Trinity holds on to the ball and the lead

Author: Jeb Burchenal

The men's lacrosse team came into Saturday's game 9-0 for the first time since the 2003-2004 season. That season the Panthers stumbled in their 10th game, losing to underdog Bowdoin 11-10 in overtime. That proved to be the Panthers' only loss of the regular season as they charged all the way to the NCAA semifinals, where they lost to Nazareth. This year, Middlebury's first loss also comes at the hands of a lesser NESCAC opponent. Trinity College came to Kohn Field with a 4-5 overall record and a 2-3 record in NESCAC play, but was able to put its early-season problems behind them and stunned the Panthers and the home crowd.

Middlebury looked like the number-three team in the country in the early going as it took Jim Cabrera '08 only 47 seconds to open the scoring, but those first 47 seconds were the most focused the Panthers looked all game. Trinity responded less than two minutes later to even the score at one. The high-powered Panther offense was again able to find the back of the net on an even-strength goal from Tom Petty '09, but the Bantams were able to bury two more goals to take a 3-2 advantage into halftime.

The Panthers tied the game early in the second half on a goal by Matt Ferrer '09 that was assisted by Pete Smith '10, but Trinity put away two goals in a 14 second stretch to take the lead for good in the middle of the third period. Ferrer's excellent play in the crease continued and he was able to tally again and keep the home team within one as the third period came to a close. Trinity scored once in the fourth to end up with seven goals on the day and Smith scored a crucial man-up goal with seven minutes remaining to give the Panthers a chance late in the game.

With around four minutes left in the game, Mike Stone '09 was able to draw the double team and find a wide-open Rory Sanborn '08, who unleashed a cannon from two steps inside the box, but his shot was eaten up by Trinity goalie Alex Palma. But that was not Middlebury's last chance to tie the game. With just over a minute left, the Bantams successfully cleared the ball and called a timeout in their offensive end. They chose one of their top midfielders to handle the ball and try to kill some clock, but Charlie Schopp '10, stepping up for the injured Glenn Bickley '08, stripped him behind the cage to allow Middlebury one more push. Cabrera, Stone and Smith each got perimeter looks at the cage in the ensuing attack, but none were on target.

The 44 groundballs Middlebury collected looks phenomenal on the stat sheet, but most of the balls ended up on the ground because of careless play by the Panthers. The Panthers have been one of the most proficient teams at clearing the ball, thanks to talented ball-handling long-poles like James Guay '08 and Chris Mejia '10, but in this game the Bantam side was able to disrupt the Panther clears and create second-chance opportunities. Along the same lines, the Panthers, anchored by Dave Campbell '09 and Alex Giammarco '11, have a faceoff percentage that hovers around 50 percent on the season, but the Bantams were able to dominate the cross as they won 10 of 15 faceoffs on the day.

A bright spot for the Panthers is the continued emergence of goalie Pete Britt '09, who registered eight saves on the day. After four years of incredible play by Alex Palmisano '07, it was a question at the beginning of the year if Britt was going to be able to fill his shoes, but he has showed his doubters that he is up to the task.

With big games against fellow NESCAC powerhouses Wesleyan and Tufts coming up, it is easy to see how the team could have been lulled into looking past lowly Trinity, but this game proved that Panthers cannot sleep-walk past anybody. Hopefully this close loss proves to be the wake-up call that this year's team needs to step their game up to an NCAA championship level.