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4/10/2011- Lacrosse
St. Mary's wins fourth in sloppy outing
ADRIAN – The Eaglets continue to win games despite playing a sloppy and an overaggressive game. St. Mary’s beat Plymouth Salem 8-6 in a non-league contest during their annual pilgrimage to Adrian College Saturday (4-2), but the Eaglets might have found a
future goalie.
Freshman Peter Miller turned back 15 shots against the Rocks and earned the praise of his teammates and the coaching staff.
“I thought Peter played with a great deal of poise tonight considering it’s his first game on varsity and he’s only a freshman,” said Chris Brecht, St. Mary’s defensive coach. “I think we might have found the goalie we’ve been looking for.”
Greg Normand, St. Mary’s head coach, said if Peter is the guy, we won’t have to worry about goalie for quite a while.
“I am not happy about a freshman starting in our lineup, but right now he’s the best player we have to stand between the pipes and give this team some confidence,” Normand said.
St. Mary’s has recently graduated three college goaltenders (2008-2010 Buddy Christian –Michigan State; Adam Hatchard – Otterbein; Cam Schulze – Columbia) who all earned AllState honors during their playing days and the absence left the goaltendering cupboard a bit
bare.
“We were left without a goaltender and Steven Keith stepped in when we had no one else during the off-season,” Normand said. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciated Steven doing that, but asking someone to step up and play that position is more than difficult. He did,
without complaint, and gave me some time to prepare Peter to play with the varsity.”
Normand said Keith will immediately move to a mid-field position because of his athletic and lacrosse value to the team.
“Steven might have stepped from out of the moment, but he’s too valuable to waste just sitting on the bench,” Normand said. “He’ll play and help bolster our midlines.”
While the goaltending issue has been solved for the short-term, the Eaglets need to improve on their sloppy play if they plan on winning more games as the schedule tightens up.St. Mary’s committed 22 unforced errors and couldn’t finish eight shots inside of seven feet
of the net during Saturday’s win over Salem.
“We’ve played six games and that’s one-third of the season…..the time for trial and error is over,” Normand said. “As of now, we have a pretty good idea of what to expect and the playing rotation will be shortened to those who can catch and pass and run the offense or
defense.”
St. Mary’s was led in scoring by Evan Considine, who had five points, Chris Koski who racked up three points. Considine has three goals and Koski has two assists. Nick Parr scored two goals for the winners, as did Sean Dupack. The Eaglets received a strong effort from
faceoff specialist and first-line midfielder Spencer McInnis, who won 66 percent of his faceoffs and picked up six groundballs.
Defensively, P.J Walters has enforced the back line with his steady play. Walters had nine ground balls during Saturday’s contest. Brecht said Michael Killian continues to play steady for the Eaglets.
St. Mary’s is 4-2, despite its sloppy play overall, but the schedule gets tougher over the next week before the annual spring break. Novi Catholic Central, East Grand Rapids and Clarkston come to town this week. Normand said the unforced errors will have to improve
and the offense will have to find a way to finish near the net if the Eaglets are expected to compete and succeed.
“It’s real simple….we have to score inside more, finish, and we have to hang on to the ball,” Normand said. “Nothing more……nothing less.”
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