Thursday, March 28, 2013

Celtic Pride

...Well, we have a lot to cover in this one, eh?  If you're confused about the title by the way, just ask anyone on the team and they'll all tell you its there new favorite movie.  There's a great chance this could be quite lengthy, so I apologize in advance.  I know I said I was going to attempt to keep up with the events and games of the team and make these blogs short and sweet, but this season is really non-stop with games, especially with this spring break week just behind us.  So we left off last time with your Cards being ranked 19th in the nation as we arrived in the city of Baltimore...
...As we woke up to the good news, the mood only got better when we gathered to head over to the aquarium in the Baltimore Harbor.  Although it seemed we had brought some North Country weather with us, we were pumped to head to the harbor.  Personally, best part of the Monday's trip was satisfying my Chipotle addiction, and for those who say Moes is better, well, you're wrong.  After lunch, we headed to the aquarium where we were able to see all sorts of marine life, from sharks too coral reef.  Favorite part of the aquarium for the majority of the team had to have been the dolphin show.  Pretty impressive stuff.  Oh, and they absolutely drenched Timmy Lawrence and Charlie Dullea at the very end.  Always a positive.  After the aquarium, the team went to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe.  First time there for me and I was pretty impressed, good food and cool atmosphere.  Anyways, team headed back to the hotel and prepared for the next day...
...So the Tuesday of spring break was definitely one of my favorites.  This may come across as a surprise but  the best part was practice.  Coach Cavanagh wanted to make sure we were prepared for Conneticut College on Wednesday, so he managed to get us two hours to practice at  Maryland University at College Park which is an awesome campus.  We practiced on the football/lacrosse practice field, but the Capital One stadium was just behind us, and that was an awesome sight.  After a quality, and warm (finally) practice, the team traveled to Tyler Forsyth's house for dinner, which he and his wife, Gail, put together for us.  It was an awesome meal and it meant a lot to us that an alumni would help out the current squad like that.  Safe to say in five years I probably won't be serving 50 collegiate lacrosse players dinner at my house (most likely my parents' house still, who am I kidding).  So a big thank you to the Forsyths for the dinner from the entire team...
...Wednesday was game day, and one of the biggest of not only our season, but our program's history.  #19 versus #17 Connetticut College, a top tier team of the highly competitive NESCAC conference.  On top of all this, we were playing at historic Homewood Field, the home of the John Hopkins Blue Jays.  The game lived up to the hype for sure.  Down early 1-0, the team fired back with goals from Tim Lawrence and Joey Kramer.  At half, we held a 4-3 advantage, as the game was shaping up to be a defensive battle.  After a few back and forth goals from each squad, Brendan Damm sealed the 7-5 victory with a late goal in the fourth.   Lawrence finished with three, while Kramer, Brett McClelland, Damm, and Tom Duggan all had one goal a piece.  Not to take any personal credit, but a strong and discipline defensive effort was essential to this win, and our overall team effort allowed the Cards to come away with a huge victory for our team and program...
...The following day, the team went off to the Washington D.C. to check out the Zoo.  Who doesn't love the Zoo, right?  Well, the Zoo managed to take up most of the day for the team.  I actually couldn't make it, but from what I heard, the gorillas were the best part, as they were supposedly eating their own vomit (sounds like I missed a good one).  For dinner, we went to the beautiful establishment the Golden Corrall.  I love this place, and for one main reason; endless food.  I've managed to establish myself as the human disposal among the housemates, so buffets are always welcomed in my book.  The following day, the team got a two hour practice in and began to prep for the big match-up versus Mary Washington at their home field on Saturday...
...Well, Saturday, as you will tell from my brief description of it, was a day to learn from the negatives and put it behind us.  No excuses to be made, we just came out flat.  Poor team defense, some sloppy offense and some other mental errors led to a poor result.  We ended up losing 12-8, but it felt more like 15-0.  The perfect season was lost, but, the season for us was just beginning.  We hit a bump, but we knew we could turn things around as conference play lurked in the background...
...After a nice 11 hour bus-ride...you know, to really let the loss soak in...we arrived back at the nest.  Overall, it was a pretty successful spring break with an unfortunate ending.  We knew we had a big week ahead of us with Clarkson and Cortland coming into town.  We always take pride in defending the nest, and these two games are some of our biggest rivals.  I'm gonna cut it short here, for your eyes' sake.  I'll post this weekend after the Cortland game.  I know we had a game yesterday but I'll include the rundown of Clarkson in the next blog (spoiler: OT win).  Well, the team is in the thick of it now.  From here on out, its a must win for the Cards, as every game has either conference playoffs or an at-large bid into the NCAA's riding on them.  Thank  you to everyone and anyone that made our spring break as successful as it was.  From the activities too the tailgates, even 800 miles away we have an awesome fan-base.  Well, I hope everyone can come to the conference opener versus Cortland, should be one to remember, and if not, have a great week and god Cards!
Although I am getting ahead of myself, the weather in the Burgh this week has definitely made me eager for some summer...

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

A Little Catch Up...

...Keeping up with this blog was going to be a challenge for me; I knew this going into it.  However, spring break has definitely offered a new level of difficulty to the task of being the team blogger.  From the traveling, hotel internet failing me, and the all around activity level of the team, the week has been a difficult one to blog on.  I've had a draft sitting on my computer for the last week which I've been chipping away at and I decided that I'll fill everyone in on what happened before the start of this week which I haven't talked about yet.  At the end spring break, I'll post everything we did this week, from the activities to the two games we played.  So let's get into it...
...First, we had our game versus Morrisville last Wednesday at the nest.  Morrisville is a team that has been getting consistently better every year, and we know they could be a real challenge if we came out flat.  However, we did quite the opposite, stopping two early man-down situations and then letting our offense do the rest, with a final score of 17-1.  The offense was once again led by our attack, with Joey Kramer finishing the day with an impressive 5 goals, while Brendan Damm and James Higgins each had 2 a piece.  Midfielders Nick Travers and Brett McClelland each had two goals as well.  Congratulations to freshman Andrew Duque who scored his first collegiate goal of his career.  Defense played stellar again, sadly losing that shutout again in the last minute of the game...
...After another successful win, the team got two more quality practices in.  The condition of the second practice, which was windy and snowing the entire time, paid off as we arrived to Western Connecticut for our game Saturday night.  Conditions were exactly what we were use to, snowing and cold, and as we expected, it didn't slow us down at all.  The team jumped out to an early lead and didn't look back.  Brendan Damm and Joe Kramer each had four goals, while Brett McClelland, James Higgins, and Brendan Cefalu finished with 2 goals.  Another freshman had his first collegiate goal of his career, Matt Renko, coming in the second quarter.  Overall, the team played exceptionally well, with weather conditions and a long bus drive that day against us, the team managed to come together and put together 60 minutes of quality lacrosse...
...After the game, the team was able to head home to Long Island, where players either stayed the night at their house, or for the upstate folks, were able to stay over another player's home.  On Sunday afternoon, we all met up at a restaurant/bar called Shananigans in Kings Park out on the Island and was able to enjoy a nice lunch, filled with cornbeef and cabbage, Irish Soda Bread, live Irish music, and some of the best wings I've ever had.  The lunch was a great success and a great opportunity to get players, families, alumni, and fans together on St. Patrick's Day.  The parents once again put on a great raffle, giving out some great packages families donated to help raise some money for the team.  After a few hours, some eating, talking, and raffling, the team said their goodbyes and thank you's to the parents and friends, and we were back on the road heading down south....
...Three and a half hours later, we arrived to our hotel in Baltimore and settled into our rooms.  It was pretty late when we got in, so the team ordered some pizzas and called it a night.  The team had a busy day planned out for Monday, with a full-day trip to the Inner Harbor.  One thing I HAVE to mention is some great news the team woke up to Monday morning.  The coaches poll for March 18th came out and for the first time in program history, your Plattsburgh Cardinals cracked the Top 20.  Ranked 19th in the nation, this was a major achievement for not just the current squad, but for the program in all.  Every year this team has been working to get better and build a stronger program, and this achievement marks a major step.  By next week, I'll be sure to catch everyone up on the events of this week.  I would mention the first half now, but the blog would be a little to long, so this is just a way to break it up a little.  Be sure to check out our twitter account to see when that will be posted next week, as it should be a good one filled with aquarium trips, results of two massive games, and all other trip activities the team does this week.  A big thank you to everyone that came out to the lunch on Long Island, or has come out to the games down south this week.  Even while we are hours and hours away from our homefield, you guys do an awesome job getting fans to the games and helping out with the tailgate and overall supporting the team.  Hope everyone has an awesome week and Go Cards...

We are in the South, soooo here's another country song to get you through the week...
Enjoy

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Getting There...

...While we are only four games into the season, it looks as if the team is definitely starting to come around.  Although we know we have areas to improve on, another impressive win this past Wednesday versus Norwich has the team building some nice momentum as we head into the middle of our non-conference schedule.  The final score from Wednesday's game was 14-2, and although the game got off to a slower start than we would have liked (1-0 at the end of the first), our offense eventually began clicking and didn't look back.  The offense was led by Brendan Damm, who finished the day with four goals and one assist.  Freshman James Higgins earned his first points as a Cardinal as he netted two goals and added one assist to finish with three points.  Senior Ryan Hastings added two goals of his own, while Brett McClelland, Nick Travers, Anthony Pafundi, Anthony Tralongo, Cole Anderson, and Tom Duggan all finished with one goal each.  Although the play was slow to start, the team did a great job staying focused and running our system offensively.  Defensively, the team did an awesome job shutting down any opportunities Norwich had.  It was sad to see the shutout slip away, as Norwich scored their first goal with only 5 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, but overall, no one could complain about the way the D played...
...Our next game is this upcoming Wednesday versus Morrisville at 4:00 p.m. at the Fieldhouse.  Morrisville is always a tough and gritty team who gives us a challenge every time we play them.  No game this weekend means we have some extra time in practice to prepare for the upcoming game next week.  With a little extra time off, we were even able to switch things up today.  After a shortened practice, the gridiron stars of the past were able to relive some high school memories as we ended early to play some small sided football games.  Watching from the sideline (due to an injury), it was hilarious to watch the inner child of everyone come out as the days of backyard football games came back to everyone.  I witnessed at least four Ray Lewis pre-game entrances, and the pure excitement from playing some pick-up football was definitely a sight to witness.  The talent pool varied to say the least.  From my view, I think I have to give out the MVP from the game I was watching to either junior midfielder Anthony Pafundi, who had a handful of td's and was going all out to say the least, or Freshman midfielder Qusarn "Q" Caldwell.  Aside from the few bombs he threw, which were impressive, the play that most impressed me was his run that made a junior on the team, who will remain nameless, look foolish as he whiffed on the tackle attempt...
...The little football game gave us the chance to lighten the mood a bit, but we were back at it working hard at 8 a.m. practice today.  Scrimmaging for the most part, we were still focusing on polishing aspects of play on both the defensive and offensive ends of the field.  I hope that everyone can make it to the game on Wednesday.  We always appreciate anyone and everyone that can make it out to these home games which we know isn't always easy, especially during the middle of the week.   Well, the next few days promise to bring some warmer weather in the region, so I hope everyone enjoys the weekend and as always, I'll leave you with a little country tune...










Tuesday, March 5, 2013

There's an old saying...

"It's not how you start, but how you finish"...Well, this may be true, but if you ask me, just because you start well, doesn't mean you can't end well.  The team is definitely starting well this year after our first week of games has come to a close and we are sitting at a nice 3-0 record.  Our first game last Wednesday, versus RPI, had a final of 7-5 in favor of the Dirty Birds, and this past weekend we finished strong versus Farmingdale, 16-6, and FDU 20-10.  Each win had different key players and brought our team one step closer to reaching our potential, which we know we haven't hit yet.  Now lets take it game-by-game shall we...
...The first game is always one filled with a little added jitters and butterflies in the player's stomach, especially for those playing their first collegiate lacrosse game.  After waiting four weeks to get to play a game, the team's emotions were at an all-time high as we were eager to get the season rolling.  Luckily for us, the rain and snow held out, and for a February night in Albany, the conditions were perfect for a season opener.  From the get-go, we knew this was going to be a great test.  RPI is always a well-polished team, and their first possession almost led to an early goal.  However, our defense stiffened up, and held the RPI offense to only 5 goals and minimal quality opportunities.  Offensively, the cards got going starting with goals from senior captain Brett McClelland and senior Joe Kramer.  Brett and Joey both finished with hat-tricks, while Brendan Damm rounded off the scoring with one.  The game was definitely a great way to start the season, and gave the team some needed confidence as we prepared for a long weekend...
...Farmingdale is always a scrappy and hard fought game.  We know every year they circle us on their schedule and they are looking to come away with a W.  Discipline and playing our game would be essential if we wanted to win, and that's exactly what we brought.  The first half was closer than we wished, with the score 4-3 in our favor.  The second half we came out flying, and after a quick goal by the Rams, we began to pull away with the win.  Offense was led by our attack unit, as Damm, Lawrence, and Kramer all finished with three goals each.  Shout out to Brady Helmer for his first goal as a Plattsburgh Cardinal.  Top to bottom, it was a great game.  Best part, we were home on beautiful Long Island, so the crowd was filled with friends, family, and alumni of the past supporting us.  We were able to head home for the night which is always a nice benefit of playing on the island.  I think its fair to say the upstate boys are alwayss impressed with all that L.I. has to offer...The next day, at Town Hall in Hicksville, the parents and families put on an awesome dinner and raffle to support the team.  The spread was impressive to say the least, and it was great to get the cardinal family together and meet the new parents and families of the program.  I'll probably repeat this multiple time throughout the season, but our programs parents and families are the best around.  We get spoiled for sure, but they do a great job in making this team of 50 players, into a family of hundreds...
...After a bus ride to New Jersey and a nice stay in the Madison Hotel, we finished our long trip with a dominant win against FDU, in which we were able to get everyone some playing time.  To say we came out to a fast start is probably an understatement, as the score at the end of the first quarter was 10-1.  Brendan Damm led the way with 4 goals, while Tom Duggan and Cole Anderson scored their first goals in Cardinal red, and Brendan Schecker netted 2 for his first collegiate points.  After a tailgate, we boarded the bus and began our venture back to the Burgh, which went surprisingly fast.  On a sidenote, I suggest the movie Argo, great watch even on a bus...
...Tomorrow we face Norwich at the Fieldhouse here in Plattsburgh with the opening faceoff set for 4p.m.  It will be another nice non-conference challenge for us as we continue preparing ourselves for SUNYAC play only a few weeks away.  Hopefully we can get a large crowd together for our home-opener, which would be nice after a long road trip this past weekend.  I'll be sure to post another blog after the game tomorrow, but until then, have a nice day and go cards!

I'll leave everyone with a team favorite....or at least a favorite of the country fans on the team....