Thursday - Western over ADK 11-6

July 26, 2007 - The first round of play saw Western defeated Adirondack 11-6. Western opening up the scoring four minutes into the first quarter as attackman Joe Resetarits scored with a feed from fellow attackman Matt Pierotti. The two hooked up again for the second Western goal, but not without Adirondack striking back in between. John Olsen scored the opening Adirondack goal to tie the game. Western took a 3-1 lead after attackman Casey Rich scored with 3:32 remaining. The three goals were scored on three straight shots, and were the only shots that hit the cage for Western during the entire first quarter. With 0:04 remaining Matthew Crimmins took the ball from a sideline dead ball and after no defenseman picked him up, he took the ball straight in for the goal. The first quarter ended with Western leading 3-2.
  
The second quarter began with three Western goals at 6:33, 5:58 and 3:38. The first two were scored by attackman Connor Henderson (the first assisted by Marshall Johnson and the second by Kyle VanThof). The third was scored by Mitch Keefer, the first midfielder to score during the game and was assisted by Pierotti. Pierotti led all players from all teams with 4 assists. Western had a 6-3 lead but Adirondack did not sit back and retaliated with three of their own. The final two goals of the half came at 2:35 and 2:09 as Steven D’Amario came around from behind the cage to score and Aaron Cahill looked across the cage to an open Crimmins for his second goal of the game.
  
The opening goal of the third quarter saw the Adirondack team come back to within one. Chris Gavitt, a long stick defenseman, scored the goal and brought a new life into his team. Only 34 second later Western returned with another midfield driven goal and VanThof recorded his second assist of the game, this time to Kevin Lalley. Adirondack’s Daniel McKinney scored to bring ADK back within one, but that was as close as they got as Western scored the last two goals of the third and the only two goals in the fourth. Lalley scored his second (assisted by Resetarits) from a broken clear with 1:24 remaining in the third. The final goal, also assisted by Resetarits, was scored by Henderson with only 0:04 remaining in the third quarter.
  
Resetarits found the back of the net for the third time at 6:54 remaining in the game. Matthew Ferrino scored the last goal of the game for Western with 4:22 left with an unassisted extra-man goal. The game was called due to darkness with 0:45 remaining in the fourth quarter.
  
Unlike the other four teams, both Adirondack and Western chose to let a single goalie play the entire game. Adirondack’s Ian O’Brien and Western’s Scott Bement played for 43:15. O’Brien faced 19 shots and made 8s (42%) while Bement faced 13 shots and recorded 7s (54%).
  
Western’s Mitch Keefer had a strong day at the draw, winning 9/12 (75%). He also controlled his own face-off ground balls, scooping up 8 of his 10 during the draw.
  
Western’s attack-based offense helped them to secure their first victory of the Games but Friday will be a true test of their attack as they play both Long Island and Central. ADK will also have challenges tomorrow as they face Hudson Valley and the Long Island.
     
Long Island continued the high scoring with four unanswered goals in the fourth quarter. Cannone scored the first two goals only one minute apart and both with straight in drives from the top. Conneely scored the third goal (assisted by Matthew Gibson). The final goal of the game scored by Cohen (assisted by Palasek) with only 0:22 remaining.
    
Two of the eleven goals scored by Long Island were in extra-man on five attempts while NYC failed to score on two attempts. Face-offs were also important as Zach Pall of Long Island won 13/16 (81%). Of Pall’s three losses two were due to technical calls. While four different NYC players took face-offs, none of them were very successful. Pall, in addition to winning the face-offs, often picked up the face-off ground balls.
    
Another major factor in the win came from the total number of shots and shots on goal. Long Island took 41 shots with 30 on cage, while New York City took 13 shots (7 on cage). Additionally Long Island won the ground ball battle 38-27. Finally Long Island also cleared at 92%, leading all six teams, while holding NYC to 77%.