Gettysburg at Goucher: Three things to watch
Both teams enter the contest reeling from stunning season-opening losses. The visiting Bullets dropped six spots to No. 12 in the latest United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association poll after falling to unranked Hampden-Sydney, 7-6. The Gophers also absorbed a 7-6 overtime setback to Washington College, a team that had won four games last season. Here are some factors that could play into the outcome of Wednesday’s meeting.
1) The value of possessions. Goucher entered the fourth quarter against the Shoremen with a two-goal lead, but Washington collected six more ground balls in that final frame. Coach Kyle Hannan said the Gophers must protect the ball and be more opportunistic during 50-50 ground balls against Gettysburg. “I think we’re really going to have to value our possessions,” he said. “We’re going to have to be able to at least try to match possessions with Gettysburg. We can’t let them get a time-of-possession advantage on us. And I think we’re going to have to shoot the ball well to be able to score enough to stay with them, and I think our defense is going to have to play the way it did this past weekend. Very controlled, organized and well. If our goalie can save at 60 percent and we can shoot at 30 percent, we’ll be in this game.”
2) The value of faceoffs. One reason why the Bullets lost to Hampden-Sydney was that they won just 7-of-17 faceoffs. But Hannan is quick to point out that Goucher fared even worse against the Shoremen, winning just 4-of-16 faceoffs. “That’s an area where I knew going into the season, we were really going to have to work on and improve and develop a faceoff guy,” Hannan said. “I hope we do well. I do know Gettysburg’s faceoff guy [senior Matt Griffo], and we went against him last year, and I do think he’s solid. Hampden-Sydney’s just fortunate where they have a very strong faceoff specialist. I would love to do well, but we need to do a few other things to make up for the faceoff if we don’t.”
3) The value of experience. The Gophers have the luxury of depending on five returning offensive players from last year’s team that captured the Landmark Conference tournament and qualified for the NCAA tournament for first time in the program’s history. But Gettysburg returns seven starters who played significant minutes on the 2009 squad that advanced to the national title game. “Gettysburg will be back in the top five in the next few weeks,” Hannan said. “A loss early will do that. You can drop pretty quick. But one of their real positives is that they have a lot of seniors that play for them .their whole first midfield is seniors, and their starting defense is all seniors. They really have some seasoned players on the field, so they are really organized and confident as a group. That’s what makes them a very good lacrosse team.”
Categories: Goucher, Three things to watch
