Rearview: It's a Start

Photo by Lance Wendt

By: E.J. Freeman | MCLA.us  

ATLANTA- A bomb cyclone wreaked havoc on what was supposed to be the first big weekend of games this season leading to numerous cancellations and postponements. Many teams were left all dressed up with nowhere to go and waiting one more week to open the season.  There were still a number of games played. 

In Division I there were a few games that had piqued my interest that turned out to be very one sided.  Clemson behind seven goals and two assists from Aidan McNulty were quite inhospitable hosts to Florida, winning 19-7.  Considering all that the Gators lost, a slow start should not be a surprise but I expected the Gators to be more competitive against the Tigers.  Out west, Oregon made the trip to the Bay Area to play Stanford and Santa Clara.  Stanford has a new coach and has been in a rut the last few seasons so it was not a massive surprise that the Ducks handled the Cardinal.  Sunday against Santa Clara was the game that I expected to answer some questions about both teams.  The Ducks started fast and never slowed down en route to a 23-5 win  over the Broncos. Cal Poly went to USC and asserted themselves early and never let the Trojans breathe in what some thought would be a tough contest. The good news for Florida, Santa Clara, and USC is that these are out of conference games and there is plenty of time to bounce back. The next few weeks will tell us if these results were signs of impending doom or just an early season blip.

On Friday night before the weather deteriorated Georgia hosted New Hampshire in a contest between two solid programs looking to bounce back.  This was the proverbial game of runs with both teams stringing together goals  and trading momentum back and forth.  New Hampshire broke open a 6-6 game early in the third quarter to take a 9-6 lead before Georgia called a timeout to gather themselves with around ten minutes left in the third quarter.  The Wildcats initially won ensuing faceoff and looked poised to continue the run, but almost immediately turned it over giving the Dawgs some juice.  From there Georgia went on a 6-1 run before adding a final tally when the game was already decided to take the 14-10 win.  It was an impressive effort for the Bulldogs in their first game with Zac Knapp as interim Head Coach.

In Division II the games tended to be a little closer.   St. Mary’s beat Loyola Marymount Friday night in a 9-4 grinder, but turned around and lost 16-4 to Division III Long Beach on Saturday.  Florida Atlantic defeated Georgia Southern 13-5 after leading 5-4 at the half.  Florida Atlantic lost a lot to graduation so taking a half to get comfortable was not surprising.  Georgia Southern regrouped and played Miami a few hours later and lost 8-6 after leading 5-3 at half.  Georgia Southern scored two combined goals in the second halves and will need to figure out the second half power outages going forward.  Florida Atlantic played North Florida on Sunday and won 7-3, the low scoring total definitely raised some eyebrows after the Owls were such a prolific offense a year ago. 

Out west Air Force and Denver played in what looked like the highlight game of the week on the Division II side going in.  This game has competitive the last few years, but Sunday was a slightly different story.  Air Force lead 7-2 at halftime.  Air Force was lead by an eight point performance from Mark Tang.

Picker Results

Thanks to Dylan Hess for being our first guest picker.  Dylan went 4-1 on the weekend with his Gators providing the only blemish.  That sets a high bar for our next picker.

Guest Picker Leaderboard:

Dylan Hess 4-1

Fan Vote Upset of the Week

The fans were mostly right this week, but we had two games tie for the biggest upset according to fan vote.  55% of fans picked Florida to beat Clemson and LSU to beat Central Florida.  Congratulations to the Knights and the Tigers for proving those fans wrong.

Quick Sticks

Oregon State played two games against Division II opponents and the scores were a little tighter than expected before playing their first Division I game on Sunday against Grand Canyon.  The Lopes were happy to show the Beavers that the competition had stepped up a level and dispatched the Beavers 23-7.

Congratulations to Georgia attackman Rory Cavanaugh who broke the program’s points record on Friday night against New Hampshire.

Washington and new Head Coach James Welfare traveled to Western Washington for their first contest of the year and left with a 14-11 defeat.  Ryan Ederer won 20 of 26 faceoffs for Western Washington.

Head Coaches, be sure to send your nominations for Warrior Player of the Week and Pearl Goalie of the Week to info@mcla.us.