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Message: [QUOTE="JeremyCuse, post: 4997518, member: 43"] Tough game for SU, Hop is very similar to Army. Fairly balanced Attack and Mid units with a good fogo unit and a very good defense. Army has the better overall offense but Hopkins in my mind has the better defense so it's a bit of a wash. From a defensive standpoint Hopkins can be tough to match up with. Most of their offense is Seniors or 5th years (or 6th years in Degnons Case) so there isn't much they haven't seen. The only silver lining is 4 of the top 6 are gone after this year and it's unclear if Melendez will use his 5th year. Hopkins Offense can run hot and cold, when a guy like Peshko goes off for 5 points (he had 3 going into the game) there's not much you can do besides the Desko tip of the cap. UVA's problem all year has been that their defense is uber aggressive and they slide early a lot. A good ball movement team (which Hop is) was gong to give them major problems and they absolutely did. Hop also took apart Terenzi the R-frosh SSDM for UVA who had his welcome to D1 moment. I highly doubt SU is going to short Collison. He will surely draw Olexxo/Wright and that will be that. I don't think SU will try and double pole the midfield. Bauer is a good player but polling him over Collision made zero sense. Peshko had a great game against UVA, but history says he can't repeat it, if he can consistently Hop can win a title. If SU were to try and double pole, the choice to try and short is Degnon. Guy is lethal with time and room but he's the least effective dodger on the attack unit and rarely scores unassisted goals. He does move off ball though which makes it a tough matchup for a SSDM. From a matchup standpoint if I were SU I would put Dwan on Angelus. Dwan's been the most consistent close defender and should start being the matchup for each teams top assistant guy. I would put Riley on Melendez and then Caccamo on Degnon. Riley does seem to be a bit in a slump which I think goes back to his injury and still working to get all the way back. He will get back there but your probably not going to see him at his true 100% self until next year when he's two years removed from surgery. Hopkins has shorted up it's bench and is only running 2 mid lines. I really hope Odierna gets the word out on Chavette the younger. If you stay on his hands and refuse to slide he'll struggle to do much as he has no dodging game at this point to speak off and has as many assists as Birtwistle. History says SU's ssdm's will inevitably slack off of him or start to drift and he'll get a couple of goals, really hope this is emphasized this week. Overall key here is to make Hopkins score 6 on 6 and not via transition or scramble plays. When forced to score 6 on 6 and defenses are slow to slide teams have had success against them even if they end up losing the game ie Loyola, Gtown and even UNC. If you let them get out in transition or slide hap hazardly (like SU did again vs Army) they'll bury you. They also love to push it off the draw, they burned UVA for at least 2-3 goals right off of faceoff wins. Defense needs to play one of their better games of the season for SU to have a chance Sat. Can't be sliding early or with zero purposed like the first 1qtr of the Army game. [/QUOTE]

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