After 4 weeks of practice together, last Saturday's scrimmages marked the end of it all. However, that doesn't necessarily mean the foot is coming off the gas. After this week off, the boys and I will start player-run captain's practices to keep the sticks and feet active. Saturday marks the 1st practice post fall ball session at 2pm on God knows whatever field we're allowed to use. Unfortunately, my presence will not be felt that day. I'll be heading back north to Revere for my stud of a brother's engagement party. Although that will be a crippling loss, I'm sure the fellas will carry on without me for a weekend.
Let's take a minute to recap the events of Saturday morning. There was some good, some bad, but that's what you expect out of fall scrimmages. For us at least, this was the closest thing we had to a game-type situation all fall. In the first matchup we had Gordon. There was strong performances from a number of people. Nick Thayer did what Nick Thayer always does and gave us a chance by standing on his head and making tough save after tough save. Upperclassmen D-poles Ryan Holbrook and Larry Gilvarg played tough per usual and kept the Gordon attack at bay. D-mids and face-off guys such as Zac Drolette, Brad Bell, Jared Wright, Dan Brown, and myself performed well and won most of the face-offs and ground ball battles. I want to say we only lost 2 two face-offs, but hey I'm just saying.
In the second matchup we faced a much smarter group of individuals, the Huskies of Northeastern University. I can't speak for anyone else on the team, but this was the first club/not D3 school I've played since my college career started in 2010.You might think since they are a club level team that they'd be a joke. That's not the case. You have to keep in mind these kids wicked smart and decided that they probably don't have a career in professional lacrosse so being at NEU wasn't a bad fall back plan. They boys and I still played decent, similarly to the Gordon matchup. The goalie combination of Jesse Johnson and Pete Foley stood tough like #4 did the game before and kept us in the game. Midfielders Justin Lawless and Todd Davis led the action at the top of the box while Adam Niden and Conner Gaffney led the attack unit below.
#33 Adam Niden against Norwich last season
All in all, it was a nice showing for your UMass Dartmouth men's lacrosse team and was full of encouraging signs. Days and scrimmages like these are reminders that building a team and an identity is a process, a process that doesn't simply happen over the course of a month. With a lot to take in after Saturday, we now know what we can build on as a team and what we need to work on. It will be a long road to competing for a Little East title, but I can say that we started that journey off on the right foot.
With that, The Mano's out for now. I'll be posting here and there throughout the remainder of the semester with updates from captain's practice, workouts, and things that will make you laugh because I'm hilarious. I leave you with a quote from the infamous Frank Costello from The Departed (which is one of the top 5 movies of all time), "I don't want to be a product of my environment, I want my environment to be a product of me."
Cheers, No Regrets
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