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Ohio State Men's Lacrosse (2013 ECAC Champions)

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So that was utter and complete destruction of a relatively undisputed #1 team. We dictated the rate of play the entire game and didn't take our foot off the pedal on either end of the field until late in the 4th (Oh man are they gonna hammer that message home this week in practice... no way that Denver deserved even close to 7 goals). I was impressed on four fronts:

1) The defense, especially the middies, very rarely had to slide in emergency. We were able to flip from a zone to a man and back again with ease and Denver never looked comfortable. Denver is a grinder of an offense, but they looked super out of sorts being slowed down as much as they were.

2) Great match in net. Carey really made some key early saves to prevent the Denver offense from gaining any traction from bailout rips.

3) Can't say enough about our approach to the faceoff X. Withers didn't win it straight up a ton, but we collapsed from the wings and effortlessly dove into a 10-man ride that gave Denver fits. This is an example of why I HATE specialization in Lacrosse. The Denver FoGo had ZERO ball skills beyond the ground ball and looked scared shit-less at the prospects of having to make a contested pas against a 10-man ride. Teams are gonna be using that blueprint the rest of the season against the Pioneers.

4) Our ability to free our hands for mid-range shots was truly remarkable. I can't remember the last time I saw a team create so much space against a quality opponent. I can't say for certain whether that was offensive creativity and execution on our part or a lack of such on defense by Denver without a closer look... but it was still eye-opening.

Looking forward... Oh man. We had such a soft start, but now is 6 out of 7 against ranked teams (Well, depends. Right now all the B1G besides Michigan, who is just outside, is ranked... Hopkins will probably drop out). We just hosted #1 and now we've got to #2 and #3... So ya. We've passed our first two tests with flying colors but from here on out there are ZERO weeks off.
 
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rampageripster said:
3) Can't say enough about our approach to the faceoff X. Withers didn't win it straight up a ton, but we collapsed from the wings and effortlessly dove into a 10-man ride that gave Denver fits. This is an example of why I HATE specialization in Lacrosse. The Denver FoGo had ZERO ball skills beyond the ground ball and looked scared [Mark May]-less at the prospects of having to make a contested pas against a 10-man ride. Teams are gonna be using that blueprint the rest of the season against the Pioneers.
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He really did look like he was running scared shitless a number of times after the ball came out.

I'm going to have to go back today to watch, but wondering if you caught the calls during the draws when it looked like we came up with the ball but it was whistled and went back to Denver. I'm going to guess loose ball pushes but I'll be damned, those looked like pretty clean lacrosse to me.
 
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sparcboxbuck said:
He really did look like he was running scared [Mark May]less a number of times after the ball came out.

I'm going to have to go back today to watch, but wondering if you caught the calls during the draws when it looked like we came up with the ball but it was whistled and went back to Denver. I'm going to guess loose ball pushes but I'll be damned, those looked like pretty clean lacrosse to me.
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I'm a college official, so I cannot comment on that (we have a pretty strict social-media policy). I will say with how aggressive we are, I could see a lot of calls being that we didn't make a legitimate attempt on the ball (NCAA rules dictate you must play the ball first and not the body on a faceoff).
 
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rampageripster said:
I'm a college official, so I cannot comment on that (we have a pretty strict social-media policy). I will say with how aggressive we are, I could see a lot of calls being that we didn't make a legitimate attempt on the ball (NCAA rules dictate you must play the ball first and not the body on a faceoff).
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Ahhh... much appreciated. I'll rewatch those draws with those lenses on.
 
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rampageripster said:
4) Our ability to free our hands for mid-range shots was truly remarkable. I can't remember the last time I saw a team create so much space against a quality opponent. I can't say for certain whether that was offensive creativity and execution on our part or a lack of such on defense by Denver without a closer look... but it was still eye-opening.
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Agree on having to take a closer look, but there were a couple of things that I did notice.

1) Ball movement was very good. I seem to recall that Denver was not pressing out on adjacents at all which makes that a bit easier.
2) Even with good ball movement, the placement of the passes was as good as I've ever seen from anyone not named Gait. Everything seemed to be right on stick.
3) Denver was a step slow when they did pressure the ball.

The combination of those three is going to be free hands... not only free hands, but dang, go back and watch some of the hip rotation from Tre on his goals. There were a few times that he (and the others) were able to get their big muscles into the shots and at 25 - 30 ft, that's a recipe for disaster if you're a goalie.
 
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rampageripster said:
I'd also look for holds, seems like Withers was trying to jam when possible. A rewatch is needed though. Faceoffs are brutal film to try and dissect.
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That wouldn't come as a surprise. I did have to laugh, he took a knee a couple of times as well. Dollars to donuts FO was a big emphasis after they got home from MD.

Another thing I'm going to have to watch for is I think that we had Freibott on the wing during the draw (or a few of them) and dropped the LSM back to close D. That is a pretty strong message that they are looking to lay the wood until Denver got their touch... and completely aligns with your points above.
 
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sparcboxbuck said:
Agree on having to take a closer look, but there were a couple of things that I did notice.

1) Ball movement was very good. I seem to recall that Denver was not pressing out on adjacents at all which makes that a bit easier.
2) Even with good ball movement, the placement of the passes was as good as I've ever seen from anyone not named Gait. Everything seemed to be right on stick.
3) Denver was a step slow when they did pressure the ball.

The combination of those three is going to be free hands... not only free hands, but dang, go back and watch some of the hip rotation from Tre on his goals. There were a few times that he (and the others) were able to get their big muscles into the shots and at 25 - 30 ft, that's a recipe for disaster if you're a goalie.
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Some really silly early slides. We didn't really dodge incredibly well throughout but it seems like Denver was just gonna go and rotate regardless. There was one EMO goal where someone got a rip from top-right completely unmarked... Denver seemed just out of sorts. With things like that it is really tough to tell whether it is really good ball movement by us (definitely possible) or poor communication and defensive basics by Denver (also likely). Probably a mixture of the two.

And yes, when you can rotate your hips as well as have free hands, you're gonna make most keepers look silly at 30 feet.
 
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