It is a very simple concept that has been around since the creation of sports. "Win or go home." Simply put, nice and sweet, and right to the point. Wednesday we beat Geneseo and live to fight another day, or lose and reminisce about the highlights of this season. What is it going to be boys?
I really can not write right now without pouring out all my emotions of Saturday's loss on this page. All I can say is it does not feel like it is our time to go home. I can not really put it in words. If you witnessed Saturday's game you would know what I mean. Playing a game that can easily be summed up as our sloppiest game played this season, we are determined to make Wednesday one hell of a rematch. I am not going to sit here and point fingers at this or that, but I know that personally this could be my last game in a Plattsburgh State uniform and I am going to go balls to the wall. Saturday was tough because I did not play one of my best games, and I let one of my flaws overtake me and it took me out of my game. I feel bad for my teammates, because with a couple of more possessions out of me it could have been a different game early on, but mentally I am moving on and am excited that I get a rematch. I think Tucker Glass needs to be talked about. A senior captain who played beyond expectations, absolutely shutting down one of their deadly offensive players in the second half. I know he is greatly excited for the opportunity that is in front of us. I know that every player wishes they can take back some part of Saturday if you ask them, but that is what is so awesome, is that on Wednesday, everything you wanted to take back you can do differently.
On the bus ride home, Tucker could not have said it any better. I am paraphrasing, but this is close..."We will think about what we did on the ride home and we will come out Monday and Tuesday and outwork them, and then on Wednesday we will run them off the field..." I think Wednesday you can expect us to play some great lacrosse, and mistakes are going to be made, but we will make fewer, and if we play how we are capable then that bus ride home is going to feel a lot different.
I have little to say... this is the biggest lacrosse game that I have ever been a part of and my demeanor has just completely changed right since we arrived home. I know this has been short, not detailed, not sweet, or anything, but right now there is nothing to be up about other then the fact that we have another shot at these guys. That is all... See you Wednesday.
-Mike Santi #12
#whydoyouplay lacrosse part 2....
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Playoffs! You wanna talk about playoffs?! Ya kiddin me?... Except not this time
What a day yesterday turned out to be! Unbelievable. Playoff implications, rain, senior day, and a team who ruined our season last year, all on one field. So last blog I explained what exactly was on the line for yesterday's game. Win and your in, three seed automatically, playing Geneseo next weekend for the two seed. Lose and next weekend would basically be a must win. The lesson yesterday that I think was clearly evident, was when playing in-conference games you should throw out all the earlier box scores and statistics, because it does not mean crap. On paper, are we the better team, with record and statistics to show it? Yes. Would that make Brockport bend over and surrender to us? Certainly not. They knew what they accomplished last season, after defeating us allowed them to earn the 4th seed in the conference tournament while knocking us out with the tiebreaker, and they were determined to do it again.
With weather not particularly on our side, it was going to be a battle of wills. With warm-ups going quite similar to that of Potsdams, I was taking back when I realized how much trash-talking they were capable of. With a first quarter much similar to that of the Potsdam game, worrisome emotions were starting to awake. 5-1 at the end of the first quarter resulted completely in time of possession heavily favored by them, sloppy defense, and a sloppy start at the X by myself. Fighting back in the second, hard rides, face-off wins, and transition play are what really closed the gap for us. Always down by one or two it was always a nail biter. Back and forth we rallied in the second half, until huge saves, I mean HUGE -like enormous- like mammoth, saves by Gordie are what kept us alive and fighting to the end. With our attack really taking advantage of their skill sets, we were able to generate most of our offense through them. Sophomore Anthony Pafundi with an over hand high to low shot is what tied it up at 9, with about 3 minutes left. Even with the ensuing face-off victory, it was still not enough to keep us out of overtime. Overtime was nerve racking. Both teams had possessions during the 4 minute period, and with a shot by Travers that was an inch or "post" away from being the game winner, we were heading to double OT. In double overtime and the face-off possession, I remember just running off, taking a knee, and feeling my stomach twist and turn as I watched on. It was probably a two minute possession until Kildo, using his strength and quickness, backed into their largest defensemen and with a couple of quick rocker turns shot a lefty bouncer right past the goalie's hips. Game-Set-Blouses. And here is what happened next...
With a ton of work to do right now, I do not have time to talk about senior day and the three guys it was shared with in this blog. I will make a blog dedicated to the three of us, similar to how DeFran did for his class, but maybe I will do that when the season is officially over, because right now we are not going anywhere. So stay tuned for that. I am also getting good footage for the "I play Lacrosse because" video, and I plan to have that out pretty soon.
With weather not particularly on our side, it was going to be a battle of wills. With warm-ups going quite similar to that of Potsdams, I was taking back when I realized how much trash-talking they were capable of. With a first quarter much similar to that of the Potsdam game, worrisome emotions were starting to awake. 5-1 at the end of the first quarter resulted completely in time of possession heavily favored by them, sloppy defense, and a sloppy start at the X by myself. Fighting back in the second, hard rides, face-off wins, and transition play are what really closed the gap for us. Always down by one or two it was always a nail biter. Back and forth we rallied in the second half, until huge saves, I mean HUGE -like enormous- like mammoth, saves by Gordie are what kept us alive and fighting to the end. With our attack really taking advantage of their skill sets, we were able to generate most of our offense through them. Sophomore Anthony Pafundi with an over hand high to low shot is what tied it up at 9, with about 3 minutes left. Even with the ensuing face-off victory, it was still not enough to keep us out of overtime. Overtime was nerve racking. Both teams had possessions during the 4 minute period, and with a shot by Travers that was an inch or "post" away from being the game winner, we were heading to double OT. In double overtime and the face-off possession, I remember just running off, taking a knee, and feeling my stomach twist and turn as I watched on. It was probably a two minute possession until Kildo, using his strength and quickness, backed into their largest defensemen and with a couple of quick rocker turns shot a lefty bouncer right past the goalie's hips. Game-Set-Blouses. And here is what happened next...
I think you get the idea. It felt just amazing. Personally it has been the main goal and I almost want to say expectation, since my class arrived. Make playoffs. "You guys are a young team, who when you are junior and seniors will be a very good team." Well we are that very good team right now. However, with all feelings sky high right now, we must come back down and focus on the entire next week. We have a huge out of conference game against RPI, who has been in and out of the top 20 the entire season.
With a ton of work to do right now, I do not have time to talk about senior day and the three guys it was shared with in this blog. I will make a blog dedicated to the three of us, similar to how DeFran did for his class, but maybe I will do that when the season is officially over, because right now we are not going anywhere. So stay tuned for that. I am also getting good footage for the "I play Lacrosse because" video, and I plan to have that out pretty soon.
Until next time... Mike Santi #12
Friday, April 20, 2012
Mission Not Accomplished Yet...
Oh man was Wednesday your typical Plattsburgh vs. Potsdam hard fought nasty game. What else is there to say really? With their backs against the conference wall, it was essentially do our die for Potsdam. The same team who played in the SUNYAC Championship last year against Cortland was face to face with the reality that their post season dreams could be ended. The only thing standing in their way of a chance of a repeat of last season was us. Their hatred along with the position they faced caused for an interesting warm up. With both teams trash talking back and forth on their sides of the midfield line, this game was definitely going to live up to the bad blooded rivalry that is always talked about.
With relentless determination to not face their freight destiny, the bears sure did come out hot. Scoring three fast unanswered goals off of three consecutive possessions, a timeout and a deep breath is what we needed to turn things around. With the ensuing face-off won by us, it did not take long to turn things around. Scoring five straight goals to end the quarter, there was no looking back. Although we maintained the lead throughout the whole game, they were always on our tails. In the fourth quarter down four, things began to get real chippy. Late hits, penalties, and more trash talking on the field and sidelines all made for non-sincere end of the game hand shakes and good lucks. In the locker room after the game, Coach Pedrick made an awesome call by awarding freshman Andrew Tralango --A T--, a game ball. Although this is not something we do traditionally, it was totally well deserved. He played his @ss off the entire game, coming up with tough groundballs and delivering big hits. He is a huge part of this team, especially being a freshman and playing like he did in a conference game was just tremendous.
So where are we now? Tomorrow we host the Golden Eagles of Brockport, where if we win, we are in. A victory tomorrow will ensure us a three seed in the conference tournament, and then we will fight it out most likely with Geneseo for the two seed and home field for the first round. That is looking too far ahead though. Brockport is a solid team who is fighting to make their post season dreams as they did last year. We have been practicing with an understanding at what is at stake on Saturday. We lost a tough one to them last year at Brockport, and I know for that game is lingering in all of the older guy's minds. Today we have a lighter practice, followed by film where we can look at our match ups more closely.
Following the game on Saturday, the team and coaches will be hosting another clinic for the kids up here in efforts to spread the game of lacrosse in the North Country. Last week was our first clinic after our Oswego victory. Things went great, and there was a surprisingly large amount of kids and parents. These kids are hockey players and are tough boys and girls. It just comes down to culture and lacrosse is not a big part of theirs. We hope to see even more people this time around and encourage them to come out and support us during the game as we fight to get a big win.
Alright so on a different note. Alumni Dan DeFran is back with his creative thinking and has produced a video where he asks players over in England, Why do you play? Instantly after watching it, I thought what a great idea if I made one, interviewing the guys on the team, coaches, and even the kids at tomorrow's clinic. Lacrosse is not just a sport, it has seriously become a lifestyle for many. There is such a innovative movement that has been created by the "lax bro lifestyle" that these comments vary greatly. Some play to live the lifestyle, some play because they love it like any sport, some play for chicks, and some are just hereee for the gearrr. Stay tuned because I will be producing a video similar to DeFran's. As an attempt to get some reactions nationally, I brought the question over to Twitter, where I have tried to make it a trending topic to receive, what should be, some clever answers. #whydoyouplay
if you did not see DeFran's video, you can check it out here...
http://www.lacrosseplayground.com/i-play-lacrosse-because/
-Mike Santi #12
With relentless determination to not face their freight destiny, the bears sure did come out hot. Scoring three fast unanswered goals off of three consecutive possessions, a timeout and a deep breath is what we needed to turn things around. With the ensuing face-off won by us, it did not take long to turn things around. Scoring five straight goals to end the quarter, there was no looking back. Although we maintained the lead throughout the whole game, they were always on our tails. In the fourth quarter down four, things began to get real chippy. Late hits, penalties, and more trash talking on the field and sidelines all made for non-sincere end of the game hand shakes and good lucks. In the locker room after the game, Coach Pedrick made an awesome call by awarding freshman Andrew Tralango --A T--, a game ball. Although this is not something we do traditionally, it was totally well deserved. He played his @ss off the entire game, coming up with tough groundballs and delivering big hits. He is a huge part of this team, especially being a freshman and playing like he did in a conference game was just tremendous.
So where are we now? Tomorrow we host the Golden Eagles of Brockport, where if we win, we are in. A victory tomorrow will ensure us a three seed in the conference tournament, and then we will fight it out most likely with Geneseo for the two seed and home field for the first round. That is looking too far ahead though. Brockport is a solid team who is fighting to make their post season dreams as they did last year. We have been practicing with an understanding at what is at stake on Saturday. We lost a tough one to them last year at Brockport, and I know for that game is lingering in all of the older guy's minds. Today we have a lighter practice, followed by film where we can look at our match ups more closely.
Following the game on Saturday, the team and coaches will be hosting another clinic for the kids up here in efforts to spread the game of lacrosse in the North Country. Last week was our first clinic after our Oswego victory. Things went great, and there was a surprisingly large amount of kids and parents. These kids are hockey players and are tough boys and girls. It just comes down to culture and lacrosse is not a big part of theirs. We hope to see even more people this time around and encourage them to come out and support us during the game as we fight to get a big win.
Alright so on a different note. Alumni Dan DeFran is back with his creative thinking and has produced a video where he asks players over in England, Why do you play? Instantly after watching it, I thought what a great idea if I made one, interviewing the guys on the team, coaches, and even the kids at tomorrow's clinic. Lacrosse is not just a sport, it has seriously become a lifestyle for many. There is such a innovative movement that has been created by the "lax bro lifestyle" that these comments vary greatly. Some play to live the lifestyle, some play because they love it like any sport, some play for chicks, and some are just hereee for the gearrr. Stay tuned because I will be producing a video similar to DeFran's. As an attempt to get some reactions nationally, I brought the question over to Twitter, where I have tried to make it a trending topic to receive, what should be, some clever answers. #whydoyouplay
if you did not see DeFran's video, you can check it out here...
http://www.lacrosseplayground.com/i-play-lacrosse-because/
-Mike Santi #12
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Ball is in our court...time to play
Wow it is a great feeling being back on the winning side of things! All emotions feel even better because both wins were against conference teams. It has been a little while since the last blog. I remember just typing aimlessly, trying to come up with words to sound good. I was just really in the dumps after that tough three game losing streak. Well, we are back. The guys have come together through intense practices and long film sessions, in order to prepare for these past two games. Basically two games with huge implications. The fate of this season would be determined by the outcomes on both Saturday and Wednesday.
There was a lot of talking going on inside the locker room about Oswego. With the past two years having gone our way against them, you knew they were ready to hand it to us. Having also beaten Ithaca earlier in the season in triple OT and seeing how we suffered to them 10-5, they had in their minds that this year things would change. Unfortunately for them, they were heavily mistaken. Just a complete team effort and intensity was brought to the field on Saturday. With most of the team's parents and friends in attendance, due to the holiday weekend, the boys put on quite the show. 51 seconds into the game, Kramer put our first goal on the board. We just exploded from then on out, scoring 6 unanswered and leading 7-0 at half. A big day for myself at the X along with 9 saves by Gordie Ghering allowed for Oswego to never even think of making it interesting. Final 13-4.
With a solid statement win, we enjoyed the rest of the weekend with our families and friends. Back strapped up on Monday, we hit the field destined to do something that has never been done in this programs history, Beat Oneonta at home. With the past victory behind us, we focused on a team that we have played close almost every year. Practicing to their strengths to prepare our defense and middies really allowed us to be fully prepared. We even had Division 1 Coach Pedrick suit up to replicate their best player in our minds. Film allowed us to explore weaknesses to exploit in the actually game. I will say, there were not many. We were prepared to play just a good team, well balanced and equipped with some players that could play at a very high level. With the right preparation and focus in mind, we knew was not enough to get us the win. We would have to play an entire 60 minutes, and completely keep them out of the game, because we are familiar with what it is like if we let them hang in there. Last season, with the major help of their face-off man, they rallied a comeback that almost put us in the losing column.
Tim Lawrence just played a fantastic game, scoring the the first two goals of the game within the first three minutes of play. Suddenly tied up at 3-3, Lawrence scored his third of the day to give us the lead that we would then not let up. Sophomore Anthony Pafundi, had a big day as well, adding a hat trick that solidified a 13-8 victory for the Cards. This year our long stick middies did a great job at just completely shutting down their best players and causing multiple transitional goals as well. As always we had a wonderful tailgate provided by some of the best parents. The Kilderry's who make the trip up just about every Wednesday game, which we all know is extremely hard to do considering work schedules. The Olsens, McClellands, Mr. Phillip/ Tolan (they are like a package) and who ever else I missed, we just appreciate as a program all the effort that you guys put in to be great fans.
Nothing really more going over here right now. Back to practice tomorrow, and more school work. Oh! Let me not forget to remind everyone to tune into tomorrow's NHL playoff match up between the NY Rangers and the Ottawa Senators. Go Rangers! Now that hockey is almost coming to an end, all we have left is baseball and basketball, SOO depressing! Although I am a big Knicks fan also, but despise baseball...
We have no game this weekend, so all of our focus will be aimed at next weeks rivalry versus Potsdam. A large "unfavorite" for pretty much anyone who has played here.
Keep racking of views on all the videos on YouTube (MJSLAX12) All you have to do is type that in on the search bar and all my videos will come up.
Last night I watched this documentary on Harvard Lacrosse... Just fell in love with it basically. It is something I really would love to do for this program but am just so limited with equipment and also the fact that I play for the team. Who knows, maybe in the future...take a look in your spare time
Have a good night..
-Mike Santi
There was a lot of talking going on inside the locker room about Oswego. With the past two years having gone our way against them, you knew they were ready to hand it to us. Having also beaten Ithaca earlier in the season in triple OT and seeing how we suffered to them 10-5, they had in their minds that this year things would change. Unfortunately for them, they were heavily mistaken. Just a complete team effort and intensity was brought to the field on Saturday. With most of the team's parents and friends in attendance, due to the holiday weekend, the boys put on quite the show. 51 seconds into the game, Kramer put our first goal on the board. We just exploded from then on out, scoring 6 unanswered and leading 7-0 at half. A big day for myself at the X along with 9 saves by Gordie Ghering allowed for Oswego to never even think of making it interesting. Final 13-4.
With a solid statement win, we enjoyed the rest of the weekend with our families and friends. Back strapped up on Monday, we hit the field destined to do something that has never been done in this programs history, Beat Oneonta at home. With the past victory behind us, we focused on a team that we have played close almost every year. Practicing to their strengths to prepare our defense and middies really allowed us to be fully prepared. We even had Division 1 Coach Pedrick suit up to replicate their best player in our minds. Film allowed us to explore weaknesses to exploit in the actually game. I will say, there were not many. We were prepared to play just a good team, well balanced and equipped with some players that could play at a very high level. With the right preparation and focus in mind, we knew was not enough to get us the win. We would have to play an entire 60 minutes, and completely keep them out of the game, because we are familiar with what it is like if we let them hang in there. Last season, with the major help of their face-off man, they rallied a comeback that almost put us in the losing column.
Tim Lawrence just played a fantastic game, scoring the the first two goals of the game within the first three minutes of play. Suddenly tied up at 3-3, Lawrence scored his third of the day to give us the lead that we would then not let up. Sophomore Anthony Pafundi, had a big day as well, adding a hat trick that solidified a 13-8 victory for the Cards. This year our long stick middies did a great job at just completely shutting down their best players and causing multiple transitional goals as well. As always we had a wonderful tailgate provided by some of the best parents. The Kilderry's who make the trip up just about every Wednesday game, which we all know is extremely hard to do considering work schedules. The Olsens, McClellands, Mr. Phillip/ Tolan (they are like a package) and who ever else I missed, we just appreciate as a program all the effort that you guys put in to be great fans.
Nothing really more going over here right now. Back to practice tomorrow, and more school work. Oh! Let me not forget to remind everyone to tune into tomorrow's NHL playoff match up between the NY Rangers and the Ottawa Senators. Go Rangers! Now that hockey is almost coming to an end, all we have left is baseball and basketball, SOO depressing! Although I am a big Knicks fan also, but despise baseball...
We have no game this weekend, so all of our focus will be aimed at next weeks rivalry versus Potsdam. A large "unfavorite" for pretty much anyone who has played here.
Keep racking of views on all the videos on YouTube (MJSLAX12) All you have to do is type that in on the search bar and all my videos will come up.
Last night I watched this documentary on Harvard Lacrosse... Just fell in love with it basically. It is something I really would love to do for this program but am just so limited with equipment and also the fact that I play for the team. Who knows, maybe in the future...take a look in your spare time
Have a good night..
-Mike Santi
Friday, April 6, 2012
Perserverance is Genius and Patience is a Virtue
"Stop moaning because it didn’t happen today. Nothing happens in a day. It’s exactly the same on any journey, focus on the bigger picture, have
fun along the way (ie enjoy the journey, if you’re not, quit and try
another journey), you’ll get there and it’ll get better. Just keep
making the small iterative changes, be proactive, you can probably get
there faster than you think (even if it’s not overnight)."
I think this excerpt goes perfect to how this season is going so far.
Q. Are we happy with what has happened during the last three games? A. No, we are certainly not.
Q. Can we step back and look at the bigger picture? A. Absolutely, SUNYAC conference play coming up this weekend.
After last night's loss which extended our brutal three game loosing streak, the team's morale has been pretty low. Clarkson as I explained in the last blog was a tough pill to swallow because of how the tempo of the game did not match ours and it really hurt us. Looking forward to a tough challenge that Saturday, we were determined to show how much of a threat we can be this year in the conference at Cortland. Again, no need to re-iterate, but those of you who read this and follow us obviously understand Cortland's dominance in the conference for the last 10 years. It is just getting old, and we really felt like it was a great day for an upset. We were mistaken. On a positive note, it was not a game where hustle, focus, or attitude were missing elements. Honestly, Cortland was better at capitalizing on our mistakes, and they made us pay for each one of them. At the end of the day, to beat a team of their skill you need to play a near flawless game, and we just did not.
Having lost those two games, we really felt like our preparation needed adjustment. Practices starting Monday were more intense. We knew that if we learned from our prior mistakes, we could finally beat the same team who has had a complete dominance over this program, St. Lawrence. Last year was the closest we had ever gotten. We fell short in overtime 8-7, and it was a real heart breaker. The irritating thing about this match-up is that St. Lawrence feels as if they should not even be on the same field as us. We came out fast and strong, playing our tempo of lacrosse and going up 1-0 real early in the game. We struggled at the X, and defensively we did not have our best day. Tied 5-5 after the 1st, St. Lawrence has a second quarter that all teams dream of, scoring 8 unanswered goals. In the second half, we rallied a 6 point come back, but it was just not enough.
A three game loosing streak never feels good, but like that quote says, it'll get better. Now that the bigger picture is amongst us, we hope to get back on track. Oswego this Saturday will be the second in-conference game this season, and although it will not be a walk in the park, we are determined to get to 1-1 in the conference and get rid of this loosing taste.
So after about 15 denials from YouTube, 30 song changes, and over 75 hours of accumulated time spent on this, the spring break video is finally here. What a hassle it is has been. With a complete swap of all original songs over three times, I finally figured it all out at about 2 am last night. So here it is, enjoy!
I think this excerpt goes perfect to how this season is going so far.
Q. Are we happy with what has happened during the last three games? A. No, we are certainly not.
Q. Can we step back and look at the bigger picture? A. Absolutely, SUNYAC conference play coming up this weekend.
After last night's loss which extended our brutal three game loosing streak, the team's morale has been pretty low. Clarkson as I explained in the last blog was a tough pill to swallow because of how the tempo of the game did not match ours and it really hurt us. Looking forward to a tough challenge that Saturday, we were determined to show how much of a threat we can be this year in the conference at Cortland. Again, no need to re-iterate, but those of you who read this and follow us obviously understand Cortland's dominance in the conference for the last 10 years. It is just getting old, and we really felt like it was a great day for an upset. We were mistaken. On a positive note, it was not a game where hustle, focus, or attitude were missing elements. Honestly, Cortland was better at capitalizing on our mistakes, and they made us pay for each one of them. At the end of the day, to beat a team of their skill you need to play a near flawless game, and we just did not.
Having lost those two games, we really felt like our preparation needed adjustment. Practices starting Monday were more intense. We knew that if we learned from our prior mistakes, we could finally beat the same team who has had a complete dominance over this program, St. Lawrence. Last year was the closest we had ever gotten. We fell short in overtime 8-7, and it was a real heart breaker. The irritating thing about this match-up is that St. Lawrence feels as if they should not even be on the same field as us. We came out fast and strong, playing our tempo of lacrosse and going up 1-0 real early in the game. We struggled at the X, and defensively we did not have our best day. Tied 5-5 after the 1st, St. Lawrence has a second quarter that all teams dream of, scoring 8 unanswered goals. In the second half, we rallied a 6 point come back, but it was just not enough.
A three game loosing streak never feels good, but like that quote says, it'll get better. Now that the bigger picture is amongst us, we hope to get back on track. Oswego this Saturday will be the second in-conference game this season, and although it will not be a walk in the park, we are determined to get to 1-1 in the conference and get rid of this loosing taste.
So after about 15 denials from YouTube, 30 song changes, and over 75 hours of accumulated time spent on this, the spring break video is finally here. What a hassle it is has been. With a complete swap of all original songs over three times, I finally figured it all out at about 2 am last night. So here it is, enjoy!
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