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
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