I watched Landon play the 2nd line as much as the 1st through the first 3 quarters. They did nothing and the drop off between the 2 lines was stark. Why does Landon call time outs and send the 2nd line back out? Or, why did GP have the ball for minutes at a time and Landon send the 2nd line back out. It looked like Landon was playing middle school kids there. I also watched GP win pretty much every single face off until Landon sent in a middie out of desperation in the 4th. I also watched Landon give it to the big kid who ran over GP in the 4th. Until the last part of the game, it looked like Landon was playing a scrimmage in their effort and coaching. GP was sharp at the onset and looked like they were going to run away with it. It was a blowout until the 4th when Landon finally played their best players and GP got very tight. Schematically, the first 3 quarters were very different from the 4th. This was a coaching loss. It's the semi-finals of the conference tournamenet. Play your best as much as you can and don't try something that's failed all year. |
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Here are my thoughts:
GP absolutely dominated the first quarter and the first half. I thought GP defensive coordinator did a great job mixing in defensive schemes from extending out and shutting off adjacents and at times locking off the attacker at X. Landon didn't seem prepared for this, as it really disrupted the flow of the Bears offensively. The Hoyas defensive which I personally thought was their achilles heel all season, looked very athletic and sharp yesterday. While everyone has praised the GP Fogo, and he was dominant yesterday, winning over 80% at the dot, the Hoyas also won the ground-ball battles. Regarding the scoring: The score was 5-0 after the 1Q 6-0 Hoyas early in the 2nd. 7-2 at halftime. 9-4 heading into the 4th. 10-4 early in the 4th 10-7 with less than 4 mins left in the 4th 10-8 with less than 1 min left in the 4th. 10-9 with less than 45 seconds 10-10 In the 4th, a light switch went off for Landon, and the Bears looked dominant for the final 10 mins of regulation and tied the game with less than 10 seconds left in regulation time. I'm not sure if this was coaching adjustments made by Landon as both teams looked gassed, but the Bears played with a ton of heart to storm back. The first overtime was very even, both teams had their chances with shots on the cage, and both goalies were making saves. Unfortunately for Landon, one of their defenders suffered a bad leg injury during the first overtime (hope he is okay, as you hate to see any get hurt)I believe in the 2nd overtime, I don't recall if Landon even had a possession, as the possession off the faceoff was so lopsided in GP's favor. As mentioned, an interesting game to watch. GP looked dominant in the first half, but statistically, the game was very even in the 2nd half (minus the massive FOGO advantage towards the Hoyas). Landon hung around and somehow found life and capitalized on momentum in the 4th. Bears and Hoyas played twice this spring, and both games went into overtime, with the Hoyas winning both contests. I thought Prep was lucky to win the first game; however, their team's athleticism yesterday really stood out, they won the 50:50 GBs, and that was the difference maker. Congrats to GP, onto the finals! Neutral |
Yeah, I’d encourage my kid to pick W&L- and about a dozen other D3 schools over Mercer, Queens, Hampton, Mount St Mary’s, Iona, LIU, or any of the bottom 25 D1 schools. Anyone who thinks D1 is always better than D3 is delusional. |
Nobody on Bullis attack was lights out. STA def ate them up. 11 caused turnovers on Bullis atttack. 27 lights out… yeah right… try holding on to the ball occasionally lol. |
| IAC is so bad the STA is in the conversation. |
| Sta and Bullis game was very similar to last time. Only differences was faceoffs. First game bullis was around 70% second game was 40%. Same sloppy play from other parts of the field but STA fogos balled out. Congrats STA! |
ok, WCAC homer... You could say the same thing last year about the WCAC when Ryken was playing for the championship. Upsets do happen in the playoffs. |
Good commentary. From my two cents, these teams played twice in a week, and both games needed OT to settle the outcome. Two evenly matched teams, with the slight edge going to GP due to their FOGO dominance and the Hoyas winning both battles in OT. For all the Landon homers acting as if they had a stellar FOGO, you probably would have won the game, you might be right, but you didn't. |
Facts |
"On paper" the final between GP and STA would appear to be a mismatch. Mid-season STA lost to GP 8-1 and to Landon 7-2. Has STA gone through some huge level of improvement since then? They were competitive with Bullis in a game at the end of the season and beat them in the payoffs. The Landon comeback from a 6-goal deficit can be described as super-effort, but at least in part GP may have been assuming the game was in hand and relaxing. Will GP be looking at this as easy given the 8-1 game earlier? |
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I think GP wins 10-5 over STA on Friday. I could see it being tight for a half before Prep's depth prevailed to victory. STA's goalie and FOGO could make the game a bit more interesting as they are strong in the special teams.
Curious, have they announced the time of the game? |
From a purely lacrosse perspective, perhaps one may choose a D3 school over Hampton. Hampton would likely result in a much richer experience for African American lacrosse players. Please note, I am not African American but have to imagine that being a Black lax player at Hampton would be a significantly different experience than playing at Tufts. |
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I've been around Landon - prep games for years now. I've had two boys play in the game, and have watched my nephew play on the rival's team. Anything can happen in these rivalry games as the pressure is so tense and the rivalry is so deep.
Both teams left it all out on the field yesterday. Gritty performance all around. Thank you, players! |
One other difference, STA was man down 9 or 10 times last time, this game the refs lost the whistle (in both directions, there were some gnarly hits both ways). |
Um, thanks for sharing? |