Rearview: About Face

Photo by Lance Wendt

 By: E.J. Freeman | MCLA.us       

ATLANTA-  As I mentioned on Friday, we had several games over the weekend matching up teams who had very strong faceoff statistics against teams with relatively weak faceoff statistics.  Faceoffs are always an important part of a lacrosse game as they dictate possessions.  However, I have long been of the opinion that at the MCLA level a minor faceoff advantage, while important, carries slightly less weight than at the varsity level simply due to the fact that MCLA teams tend to turn the ball over at a slightly higher rate.  This can lessen the impact of winning the faceoff battle.  Now, that changes if the performance at the faceoff dot is truly dominant.  As has been covered ad nauseum in lacrosse media, faceoffs in lacrosse are unique in that theoretically neither team is ever guaranteed possession.  

On Friday we had the College of Idaho hosting Montana State.  The hosts came in winning over 70% of their faceoffs, while Montana State sat below 50%.  The Bobcats were more competitive at the dot than College of Idaho’s other opponents, but still the Yotes were at 58% and were able to pull off the upset 13-9.

The most drastic case of faceoffs shaping the outcome of games was with the Florida State Seminoles.  Florida State opened the weekend against Virginia Tech and won only 21% of the faceoffs.  The Hokies dominated possession and forced Florida State to get a stop defensively and clear the ball if they were to ever get possession.  This lack of possession put immense pressure on Florida State as their defense had to face an onslaught of Hokies’ possessions.  The Florida State offense then would go long stretches without seeing the ball and as such they lost any sense of rhythm they might have.  Every time the Hokies scored, the pressure mounted as the Seminoles had to score every time they had the ball as there was no guarantee they would see it again.  The mounting pressure made things more difficult and the Hokies ran away with the game in the second half winning 18-11.  This was only the third game of the season in which Florida State was under 60% on faceoffs, they lost two of those games and the other was an overtime win against a now 1-5 Georgia Tech team. 

On Sunday, Florida State traveled to Lynchburg to take on the Liberty Flames.  Florida State faceoff specialist William Kelly found his mojo again and won 26 of 31 faceoffs and the possession advantage was a needed shot in the arm for every aspect of the Florida State team.  An offense with consistent possession was comfortable and in rhythm.  A defense facing limited possession was fresh and had their slides dialed in.  Florida State took the possession turn around and handed the Flames their worst loss since 2006 and ended their 23-game winning streak with a 22-8 win. 

San Diego State entered their game against Arizona winning 35% of their faceoffs, while the Wildcats were winning  them at a 76% clip.  The Wildcats won two-thirds of the faceoffs on Saturday and as such were able to ride a six-goal fourth quarter to a big SLC win over the Aztecs.  The Wildcats have a few more games including a neutral site game against Florida State before their home stretch of SLC games.

We had a crosstown showdown between San Diego and UC San Diego.  UC San Diego was the favorite,  but the Toreros came in winning 85% of their faceoffs.  San Diego hung right there with UC San Diego, but lost 7-6 in the end.

Texas Christian came into the weekend as an undefeated top-10 team, but as I said Friday winning 35% of your faceoffs should set off alarm bells.  The Horned Frogs beat Oregon State on Friday, but the score was eye catching as the Beavers have been struggling this season against Division I opponents. The Horned Frogs then traveled to Eugene to take on the Ducks.  Oregon had Texas Christian chasing them all day as the Ducks ran to a 16-7 win. 

I still believe that in MCLA games the unforced turnovers cancel out a small faceoff advantage, but these games show that faceoff dominance is still a massive advantage and can be the foundation of a winning recipe.

Picker Results

Thanks to Ethan Zwickey for stepping into the hot seat this week. Ethan went 4-1 with his only blemish coming from his beloved Bobcats of Montana State.  Is the guest picker jinx back in effect?

Guest Picker Leaderboard:

Ryan Kerr 5-0

Dylan Hess, Tim Haslam, Ethan Zwickey 4–1

Chris Marshall 3-2

J.J. Arminio 2–3

Fan Vote Upset of the Week

90% of voters expected Liberty to conquer the Seminoles on Sunday.  As previously discussed, the Seminoles dominated faceoffs and possession and earned a dominant win over the Flames.  Congratulations to Florida State for getting our Fan Vote Upset of the Week.

Quick Sticks

Brigham Young and Simon Fraser played an epic 23-17 shootout with the Cougars getting the win.  The Red Leafs may have shown the best way to score on the Cougars, but can anyone else match their Canadian style?

Boston College went to Colorado and got wins over Arizona State, Colorado, and Colorado State and will almost assuredly enter the poll this week.  How good are the Eagles?  Clearly they are improved from a year ago.  The Rocky Mountain sweep was impressive, but those teams have a combined 7-13 record. 

Texas Tech has been cruising and hosted Air Force on Saturday in the most hyped game in Lubbock perhaps ever.  Air Force brought the Red Raiders back down to earth with a 24-8 win.  Texas Tech is still having a great debut season in Division II, but Air Force showed them that there is still work to do to be among the nation’s elite.

Rhode Island got their season into gear with wins over Dayton and Utah State in Providence.

Central Michigan swept games in Missouri against Missouri State, Drury, and St. John’s.  Can the Chippewas play spoiler in the stacked UMLC?

Santa Clara, who had struggled to keep pace against the better teams on their schedule so far seemed to figure it out defensively against Cal Poly as they held the Mustangs to six goals in regulation before falling 7-6 in overtime of this equine battle.  The Broncos could be figuring it out at just the right time as they have the meat of their WCLL schedule coming up.

The cardiac Gauchos won their fourth one-goal game of the season as UC Santa Barbara beat Chapman 11-10.  Can the Gauchos (who also have a two-goal win) keep winning these tight games or will it come back to bite them?

As always, head coaches submit your nominations for Warrior Player of the Week and PEARL Goalie of the Week to info@mcla.us by noon local time on Monday.