Bville - Fulton was a huuuuuuuuge rivalry.
 
Yep. My era. My sport. Wrestling was huge locally in the early - mid 80s Big matches were televised locally. Bville - Fulton was a huuuuuuuuge rivalry.
They did Fulton-Bville in the Syracuse War Memorial.
 
One of my sons helped upset the local wrestling world when he wrestled up at the heavy weight 215 lb bracket while weighing 185 and his match resulted in the miracle of L’pool beating B’ville in the early 90’s. I will tell you that those wrestling matches were tough (at least for me) to watch - yikes.
 
Can't say enough good things about Dearth and Kennedy - brought tons of enthusiasm and grit to yesterday's performance. At one point in the game, I think SU had tied it at 7 and they cut to the two of them near the sideline with big grins on their faces - SU had just committed a pretty silly penalty but they seemed unbothered by it all. Great confidence. Can't really remember SU ever really having a SSDM like Dearth, maybe since Jarret Park? Just such a physical presence.

Really, a lot of good things to say about a lot of guys today, Buttermore continues his breakout season, Mellen continues his unbelievable year guarding really good attackmen, Varello comes off the bench to give the face-off unit a big spark, and Porter settles down to deliver a really steady performance. A very nice team win to be proud of.

Some negatives, obviously SU didn't get out of the gate in a good fashion but really settled down and were patient and didn't panic. Some offensive possessions were real head scratchers - a pass to no one, shots that were placed directly in the goalie's chest ... but all in all they kept clawing and scratching and broke through.

Hope to see the team keep improving, would be really great to build some momentum with a win against Rutgers next weekend!
 
Last year as a team we had 3 or 4 key problems. Bad team defense, bad SSDM 1 v 1 defense, bad dodging attack, and bad faceoffs. Out of those this team looks massively improved in every category except dodging attack. The SSDMs, mainly helmer and Dearth, have stepped up their games defending the dodge in a huge way which has in turn made the team defense stronger. Phaup is at nearly Ben Williams levels of taking care of the ball after winning the clamp, and it shows in our improved percentages. This is a massively improved 1 2 punch from Varello and Delisle who were both not great with taking care of the ball after the clamp last year. Dodging attack is the only problem area that still remains. Rehfuss and Solomon have a few tricks up their sleeves but are not serious threats like some other attack we faced. Voigt dodges even less than bomberry if that's possible.
 
IDK if it's the sticks or what, but a lot of teams have trouble simply throwing and catching the ball.
 
A couple of thoughts after I got to go back and watch today:

Thought Varello made the most of his oppotunities, glad to see he can come in and win some, team is going to need it down the road.
Even after a slow start Porter came on in the 2nd half. I like this kid he seems to make a few clutch saves every game.
Even though Hopkins missed some opportunities, thought team defense was overall good again. The difference in the SSDM defense this season has been fantastic. Hope Murphy's injury isn't serious of course.
Offense was pretty ugly in the 3rd. Still hope they're going to get more out of Rehfuss, just don't think anyone on attack scares most defenses.
Not sure where Hopkins is going to end up when it's all said and doen but it's always nice to beat them, particularly after last seasons beat down.
 
Just saw the replay. Peter Dearth is the absolute man! 2 goals, 1 assist, played a ton with Murphy out, not once was he beaten badly in a 1v1 situation, even when he had Epstein and Williams switched onto him.

Incredible performance by the d. Mellen shut down Epstein like it was nothing. Perfectly read his spin moves and was all over him once he was over gle. Seamed to scare him into passing it off to other guys instead of dodging. The only shots he got off were a couple extremely low percentage 1 handers. The dude is clearly dangerous though. That one handed shot he had on Cunningham was bonkers.

Cunningham and then later bomberry and Kennedy did a great job on Williams, who did not really impress me. The only other scary dodger was concannon who got a couple. But we handled him down the stretch. Desimone, Forrey smith, and Kyle Marr all looked weak on the dodge despite being great shooters. We should be thankful we have like 5 legitimately dangerous dodging middies. I like this team! Safe enough now to call the Colgate game a fluke?
Maybe now we can compare Dearth to Matt Abbott. last time I suggested this, posters scoffed. He may not be as fast, but he clears like him, is better defensively and scores as much. Go ahead and laugh.
 
A couple of thoughts after I got to go back and watch today:

Thought Varello made the most of his oppotunities, glad to see he can come in and win some, team is going to need it down the road.
Even after a slow start Porter came on in the 2nd half. I like this kid he seems to make a few clutch saves every game.
Even though Hopkins missed some opportunities, thought team defense was overall good again. The difference in the SSDM defense this season has been fantastic. Hope Murphy's injury isn't serious of course.
Offense was pretty ugly in the 3rd. Still hope they're going to get more out of Rehfuss, just don't think anyone on attack scares most defenses.
Not sure where Hopkins is going to end up when it's all said and doen but it's always nice to beat them, particularly after last seasons beat down.
Rehfuss took on Foley and Rapine two very good defensemen, took them away from play and worked his butt off. I would not write him off yet . Fernandez and Kennedy are a kick.
 
Not a perfect showing but a good comeback win .This team is easy to root for, well lead by seniors and pulls for each other.
Trimboli with another good game , changed shot to good results , aggressive and decisive on dodges and reversing ball.
Bomberry pass to Dearth a beauty. Fusco grabs fo gb, quickly locates and delivers pass for goal.
Barlow solid in relief of Murphy whose injury is hopefully minor.
Happy for Varello, happy for Phaup
Congrats to Fusco and Bomberry on being high MLL draftees
 

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