Purple people eaters top Ephs, Jeffs

Author: Jeb Burchenal

Last Wednesday, the Panthers played host to a talented Williams team that was coming off a big win at Bates the previous weekend. It was the second of only five home games for the Panthers this season.

Middlebury came out of the gates firing, accumulating 12 shots on goal in the opening quarter. On the season, Middlebury is out-shooting its opponents by an average of nine shots per game. Williams started the scoring on its first man-up of the game only five minutes into the game. The aggressive Panther man-down unit found itself a little over-extended and Williams exploited this by bringing cutters around from the backside to the soft, middle part of the zone. Though they gave up an early goal, the man-down unit held Williams without a shot during its only other opportunity late in the third quarter.

Middlebury answered right back only eight seconds later after a beautiful pass from Dave Cambell '09 turned into a Pete Smith '10 goal. After an eight-minute drought for both teams that was characterized by staunch defense and off-target perimeter shots, Mike Stone '09 sliced to the cage and delivered his team-leading 18th goal of the season. Rory Sanborn '09 tacked on the final goal of the first quarter after an assist from the team's leading feeder, Smith, who is averaging 2.1 assists per game on the season.

The first quarter was a perfect cross-section of the Middlebury offense on the season. When the offense is fluid and players are moving on and off the ball it is impossible to stop, but at times the offense seems to stagnate and players settle for low-percentage perimeter shots. Stone, Smith and Jim Cabrera '08 are the real catalysts for the offense.

Their movement with and without the ball creates space and openings for all of the other guys around them to step up, but when they are not pushing the envelope, the offense can cool off without that spark that leads to high-percentage shots.

Williams opened the second quarter with back-to-back goals to tie the game at three, but this proved to be as close to a Williams lead as there would be for the entire game. Stone found the back of the net once more and Matt Ferrer '09 put in solid work on the high crease to put away a man-up goal before halftime and re-establish a two-goal Panther advantage.

All-American attackman Jim Cabrera '08 has found a new role as an offensive midfielder this season. He has been asked to move into this role to try and get him matched up favorably against short-stick defenders while the attackmen occupy the long-poles. This tactic worked to perfection as Cabrera burned his defender from the top of the box and unleashed a laser to extend the lead to three in the early going of the second half.

The pesky Ephs put up a quick pair to cut the deficit back to one with 14 minutes left in the game but their run was subdued as Ferrer scored off a feed from whom else but Smith.

The Ephs really made things interesting as they scored with a minute left to bring themselves within one. The momentum had clearly shifted towards the visitors when an Eph attackman beat his man and had a one-on-none with Pete Britt '08, who was up to the task. The keeper stepped out and made a picturesque stickside-high stuff to keep the Panthers on top.

The Ephs almost got another chance as they appeared to stymie a Middlebury clear, but Matt Virtue '10 beat two Ephs in a groundball scrum and put in a great individual effort to resurrect the broken clear by himself.

Though the Panthers have shown how potent they can be on both offense and defense at any time, the real improvement over last years campaign is their play in close games. Last year, the team lost four games in overtime and two more by two goals or less while only winning two games by two or fewer goals.