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Message: [QUOTE="bjred, post: 4556648, member: 6343"] Lots of H0T Takes in this thread, keeps things entertaining. First time back in the Dome since before Covid. Was nice to see a game in person again. My impressions/takeaways from today- Defense looks better. It didn't seem like it when Vermont went on their run in the third but overall much better. Some of that is definitely from the play of Mark in goal. He made some of those saves that you shouldn't make that we've been missing for a couple years. I personally liked the more aggressive style they played today, going for takeaways and trusting each other to play 1 on 1. Led to some poor shot selection by the Vermont offense. Face offs I thought went pretty well. Rough patch in the third but Burke was pretty much just picking the ball off the turf and running away with it. Richiusa held his own for most of the game. I'd probably have to rewatch the game but felt there was only a handful of draws that involved the wings getting into the scrum. And agree with others, the coaches need to swap out at some point and not ride your starter into the ground. Clearing....leaves a lot to be desired. Some already noted that little buddy passes to short sticks in the middle of the field that usually ended as turnovers. They looked a little lost and made some bad choices when Vermont had the chance to set up a ride. Hopefully something that can get cleaned up. The offense....was offensive for most of the game. Welcome to Division 1 lacrosse Mr Spallina, you'll find it a little harder to back down these defenders than it was in high school. He definitely tried forcing his shots today but you can't blame him when it seemed like no one wanted to shoot the ball. Much like last year, the team seems to be too unselfish. A lot of passed up open shots, maybe Shaffer got in their heads a little because he also made a number of great saves. The other thing as noted by others was off ball movement. We went from like none in the beginning where Hiltz and Spallina were looking for cutters to guys not spacing themselves well enough in the second half to catch and shoot without either running into someone else or running out of an angle. Fixable things but frustrating as a fan because these were problems we saw last year. But hey no offsides today so there's a plus. Overall the defense looks improved but the offense is young and will unfortunately take time to gel. I didn't come to the game expecting to drop 20-25 but I thought they would put more than 7 up. We'll see what the Albany game brings. [/QUOTE]

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