JeremyCuse
Renowned lacrosse analyst
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DVR'd the RU vs Lehigh game yesterday and was able to catch all but the last 4 minutes before the DVR cut out as the game ran late. I have a few additional thoughts to add to my post from yesterday.
Just a general thought to start but Rutty should not play games in their fball stadium. It looked like their was 37 people there, not a good look.
RU attack is definitely dangerous. The little guy Gallagher is a spark plug in the mold of Sankey/Bitter and was recently moved to attack from the midfield. He had 5 pts on the day and did the lions share of the dodging for RU. He did a nice job with shot placement and was a tough handle for Lehigh. Lehigh paid a lot of attention on Mullins and at times appeared to have Craig Chick on him who is probably the best LSM in the country. Mullins finished with 5 (2,3) and was dangerous in transition with open looks. Those two were really the bulk of the Rutgers offense. Charalambides had two goals but no assists on 8 shots. He spent pretty much the entire game camped out on the left wing and didn't do all that much dodging save for one move he scored on. The midfield outside of Coyne was pretty bad. Took some awful shots and either missed the cage by a mile or basically played catch with the Lehigh goalie Spence who had an excellent game with 17 saves.
Overall their offense was a bit of an enigma. There were a couple stretches where they really looked good and then long stretches where I had no idea what they were doing and I am not sure they did either. Their offense reminds me a lot of Hopkins, good to great attack, very dangerous in transition but a weak midfield and susceptible to long scoreless streaks when forced to play 6 on 6. They did look pretty good in transition as two of their long poles sparked goals, Pless especially is one to keep an eye one. From A defensive standpoint I think SU might go ahead and put Mellen on Gallagher. Gallager is a small shifty guy that I think Mellen is the only one who can really match up with. I would put Kennedy on Mullins as he marked him last year with a good result and then its Cunningham/Bomberry on Charalambides. I am almost certain they will pole Coyne with Fusco. I think our SSDM will match up well with an underwhelming Rutgers mid field that shot 1-11 versus Lehigh (1st line). RU was also abysmal in the EMO which was a bit surprising.
Defensively Edelman is an excellent goalie and Pless is a good close defender but the rest of the D was so/so at best. Apparently RU was missing its best SSDM and it showed big time. Lehigh consistently attacked their short sticks and had a ton of success. One of their mids had 4 goals and I think at least 3 came against the same SSDM who got abused. Lehigh also had some success simply bulldodging from X for good looks. Edelman made some nice saves and bailed RU out a lot. His strength appeared to be high shots (take note Trimbo) but he struggled a bit low and with bouncers. As I noted yesterday I suspect SU will run much of the offense through the midfield especially if RU is again missing their best SSDM. RU struggled with slides so keep an eye on Voigt on Sat. SU will need to be mindful of shot placement/location as Edelman can get hot in a hurry and carry RU.
All in all it should be a close game again on Sat. RU did well in the first half at the X vs Lehigh and really stymied their main guy Gaffney who is one of the top fogos. He finished 8-17 but his backup really dominated especially in the second half and finished 8-10. Harryman seems likely to miss our game as he was limping around on the sidelines yesterday. RU did force 21 Lehigh turnovers yesterday but still lost by 3 goals which is not a good sign. RU has had turnover issues themselves but had only 11 turnovers. Will be an interesting game Sat but I give SU an edge when you look at both teams as a whole. Need to clean up the sloppy play and turnovers though.
Just a general thought to start but Rutty should not play games in their fball stadium. It looked like their was 37 people there, not a good look.
RU attack is definitely dangerous. The little guy Gallagher is a spark plug in the mold of Sankey/Bitter and was recently moved to attack from the midfield. He had 5 pts on the day and did the lions share of the dodging for RU. He did a nice job with shot placement and was a tough handle for Lehigh. Lehigh paid a lot of attention on Mullins and at times appeared to have Craig Chick on him who is probably the best LSM in the country. Mullins finished with 5 (2,3) and was dangerous in transition with open looks. Those two were really the bulk of the Rutgers offense. Charalambides had two goals but no assists on 8 shots. He spent pretty much the entire game camped out on the left wing and didn't do all that much dodging save for one move he scored on. The midfield outside of Coyne was pretty bad. Took some awful shots and either missed the cage by a mile or basically played catch with the Lehigh goalie Spence who had an excellent game with 17 saves.
Overall their offense was a bit of an enigma. There were a couple stretches where they really looked good and then long stretches where I had no idea what they were doing and I am not sure they did either. Their offense reminds me a lot of Hopkins, good to great attack, very dangerous in transition but a weak midfield and susceptible to long scoreless streaks when forced to play 6 on 6. They did look pretty good in transition as two of their long poles sparked goals, Pless especially is one to keep an eye one. From A defensive standpoint I think SU might go ahead and put Mellen on Gallagher. Gallager is a small shifty guy that I think Mellen is the only one who can really match up with. I would put Kennedy on Mullins as he marked him last year with a good result and then its Cunningham/Bomberry on Charalambides. I am almost certain they will pole Coyne with Fusco. I think our SSDM will match up well with an underwhelming Rutgers mid field that shot 1-11 versus Lehigh (1st line). RU was also abysmal in the EMO which was a bit surprising.
Defensively Edelman is an excellent goalie and Pless is a good close defender but the rest of the D was so/so at best. Apparently RU was missing its best SSDM and it showed big time. Lehigh consistently attacked their short sticks and had a ton of success. One of their mids had 4 goals and I think at least 3 came against the same SSDM who got abused. Lehigh also had some success simply bulldodging from X for good looks. Edelman made some nice saves and bailed RU out a lot. His strength appeared to be high shots (take note Trimbo) but he struggled a bit low and with bouncers. As I noted yesterday I suspect SU will run much of the offense through the midfield especially if RU is again missing their best SSDM. RU struggled with slides so keep an eye on Voigt on Sat. SU will need to be mindful of shot placement/location as Edelman can get hot in a hurry and carry RU.
All in all it should be a close game again on Sat. RU did well in the first half at the X vs Lehigh and really stymied their main guy Gaffney who is one of the top fogos. He finished 8-17 but his backup really dominated especially in the second half and finished 8-10. Harryman seems likely to miss our game as he was limping around on the sidelines yesterday. RU did force 21 Lehigh turnovers yesterday but still lost by 3 goals which is not a good sign. RU has had turnover issues themselves but had only 11 turnovers. Will be an interesting game Sat but I give SU an edge when you look at both teams as a whole. Need to clean up the sloppy play and turnovers though.
