Rearview: Tuesday Session Two

 (Photo by Bob White)

by E.J. Freeman | MCLA.us

RICHMOND- Our most dramatic session so far as we had two overtime thrillers.  The action was intense and kept me bouncing around the room to keep up.

#3 Virginia Tech over #6 South Carolina 11-10 OT- The Hokies avenged their only loss of the season taking down the Gamecocks.  It took overtime, but there are no style points this week.  The Hokies won 60% of the faceoffs which is little below Jack McKenzie’s stellar season average.   Between the faceoff advantage and strong defensive play, the Hokies limited the Gamecocks, who looked to be clicking on all cylinders yesterday, to 10 goals.  The Hokies got four goals from Jacob Blibaum just like they did in the first meeting and Alex Ashley scored two goals.  Gavin Larsen chipped in 14 saves and his counterpart Connor Keenan had 16 saves for the Gamecocks. The Gamecocks led 10-9 late in the fourth quarter before Matthew Patrone dodged up the left side from behind.  His defender tried to go over the head and Patrone tucked his stick and evaded a potential adjacent slide before getting right on top of the goal and scoring with no defender anywhere near him.  In overtime after the Hokies turned it over, the Gamecocks were storming down the field and defenseman Christian Edwards made a stellar play.  He flashed off of star attackman Nathan Wolfe stopping the Gamecock defender before he could get below the restraining line where his coach could save him with a timeout.  The defender passed the ball to Nathan Wolfe who had slipped high above the ball.  Edwards immediately made a beeline to Wolfe and pressured him into sending a prayer of a pass into the middle of the field which the Hokies recovered and got to Blibaum who got to the middle and scored the winner. 

#3 Grand Valley State over #11 UC San Diego 19-1- As promised, I will humbly defer to Coach Tim Murray on Grand Valley’s decision to coast through the second half of their win Monday.  They showed no ill effects in their game today.  The Lakers looked like the buzzsaw we all expected after the last month of play.  UC San Diego made their upset happen yesterday with strong faceoff and goalie play.  Today Grand Valley State won over 80% of the faceoffs and the Tritons only made nine saves.  The recipe for the upset was not there today and the Lakers took advantage.  Bryce Gordon led the way for the Lakers with eight points on five goals and three assists.  The Lakers got points from twelve different players.  The Lakers will cruise into the semifinals once again.

#4 Florida State over #5 Tennessee 19-16 – I challenged the Florida State offense to come back to the form we have expected from them throughout the season and the Noles answered in a big way.  Florida State jumped up 2-0 early on Tennessee and it felt like trouble was coming for the Tennessee defense.  Tyler Morris was remarkable scoring five goals and adding two assists.  The Florida State defense did a great job of taking away space from the Vols’ dodgers.  They also took away skip lanes by getting their sticks up and knocked down numerous Tennessee passes that would have led to great looks.  William Kelly got the better of Max DeMella in the much hyped battle at the faceoff dot.  They gave up 16 goals, but seven of those came in the fourth quarter as Tennessee was scrambling to come back after the Noles built a healthy lead.  The Vols had a chance trailing by two with around a minute left  and called timeout, but could not score and the Noles added what was essentially an empty netter.  Florida State limited the Tennessee attack to ten points after they combined for 23 the night before.  Six of those ten came from freshman Brooks Wehman.  The Tennessee midfield was forced to shoulder the burden and Tommy Gies almost got them there with five goals and one assist.  The Noles offense was just too much as Dean Rothschild chipped in from the midfield with one goal and three assists.  Both goalies were under 50% save percentages in this one, which is not a huge surprise given the offensive firepower of these teams.

#5 College of Idaho over #4 Air Force 9-8 OT- The Yotes avenged their only loss of the season grounding the Falcons in overtime.  Yotes goalie Brogan Rice set a new MCLA Division II record for saves in a tournament game with 28.  The College of Idaho defensive gameplan was masterful; they packed their defense inside and their smaller quicker defenders collapsed on any Air Force dodger trying to get to the middle of the field.  This led the Falcons to take more outside shots in an attempt to shoot through the defense.  Rice gobbled those shots up the entire game.  Several Falcons tried to get inside only to have the collapsing defense get just enough of a trail check to send the shot wide or into Rice’s stick or body.  The Yotes limited Mark Tang to only two goals.  This game became a clear match up of speed versus brawn and the speed won out.  Rice had two saves in overtime to keep the Yotes alive during Air Force’s possession.  The Yotes used quick dodges on the perimeter to get the Air Force defense in rotation before throwing the ball in the direction the help came from.  In our preview we mentioned the potential for Rice to make clean saves and throw the ball to a streaking defender, lo and behold Air Force’s final shot was from 15 yards and Rice saved it cleanly before moving the ball to defenseman Noah Nienhouse who took the ball all the way to the goal and scored to send the Yotes to the semifinals.  The Yotes won this game while getting two points total from their three headed monster of Grayson Flatten, Trevor Shoopman, and Wyatt Neu, which should give them a ton of confidence going forward.

There are no games tomorrow, but the teams will likely practice as they hope to keep it rolling.