Get ready for the FINAL FOUR!!

Intro

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Aloha, aloha, aloha to another episode of In the Crease with Danny and Kevin. Oh, I forgot my discussion of D Two Men's The Cross.

SPEAKER_03 0:21

I forgot my Hawaiian music. You kill me.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

You kill me, Stenstrom. I know. Well, I'm your co-host, as Danny said, Kevin Stenstrom. And with me, as always, is the big kahuna Danny Moran. Hey, Danny.

SPEAKER_03 0:35

Hey, Kev, how are you out there in poor, poor, poor Hawaii?

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Back in the islands, sporting my Aloha youth a lot across. Uh there you go. K-Y-L-A. Gonna try to go watch a lacrosse practice this afternoon. It's only two, two o'clock in the afternoon here right now, and uh see my two Hawaiian lacrosse mentors, Paul and Jude, as they play. So I had to bring back your title of Big Kahuna for the episode.

SPEAKER_03 1:03

Well, thank you. I appreciate that. How's everything going? Good?

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Can't complain. You know, who's gonna listen to me as I'm in Hawaii if I'm complaining? You know, exactly. Exactly. So we got a did you get you did you get everything done on your car that you need to get done?

SPEAKER_03 1:18

I did, I did. It took a little bit longer than uh I expected, but everything is done, and the car sounds great. We're going for another 196,000. There we go.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

So, as you know, Danny, we've had player guest analysts on this season. But you know, as we reach, as we're heading towards, we're in the NCA tournament, we're heading towards the final four, we had to bring out the big guns. We had to bring the man one of our favorite coaches to know him is to love him, and I think a much better person, and that's Coach Chris Ryan. Hey coach, how you doing?

SPEAKER_04 1:57

How you doing, guys? Coach Ryan. You should have told me I would have put my flower shirt on here.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

I know, I know.

SPEAKER_04 2:04

I just and I just I just looked up my Hawaii 5-0 book'em Tano. There we go.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

Remember those? You remember that?

SPEAKER_04 2:12

Well, yeah, I mean, 95% of our viewership probably doesn't know what to do. No, have no idea. But yeah, us guys with thinning hair, we know exactly what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_03 2:22

Oh, you're so funny, Coach. How you been, Coach? Good to see you.

SPEAKER_04 2:25

Yeah, good to see you guys too. And like I said earlier, congratulations on the show. It's it's uh it's great. It's I I'm an avid listener, and I got enough time driving between the mount to uh back my brother's basement where I'm living right now every day. So I get to I I always I always uh I always uh take in the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Oh, cool. Thank you. Glad to hear that you're still staying in tune as you've got other priorities there at the mount uh with your team.

SPEAKER_03 2:54

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Week in Review

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Do you want to just get into it, Danny? If you want to start to do the week in the review and go over the games that were the first round, yeah, we'll get into it right away.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

We'll go through the first round. Sure, whatever you want to do.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Let's start in the north. First round game, St. Anselm against Bentley.

SPEAKER_03 4:20

Yeah, Saint Ace looks good, huh?

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Well, it's funny, Danny, and I'll point this out when we get to them when they played Mercy. But this game against Bentley, they won 16-6, and it was close in the first half, but in the last uh three minutes of that first half, it was 6-5. Uh, and and then the Saints, Saints took over. They scored three goals in three minutes to bring it 9-5 at the half. And that basically was it. They took the second half. Yeah. And when we when we talk about, I'll talk about this, when we talk about Mercy looking scary, that game in that second half, and I think it came true in several games, it's almost like a couple of the teams flipped a switch and just started to dominate. Pace did the same thing in their team. But you know, like in the third quarter, I think Bentley was on D. I felt like the whole quarter.

SPEAKER_03 5:13

Yeah, St. E's their offense is pretty lethal, man, and they're fast. And they just they just took over that game. They just took it over in that second half. There's really not much to talk about.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

I mean, no, because it was just an uphill battle uh for for Bentley. When they're down nine-five, you think okay, they have a chance. But when they're on their heels all the third quarter against St. A's, they didn't have a chance at all when he got in the fourth quarter. 16 to 6, the final score.

SPEAKER_03 5:42

Yeah, yeah. St. A's is a good team, man. We've been talking about them all year.

SPEAKER_04 5:46

And if you if Yeah, well, we had we had played them last year in the playoffs, and it was the first time the Merciers had run into St. A's. And uh I was I I mean, that was a one-goal game that went down to the wire, and and um, I know they returned a good deal, especially offensively, returned a bunch off that team, right? And they they were they were a big, talented, uh uh cohesive unit. And uh, I think another thing that goes into maybe this game is I think as this pod go podcast goes on, um, we'll be coming back to like teams with experience in the playoffs. And right, yeah, I think I think you could have gotten into a situation where you have you have a Saint A's team that's a little more seasoned right now, and you know, and you differ the playoffs are a different animal.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Yeah, and it's it's that's a good point, coach, because I think what's interesting is you know, any 10, both Bentley and Saint A's, they played each other before, they kind of split in in the season. Bentley finally made it to the NCA's last year, but Saint A's, like you said, may have just a little bit more of experience. And when you get on, I'm curious from you, when you get on top like that and you're up nine five at half, it's is there a real advantage to the team that's up and almost a disadvantage psychologically to the team that's down if you if you just can't, you know. To me, that's almost like four goals is nothing in the game a lot of times, but it just seems like they they could just could not Bentley could not get above that, and and Saint A's just poured it on.

SPEAKER_04 7:20

Well, I think I think a couple of things. One is it's just it's just harder to obviously to play from behind, like it's it's more taxing. It's it's more taxing, it's more taxing physically, it's more taxing mentally. I mean, everything everything that you have to do to try to make up a one goal difference, let alone a four goal difference um with it. And and you always want to play, you you know, you always want to play from the lead. So, you know, there are those times as a coach that like halftime comes and you don't want to see halftime, like things are going real well, you know, the team seems to be in a groove, confidence is up, you're in a rhythm, and then all of a sudden, uh, you know, all of a sudden halftime comes and you're like, Oh, you know, can we make this as quick as possible? So, you know, I I think um again, you go back to a team that's a that's experienced and with saying A's, like they probably have a little bit of a a chip on their shoulder. And we had been hearing some pretty good things about seeing A's in the preseason. Um, and I know they brought into some tran some transfers to really sort of stiffen up that lineup. So it's uh, you know, it's it's uh it'll be interesting to see as we move on to the next round here. Yeah, they're there's it could be a tough out.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

They could be solid, yeah. They are solid on offense. You you mentioned it on offense, but then on defense with Ryan Slattery and some of their others on close D. And then you look at their goalie, Finn Granara, who is a fisherman that just his first game was against a Delphi three weeks ago season. And he's three weeks ago better and better and better. Like he's growing up and and dealing with the situation of an NCA tournament against teams like now, he's got to go, as we'll get to it, he's got to go against a Delphi again in the final four. But really kind of interesting to watch. And if you and if you look at the stats, I mean, they all favored the Hawks. I mean, shots 46 to 24, shots on goal 22 to 13. Shots on goal for Bentley, they only got 13 on goal that game, and that has a lot to do with the defense. Absolutely, ground balls 41 to 27, and then face-offs. You talk about uphill battle, face-offs 20 to 6. Yeah, and and they usually do it with Craig Yannoni, you know, who was the specialist of any 10 specialist of the year, but they had multiple threats. Quinn Gannon went 10 for 10 for St. A's at the at the X, also. Just like it was a juggernaut in that second half.

SPEAKER_03 9:46

Yeah. Bentley just couldn't hang with them. Saint A's is a good team, man. They're solid all the way around fundamentally. They move the ball, they got a bunch of guys that can score, and they got a great defense. And the freshman Grenara's been standing on his head since they threw him into the deep end of the pool. So he doesn't know any better. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00 10:06

Yeah, it's almost they got like an electric shock treatment the first game against a Delphi where he didn't play too well, and now he's like just killing it. I love it. I love it. He's playing well. All right, let's move on to Pace Mercyhurst. And in this game, this game, we both got this wrong, Danny. We both picked Mercyhurst to win this game. And the reason we did coach, if you listen to it, this was experience. They they experience was one was definitely one of the one of the things. Experience making it all the way, and I think having a little bit of a bad taste in their mouth, a lot of players from last year, and how they finished that final, which wasn't indicative of the quality of play and players that Mercy Hurst had and has, right? They start a little bit slow this year with Coach Keeley. Kind of understandable in my, you know, you're getting used to a new system, new coach, kind of maybe a new language. You probably know better than me. Um, but they started to go on a roll, and so we just thought with that experience they would do it. And the game was very, very close in the first half. Um, it was it was 5'3 after one mercyhurst, and it was 7-6 Mercyhurst at halftime. But then things like Max Streedy at F at the X starting to dominate, you know. And well, he had the game of his life, he had the game of his life, yeah. Four goals and an assist as a face-off guy.

SPEAKER_04 11:26

As a face-off guy, I think he had four goals going into the game throughout the year.

SPEAKER_03 11:31

So I think three, coach. I think it was three goals going into that game.

SPEAKER_04 11:36

Well, he was the big man on campus after that game. So yeah, I I think um, sort of going back to what you're talking about in the St. A's game, when you're when you're strong up what I call the spine, okay. So when you're when you're strong, especially at the faceoff X and in the cage, um, you know, everything sort of branches off of that. And in that particular game, I thought that the pace goalie settled down in the second half.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:04

And started making some saves. It was very much, to tell you the truth, like it was very much like the um the GMAC championship game with Mercyers and Seton Hill, where old, you know, Brett settled down in the second half, yeah, made made some saves and allowed Merciers to sort of stretch out that stretch out that lead. And I th I thought the exact opposite happened in in this game. Um, the goalies started making some saves for pace, and sort of you could see everyone settle down and starting to produce some possessions. And then, you know, when you dominate the face-off X, a lot of times you could stay with a team in the first half. If you scheme, you know, if you're not winning faceoffs, you can scheme things up, you can junk it up. You you can you can sort of get your way around it, but sooner or later that that's gonna show. And one of the ways that it shows is just the accumulation of pressure off of the face from the face-off acts. That's more that's more of that's a bit larger volume of shots that your goalie's gonna be facing, it's more playing time for your defense, the D middies, that's more them clearing, getting up and down the up and down the field, and it was also a warm day. Okay, and for for anyone who's who's that not saying that that you know pace is sunny with palm trees down there, but for anyone who is who has ever uh spent any time in Erie, Pennsylvania, like it doesn't break 70 until July 4th. So when you when you when you have that kind of ball possession and you're controlling the tempo of the game, sometimes, sometimes that that could add up, it could wear you down, and and I've I've I've I've been a part of it before. And I could I could sort of see it at you know, the legs go, the brains go, the lungs go, and then and all of a sudden you all of a sudden you got some issues.

SPEAKER_03 13:54

You know, I felt that Coach Keeley really had the team home and they run, they rattled off 11 in a row. You know, whatever bugs was in the beginning of the season, Coach seemed to like get rid of those bugs. They were just they were humming along.

SPEAKER_05 14:05

Oh great job.

SPEAKER_03 14:06

Yeah, really good job. They were homing along. And I felt that Mercyhurst having more experience in the playoffs, having coming off a national championship run, just maybe having that little chip shoulder, and but that experience of been there, been there. And pace hasn't been there for a while, and none of these kids on the pace squad has an NCAA game yet.

SPEAKER_04 14:29

You know, so I thought you know, I just I just think the two, you know, when you get into well, any game, but especially playoffs where everything's just amplified, it's it's your goaltender and it's your face-off acts.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

It's so funny you say that, coaching.

SPEAKER_04 14:43

Those are the two, those are the two positions to pay attention to. If you're trying to forecast games, look at those two positions.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

I I love your your phrase or the definition of like the spine, because I wrote that note. I said Kern and Streedy, big difference to set up the offense and then dominate on D. Like it's if it's both. I mean, like you said, Max Streedy got them possessions and then just kept on rolling. Yeah, and then when you've got yeah, when you've got then when you've got Kern back there, I I think you tell me when your goalie is is dialed in like that, I would think the rest of the defense just relaxes and and and plays within themselves a little better. They're not tight.

SPEAKER_04 15:25

There was I've I've coached teams before, like if the defense lacks confidence in the goaltender, they they tend to try to do too much. Yeah, it turns into a defense that tries to prevent shots instead of just altering shots or producing bad shots or producing, I guess another way to say it would be high, you know, high percentage shots for the goalie to look at. So when you're in a situation where you have a large amount of trust, that anything from 13 plus has a pretty good chance of of being saved and going the other way, yeah, you do you do settle down. Um, and and you don't lose focus or anything that it actually allows you to focus more on what your job is, right? Like you just I've seen it before where all of a sudden defenses are trying to do everybody else's job instead of just concentrating on their responsibility. And a lot of that time comes from the relationship or the level of trust between the you know the six guys out in front of the goalie and the goalie itself. So, you know, again, the face-off acts and the in the crease is what you want to is what you want to be looking at right now.

SPEAKER_03 16:30

Yeah, makes sense. All right, all right. So let's so base moves on, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

In Saint A's moves on into the next round, yep. And and we'll so we'll get to the uh the quarterfinals. Let's go down to the south on the games on Wednesday, May 8th. And the first one is Lewis Maryville. We were wrong on that one too. We were. Lewis beats them the third time this year, and that's a that's a question I have for you, coach. When you are playing a team because St. A's in it is gonna be dealing out with a Delphi, and the Delphi is gonna be dealing with the St. A's, I should say. Lewis beat Maryville twice in this past season of the GLBC. And they what Danny and I said is the same thing we said last year when Bentley was going up to in against the Delphi and the NCAAs, they would have to beat him a third time to move on from that the first round. How difficult is it to win against a top team three times in a row in the same season?

SPEAKER_04 17:38

Uh it's a nightmare. Listen, I suck at math, but I I know the laws of probability, and sooner or later it's you're gonna get beat, right? It's just the way that that it goes. I remember one year in particular, um we were we were we had to beat a very good Lake Erie team. Coach Stocks was at Lake Erie at the time, and man, they were they were loaded. Um, I think we beat them 14-13 on a Tuesday night in Ohio. And then uh a week and a half later, we beat them, I think 14-7 in the in the uh I think it was the ECAC2 championship at the time. Okay, and we just caught them, you know, we had a we had a pretty easy go in the semis. They ended up going into overtime with uh Seton Hill in the semis on a hot day. We just caught him tired a day a day later. We're we're able to wrap that championship up, and then all of a sudden the CDs come out, we got to play them three days later. So, so and I I remember you know before the game being down by the locker room, sort of thinking things over outside, and uh they they just had so much talent on that team that you're like, geez, like sooner or later, it's it's going to happen, it just can't be today. Yeah, and I and I think that that ended up being a 13-12 or 14-13 overtime game.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 19:06

So, you know, the when you're when you're at this point in the season and every team is talented and and you've beaten someone twice in a year, you know, you do wonder, you know, because coaches they get their spidey sense going and and we just massively overthink things. So you start wondering like, you know, do they do they have uh a psychological you know edge because of the revenge factor you get so close? Are you guys mentally ready to go? Um, you know, have I done enough as a coach to prepare them for this? You know, meanwhile, the Game Scouts like 85 pages deep, you know, and you've got a lot of film over the season to go to Yeah, and you've watched every game four times, and you're like, oh like you know, that guy's got different colored shoelaces on. What's going on? You know, and um it's so yeah, I I think the I it is a very tough task at at this point.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

Yeah, and the interesting thing about that about this game, Coach and Danny, is same exact score as the GLVC championship. Lewis goes out 11-10, and this game was a carbon copy of that GLVC championship. You look at it three.

SPEAKER_03 20:16

So evenly matched, right? Yeah, so evenly matched these two teams.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

3-3 after one. It was 3-2 after one in the GLBC. 7-4 at half, Maryville. Maryville was up by three at half in the GLBC Championship, and Lewis ties it at eight. Lewis tied it at eight to come back in the GLBC championship. I'm like, it's these teams know each other so well, and they're so close in talent and and matchups. It was just crazy. And then they trade goals again. Lewis goes up by two, and Merryville gets within one with 20 seconds left. They win the faceoff, but they can't drain it with 20. That's tough. I uh that's another good question, Coach. I like I think 20 seconds, you gotta win the face-off, go down, and score. I mean, how many how many times do you I'm sure you practice that for things like that, but to me, that's just like you you've just gotta be have a great game plan of that one um set play, probably. And if it doesn't go right, you're done with time.

SPEAKER_04 21:25

Well, I mean, to tell you the truth, you need players that can make plays. Like you can run whatever you want in the in the playoffs. As you get down where your margin of error is so slight, you know, this this comes down to the Jimmies and the Joes.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:42

Um I mean, we were down to Limestone one year with a minute twelve left. Um you know, limestone limestone gets called for withholding the ball in the corner. We're actually down 17. With a minute 12 left in the semis. We pick the ball up, threw it, threw it to uh a guy in the middle of the field. The other guy broke up the field, he catches it, turns, throws it up field, we go down, and we we score with X amount of seconds left to tie the game up to send it send it into overtime. And I'm on the sideline and I'm watching, and I was like, holy crap, that worked. Because we had we had practiced that situation for about four minutes the day before in practice. But it was a you know, that would have never worked if an all-American defenseman hadn't picked the ball up on the restart, thrown it to a you know, to a to a very experienced long stick middy who turns and flips the ball to a short stick D midi who's been playing for three years, who throws it to a or excuse me, to Jimmy Cheka at the time one of the best players in D2 goes down and can't shot. So it really didn't matter when I drew up. I needed three very good players in that situation to make that you three guys handle the ball. That's right. Don't don't give it to anybody else, just you you three, and that's that's your great coaching move of the year.

SPEAKER_03 23:14

And I always say, you know what, I think the kids at this time of year that are on good teams in the playoffs, yeah. Coaching becomes a part of it, but you know what? These kids know they've been around the game, and you know, that sometimes the game dictates itself, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_04 23:28

You're not gonna do any at this point in the year, you're not doing anything, you're not dropping a new offense in, or this it's a it's about execution, obviously. Like you know what they're gonna do, they know what you're gonna do, and and it's it's about execution on on the field. You're not gonna go reinvent the wheel, right? Five things out of nationals of the national semi-final, of course.

SPEAKER_03 23:52

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:52

And that's although it did drop a zone on Lemoyne two days before the game in the national semis one year. So I gotta watch. Well, that's I gotta watch what I said.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

Yeah, that's interesting. But if you Danny, like you said, so evenly matched. If you look at the at the stats, the team stats on this one, they're so close, it's unbelievable. Well, it's what's crazy about it is if you look at some of the stats, you would think, oh, Maryville must have pulled this out. Shots, they had 60 to Lewis 30, 50 to Lewis 36, shots on goal 33 to 29. A little bit a lot's a lot closer. So Lewis, you know, offensive efficiency, pretty good. Ground balls, Maryville had 37 to Lewis 21.

SPEAKER_04 24:31

But then you what were what were face-offs?

SPEAKER_00 24:34

Faceoffs. That's a good question. I didn't get that. They were close, they were very close because I'd put it down. I think those were type, but the the saves, Maryville had 18 to Lewis 23. And here's the big difference, though, in extra man offense, man up. Maryville went oh for five, and Lewis went three for six in a one goal game.

unknown 24:56

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 24:57

Yeah, yeah. And then anytime, anytime your goalie's 20 plus in the save, you you got a pretty good. I mean, what I what I sort of take away from from the stats you just you just gave out was one, you have the one goalie that's that's 20 plus that the right away percentages say you have a pretty good chance of winning that game. Yeah, I don't I don't know the exact percentages or anything, but I you know, shots on there there was one year during the season we were playing Seton Hill and we outshot Seton Hill like 53, much like that, and we lost the game. Yeah, and going into the GMAC championship that year, I remember to tell the kids like, I don't care if we only take 28 shots in the game, they got to be quality, and we need 15 of them to go in. Well, and that's that's what that's what happened. So I'm wondering about shot selection. I'm what you know, right? Right.

SPEAKER_00 25:49

I'm wondering that's if that stuff starts, you you know, and that's why I I I always I don't just look at shots, I try to look at the shots on goal with that to see you know where was the difference on that because a team could have like this time, Lewis had a lot less shots, but their shots on goal.

SPEAKER_04 26:07

If you're taking if you're and if you're taking 50 shots in a game, where are they coming from? I mean, that's a high value to take. So I mean, are these shots from 13 plus where your goalie should have them? You know, are these shots from six and in, you know, that are that are high percentage, high quality finishes? It's a different difference between shooting the ball and finishing the ball. Um, you know, one of the things that I always say with the guys is, you know, work work for a work for a five-yard finish, don't settle for a 13-yard shot. So again, when you're talking about that quality and and the pressure that you're putting on the goalie and the defense at that point, yeah, I'd be interested to see what the dynamic is. Yeah, and I'll in that game.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

Yeah, the what was happening in the first half a lot that that I wrote a note down to is that both teams to begin with seem to be like just uh dodging down the alley and taking a shot from there, which to me, the short stick D Midi was doing his job. It's the exact kind of shot that the that the goalie wants to see. Some of them didn't even go on net, but they weren't scoring off of them. It wasn't until the second half when they started to get the ball on the inside that they started burying it.

SPEAKER_04 27:15

I think, too, though, you're gonna see this kids' coaches under these conditions perform, react, respond differently. Right, you know, and as you go up the food chain in this, you know, and the crowds get bigger and it's more intense, and the stadiums get bigger. Um, you can see some uncharacteristic behavior out of your kids, you know. So I am sure that the coaches weren't telling them, hey, the first time we touch the ball, dodge down the alley and just chuck one at the right. I'm sure the coaches are on the sideline going, what are you doing? And you'll get that blank stare, you know, because the kids are just burning off energy at that point.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:59

So, you know, watch that as you move forward and you guys are watching games. It's one of the keys. Like, I thought last year, like us in the in the in the finals, I thought Lenore Ryan just stayed real, it was really comfortable in their skin, and they just did what they did well, you know, and we made some on characteristic, we we made some of those uncharacteristic plays out on the field. So it's it's something people just respond differently.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

Yeah, yeah, that's a that's a great point. In fact, I was listening to a coach who said that around this time, he almost oh actually, I think it was Coach Clark. I heard him talking about on the website, talking about how he tries to practice more on the things they're really good at than trying to fix the things that they're not as strong at at this point in the game. Like you just said, working your strengths, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:50

You know, you think to fix something, it's muscle memory, it's reps over and over and over and over again until it just becomes second nature. That's out the window at this point, yeah. Like whatever you got is what you're going with. Yeah, um, and that's why I said this this comes down, this comes down to the Jimmies and the Joes. Yeah, that's what the stars are gonna be stars.

SPEAKER_03 29:13

Yeah, definitely have to agree with that.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

Well, then let me ask you this, too, because I've seen this before we get to the limestone game, I've seen this with a few of the teams when you know the usual, especially on the offensive side, you know some of their offensive studs and what they're doing, but when some of the younger players start producing in the in in several of the games, not just one, where they're they're getting two, three points to help their team out, and they're not the ones you saw usually during the season. I would think that's really one of the X factors as you go through this tournament, because now teams have to also learn to scheme a little bit against those guys versus just the the main guys. Or am I am I overthinking that?

SPEAKER_04 29:57

No, I mean we I in fact, I think it was I could be wrong on this because I can't remember 15 minutes ago, but I think it was that Lake Erie game that we won in overtime. Our first midfield line had no points, and our second midfield line I think combined for like 10. And one of the things is I was thinking about this podcast and sort of things that stood out to me, you know, in the playoffs. You you're absolutely on to something I was thinking about, and that is the development of depth. Yes, because you're gonna have to run bodies, um injuries will happen. Like some you know, kids might come out, and a kid the the stage might be too big, you gotta put a new kid in. Like there's there's some things that go on, and that that development of depth uh which has been going on throughout the season, you know, like we used to say freshmen are no longer freshmen at this point, right? You know, if you're a freshman that's been playing, you're not a freshman anymore. So now are you gonna get production from that depth? And those are you know, I've I've always said three of the most important positions on a lacrosse field are your third attackman, your third defenseman, your third midfielder. Because you you know the other team's strengths, you know their studs. Can you is your third midfielder going to beat their third midfielder? Is your third attackman going to beat their third defenseman? Or vice versa, are you gonna win those battles? You know, a lot of times you'll be like, hey, listen, this guy's gonna get us points. What we can't have happen is for the is for the supporting cast to kill us, right? You know, well, we were playing um Wingate two years ago, and the attackman there had seven goals in the game, but we won the game 14-10 or whatever it was. So I was fine with yeah, giving that guy his points with Danny having seven goals, you know, but we were we were able to hold Willie to like one and two or one in one or something, yeah. So at that point, again, sort of the the the probabilities and and averages and everything come together, and you're like, all right, I'll give it up here, just as long as we don't get killed there. And that was that's an example of of that kind of thinking, sort of of happening on the field.

SPEAKER_02 32:20

Makes sense, makes a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_00 32:22

Yeah, okay. Let's move on to the limestone you indie game. We called this one right, Danny. We called it limestone, but I'll tell you it's a good game. Uindy.

SPEAKER_04 32:32

Guys, I'm gonna interrupt you. Okay, interrupt you for a second. Coach Stocks is a stud, he is certified stud of a coach. That's all I gotta say on this one.

SPEAKER_00 32:45

Go ahead. Well, that's it. That's all the analysis we needed. Thanks, coach.

SPEAKER_03 32:49

Yeah, no, his squads are good, man. You know, his squads are good. They gave limestone a game, man. They were right there with him the whole time. Ahead of them, ahead of him.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

It wasn't until the end that limestone pulled it out 16-13. And what you just said, coach, if you look at their season, we talked about this in the last podcast. U Indy came in last year, the NCA first round against Wingate and beat them, and they just lost to him like two or three weeks before that regular end of the regular season, right? This year, the and but last year, you indie had a much better record. I think I wouldn't say they're a much better team, I just think they they ended up with a better record. They were, you know, they didn't they didn't falter as much in the GLVC until the the championship. This year they ran into some problems in in season and then in the in the GLVC championship. So you're kind of like, okay, limestone has just been, you know, lights out except for against Lenore Ryan. So they're gonna take this game. And you Indy never, ever, ever gave up. And at times we were ahead when I thought I was just I was I was presently shocked, pleasantly shocked to see it almost, you know, to see them and how they're playing and going up against this juggernaut of a team this year and almost beating them.

SPEAKER_04 34:05

No, and and and we all know that you know limestone is not the easiest place to play. Um, so you're yeah, you're you're you're you know you're up against it when you're when you're when you're going there. Um, and the other thing too is we alluded to it, and I don't have exact figures or whatever, but I can remember last year's U Indie team. Um, I mean, they lost a lot of players.

SPEAKER_03 34:30

Yeah. Um they were good last year. Their defense was really good.

SPEAKER_04 34:34

Yes. I mean, they were put together. They I think they were a very complete team. Um, they're a coach stocks coach team. But, you know, going into this year, um, you know, when we were putting last year's schedule together at Mercy Hers and going through things, you know, one of the things that Ryan and I discussed in the lot in the in the office was the simple fact that you know Indy was gonna sustain a pretty large hit graduation-wise, right? Um, with it. So, you know, I was like, gee, it would be interesting. And I knew that, you know, during the fall and going into early season, they're struggling with some things and and uh and everything else, and you know, they just kept chipping away at it. And you and Greg and I had some kind of communication during the season. Uh and by the by the way, he's a great coach, but he's also a sandbagger, like he's constantly like, oh, we're so bad, you know, 75 of my guys are injured. Yeah, don't believe a thing that I would not take that guy to Vegas for a second, right? So that's so so because he was saying that, and by the way, the second biggest sandbagger is Tim Boyle. Tim has never had a good team, he has always got problems, the world is always lined up against him, and then he's like 12 and two. So, yeah, so but those two, I don't believe a word either of them tells me. Yeah, so but anyway, it's it just it just seemed it just seemed like incrementally through the season, they are getting better, struggled at the end, all right, and maybe had an uncharacteristic string of losses. But you know what? Sometimes they can really serve as a focusing mechanism going into the playoffs, yeah. And uh, and again, they they were they were ready to go, they're well coached, they play hard, and uh they you know they had a great season.

SPEAKER_03 36:30

I was wondering if they were gonna get in because they lost to unranked Rockhurst, and I said, Man, they that's an unranked team, man.

SPEAKER_00 36:37

And then they lost in the semifinals of the GLBC. Both of those I thought may drop them out, and maybe you tell me, Coach, now they get in, and knowing they played their ass off how how coach stocks is and the quality of players on the team, they're like that. They probably just said, We deserve to be here. I don't care what anyone else says, I don't care what those in the crease knuckleheads said. We deserve to be here, and we're gonna show you. And that's exactly what they did.

SPEAKER_04 37:01

They proved you get a little bit, you're playing with house money at that point, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:04

Right, right.

SPEAKER_04 37:05

People are saying you're not even supposed to be there. So if you lose that game, what are people gonna say? Oh, I shouldn't have been there. So who cares at that point? Like, go out, let the you know, let's blow a whistle and let's go play lacrosse at that at that point. That's you know, I I think uh I think the team really directly does reflect um Greg and his coaching staff and and everything else. I mean, in in all of places Indianapolis, Indiana, they've been able to, and I don't say that for any Hoosiers out there, I don't say that in a derogatory way, right? But no, much like Erie, Indy is off the lacrosse traditional path, right? And he's been he's been able to he's been able to uh develop a winner there. Oh, yeah, it's not the easiest, it's not the easiest, easiest thing to do.

SPEAKER_03 37:48

No, and but he does a great job, and his teams are every year they're just getting better and better, I think. I just think he does a great job of recruiting, and uh and and his teams are solid, they just play the game well.

SPEAKER_04 38:01

They do and last year they had a couple guys that were really sort of a focus. You you knew the ball is gonna be in Billig's stick, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:09

Right.

SPEAKER_04 38:09

I mean, the the kid was unbelievable, he's one of the better attackmen. In my 23 years of division two, Drew Billig was one of the better better attackers that that I've seen. Yeah, I think you know, this year, I don't know if they really had that central figure, and you had a team that just played well together. And you know, when you when you have that going, I mean I I don't know their their their statistical breakdowns, but I'd love to see, you know, is the scoring even is it scored across is it across the board? Is there was there depth to their production? Yeah, um, because those are all signs that you have a team that you have a team that's all rowing in the same direction, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:49

Right, exactly, exactly. All right, so let's go ahead and Tampa.

SPEAKER_03 38:53

So Tampa and Lewis wind up meeting each other, right? Tampa and Lewis, pace and a delphi, St. A and Mercy, and got LR still to talk about, right?

SPEAKER_00 39:03

Lr and limestone. We got those four games. Do you want to start in the north again? Sure, why not? All right, well, let's talk a Delphi pace. I was at the game. Well, so let me you you texted me a few times. Here's what I would say, Danny. I would love your opinion on this. A Delphi wins the game 14 to 9, but I actually think the game was much closer than what the score showed. I mean, pace was pretty close uh up until like the last eight minutes of the fourth quarter. Now, I thought a Delphi's defense was really good throughout, but uh Pace Pace's defense uh stood tall too a lot of times, just to keep it close until those last eight minutes.

SPEAKER_03 39:41

You know what though, Kev, uh to be honest with you, I never felt that a Delphi was gonna lose that game. You know, I just never did. You know, the first quarter is always a feel them out quarter, yeah. And you know, this game was about Dylan Renner in goal and Kyle Lewis, the mini for a Delphi. He had a day. That kid is good, man.

SPEAKER_00 40:01

Yeah, yeah. He's got a good tournament so far, and without a doubt.

SPEAKER_03 40:05

And like their big boys like Steinbeck, he was scoreless, and Eamon Hall was scoreless, but they had eight other scorers. You know what I mean? That's what we were talking about earlier. Yeah, the draft. So they lose all their uh face-offs. They, you know, they're they did okay this time.

SPEAKER_00 40:23

They won 10 of 26, which is for them uh really good victory.

SPEAKER_03 40:27

Really, really good because they've been getting destroyed at face-offs. They don't really have a face-off guy coach at Delphi this year, but they have Dylan Renner in goal, and the guy just doesn't, he's amazing. He's got to be the goalie of the year. If he's not, I I'm gonna be shocked because the stops that this kid makes, I know he's just like it must be like a big old beach ball to him. You know what I mean? Because he's just stopping everything.

SPEAKER_04 40:54

Well, and they're and they're gonna need that as they push forward, because if you are struggling at the face-off acts, like in in 2007, when when Merciers went to its first national championship game, we weren't particularly strong at the face-off X either. We had Jason LeCham, one of the best goalies in division two history in the cage, who would make 18 to 24 saves a game and make this look great. But what it did is it sort of evened out, you know, if you're gonna lose it at the face-off X, you could produce predict, you know, you could you could reduce the impact of that by one goalies making saves and two controlling turnovers. Um, and we are able to do that and go a long way. Um, with it. So, I mean, if if runner's playing at a high level and they are you know, and they're and they're below 40 at the face-off X, he can still sort of swing the game in your in your in your favor back to you. It's just it can be a risky proposition.

SPEAKER_03 41:48

You know, Coach Purdy puts great teams together every year. He reloads and reloads. His defense is really good this year. Yeah, really good. Like that kid Delessandro, the sophomore, he had like six cost turnovers, five calls turnovers in the game. There were calls and a lot of turnovers. They were making Pace uncomfortable, they were making him. That was one of my yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:09

Well, the thing that I uh I noticed, Danny, in the first half, some things that Pace struggled with. So they had several, they had several uh man up opportunities that they couldn't convert. Oh, for five. And like we taught what we talked about, that's that's something you've got to you've got to get at least a couple. If you've got like four, you maybe may you need at least one. You need something to s to keep it close. And when you've got that in the first half, plus in the first half they had nine turnovers uh against Delphi. When in the total game against Mercy Hurst, they only had 12. Yeah, yeah, and so there were those just little things that just kept, and that goes back to what you said of Delphi's defense, Danny.

SPEAKER_03 42:55

Yeah, they're just they make them uncomfortable, uncomfortable, force them into things they don't want to do. Bad passes, then it's all it's five seconds left on the shot clock, and now they're forcing stuff, you know what I mean? And just Adelphi's defense has been their backbone all year, yeah, and they got studs all over on offense when they get the ball, they put the ball in the back of the net. But they're they do play a lot of defense because they're giving up a lot on at the face-off, but the defense is so strong, it's been keeping them in the in the entire year, actually.

SPEAKER_00 43:29

I totally agree, I totally agree. And and that was the difference. It'll be really interesting to see what we talk about when we get to the predictions between Adelphi and St. A's in in the final four.

SPEAKER_03 43:40

Coach Mariano reached his 200th win as a coach in the yeah, congratulations to Tom.

SPEAKER_00 43:49

I sent him a note after they they won in their first round because I was really impressed with them. And he he this is the type of coach that Mariano is. He goes, I love these boys. He that You know, when you and that just I love to hear things like that. It's it's not about the X's and O's, it's about the team he's built, the culture he's built, and the kind of kids he has. And their team is damn good. They just ran up against a team that you know Delphi's defense is just that much better. All right, let's move on. Mercy against St. Anselm. We both thought Mercy was scary. And and so we said that before the even the Wednesday games when I saw St. A's, and they were scary in that game. St. Anselm pulls it out 14 to 11.

SPEAKER_03 44:33

Surprising. Surprised me. Actually, I thought Mercy was gonna win the game.

SPEAKER_00 44:39

Before the game? Because there's many times during that game, it was just like, wow, I couldn't believe that St. A's.

SPEAKER_03 44:46

I said to myself, you know what? Mercy's got Jason Cooner at the X.

SPEAKER_00 44:49

Right, right. That's what we both talked about last week.

SPEAKER_03 44:52

So dominant all year, you know, that Mercy's gonna have the ball all game. But you know what? There was times when Cooner won face-off and then turned the ball over because St. A's defense was amping it up. They played really good St. A's deep.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

Both sides of the ball, both sides of the ball. Their defense, I mean Finn Granera had a 75% save percentage in that game.

SPEAKER_03 45:15

The freshman, this is the kid they just threw into the pool three days, three weeks ago. Unbelievable. He doesn't know any better. You know, that's what I'm thinking. He just doesn't know.

SPEAKER_04 45:26

Kevin, what were what were man up, man downs in that game?

SPEAKER_03 45:32

Mercy was oh for three, and St. A's was uh one at for one for two.

unknown 45:37

St.

SPEAKER_03 45:37

A's outshot them.

SPEAKER_05 45:39

Refs let them play.

SPEAKER_03 45:42

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 45:43

Good for the good for the referees.

SPEAKER_03 45:45

I like that too. I like it when they let them play as well.

SPEAKER_00 45:48

And it was it was like you what you said about St. A's, coach. Their offense was clicking. I mean, ball movement, off ball movement by players. They were just getting guys in the spots they wanted. In fact, I was really kind of surprised to see Jake Davis, their trans one of their transfers, was so wide open on a couple of his shots, you know, off the wing, probably you know, seven yards out. But they just got the uh Mercy's defense moving enough that like they could not get that uh third or fourth slide back over to him in time. I mean, he just had he was wide open.

SPEAKER_03 46:26

You know what? I think C N A's like when I watched this game, I just said to myself, I kept saying, especially in the second half, I was like, man, C A's looks quicker, they look just look quicker. Yeah, they look faster to the ball, faster to the spot, faster. Just a little quicker than Mercy. And I'm not sure that Mercy was ready for that. And I I was completely wrong. I'll eat pro all day because I really liked Mercy all year. They have a really strong offense with Jason Kuner. They got Gerdville back there, man amongst boys on the defensive side.

SPEAKER_04 46:57

I mean, I just really been playing college across for like 18 years.

SPEAKER_03 47:04

Yeah, he does seem like he's been there a long time.

SPEAKER_04 47:07

It spans the ages, yeah. Yeah, in this in this era of you know, the COVID stuff's coming to an end and everything else. I mean, there's there's just some guys you're like, didn't you graduate like 12 years ago?

SPEAKER_00 47:19

Yes, right. And COVID wasn't happening in 2011.

SPEAKER_03 47:23

There's a man on the boys out there too. He's good.

SPEAKER_04 47:26

Great, but you know what? That's the you know, mercy is another team. They had a great year despite losing a huge amount to graduation and and getting Gerdville back, and and and obviously, you know, last year they sort of had the two-headed monster at the at the face-off acts.

SPEAKER_03 47:43

Yeah, uh, right, which really helped them Aguerros, job by coach taking a team and getting them to get them together, you know, probably you know, probably uh uh one of the maybe least experienced mercy teams over over the last couple years because they've always had that core.

SPEAKER_04 48:03

Um and they lost a good amount of it.

SPEAKER_00 48:05

So and but they had some guys on offense, like you said, they had they lost a lot of huge production guys, but they had guys. Yeah, then uh Greg Gibbons steps up in his brother's shoes and had a great, great season. I mean, this guy stepped up, TJ Heider, just a constant from last year to this year. Really, really good team. I really thought, well, it was close, it was a three-three goal score, but it seemed like more than that at times to me that it was gonna be 12-8 at one point. Uh, and then Mercy kind of kind of kind of closed the gap, but they just couldn't do it all the way. Really good game. All right, so let's go down to the South Region quarterfinals. Let's start with Tampa Lewis, and Tampa pulls it out pretty easily, 20 to 3. All I wrote for this to begin with is Tampa was Tampa, and Lewis did not have an answer.

SPEAKER_03 49:00

I mean Lewis Lewis hung in there until about the 2:30 mark of the first quarter. Yeah, they hung in there, they were hanging in there. Two to one, they were looking good, and then Tampa hit like three in a row and was like five-one or something after one, and then they never looked back.

SPEAKER_04 49:16

They was two two two two things. What time was face off, and what was the temperature?

SPEAKER_03 49:22

One o'clock, probably like 82. Yeah, they said no.

SPEAKER_00 49:25

They I heard on the pot on the on the uh the broadcast, Danny, 88, but it was like 96 on the field. And you talk about a difference for Lewis coming from Chicago area. Hell yeah. All in the favor of Tampa.

SPEAKER_04 49:42

So the reason why I asked that question is there was a year we went down to Tampa, I think it might have been the quarterfinals. We we uh we flew out of Erie, and when we left Erie, it was 42 and missed, believe it or not. And we fly down to Tampa and uh we're getting off where we're we get off the plane, and it's 96 degrees.

SPEAKER_03 50:09

Oh god, no.

SPEAKER_04 50:10

So I just I just remember uh Ryan Sullivan, the assistant at Tampa, was my long stick mini. And and now Ryan's really not built for speed anyway, but I was watching him. It's funny you say about two minutes left in the first quarter. I'm watching Ryan run down the field the ball, and I you know, I know he's trying as hard as he can, and he wasn't going anywhere. And and I just I just said, This is you know, you when you go down to play Tampa in the playoffs, you are gonna be playing a lot more than just a very good lacrosse team.

SPEAKER_03 50:52

It's like walking into a wet rag, a warm, wet rag, the weather's so yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:57

I mean, and it didn't matter. I mean, we had cases of water stacked up in kids' rooms, we you know it didn't it doesn't matter when you get out there you go down there, it's a totally different beast.

SPEAKER_00 51:09

It's the humidity down there because to me, I always as a runner, when I have to run in humidity, I always call it resistance training because it's not just the heat. You feel like you're actually like you said with Ryan Sullivan, you feel like you're moving slower because you're what you're running through water, it feels like you know, it just it's just an it's an it's a force, it's just holding you back. That's the way I feel.

SPEAKER_04 51:31

Well, I can tell you, I can tell you too. One year we went down to limestone to play in the national semis. I think it was oh three, and we flew into Charlotte, and again, we left Erie, and it was it was pretty cool. Get into Charlotte, we're getting off the plane, and it was it was it was actually pretty cool. They pulled the bus like right up to the plane on the tarmac. Like it's the only time in my in my life I even remotely felt like I was in Led Zeppelin. And I can't, and as as the guys are getting off the plane and going directly outside, they're coming through the threshold of the door, exiting the plane, and I just hear, oh oh, yeah, oh, and I'm like, what are they doing? And I got I I went through the door to step down, and the heat just hit you in the face, and I went, Oh, and I'm like, this isn't good, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, this is not good. Yeah, so Tampa wounds up wearing sweats in practice does not prepare you for putting that muck down there.

SPEAKER_03 52:33

No, and you know what? The good thing about Tampa, JB actually called the dogs off in the fourth quarter. It was only two goals scored in the fourth quarter. You know, I'm I'm gl happy that he did that because they were just putting on a clinic against Lewis.

SPEAKER_04 52:48

Yeah, yeah, and you know what, but here's it's something we haven't mentioned, too. Like, how great is it to have really two new teams in the playoffs?

SPEAKER_02 52:57

Oh, it's great. You know, we're oh, it's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 52:59

Maryville merge, and you and you have Lewis, and you have Lewis get in there. Um, because division two is changing, as we as we know, it's been changing for the last couple of years, you know, either pluses or minuses, and to have those two programs and others begin to to emerge and provide and and make the divisions much deeper, I think is only is only a is is a great thing for division two lacrosse.

SPEAKER_00 53:27

Well, and it's funny, coach, because we talked about that during the uh conference tournament championships. We talked about the GLVC specifically almost being a pick-em tournament. Like you couldn't pick. We did, and I we got I got lamb-based it on social media for my picks because they were wrong. But I like I said, hey, look at like I could pick any four of those teams to win the game. I really don't know who's gonna win. I'm gonna put my neck out there and say, you know, it's gonna be Maryville and you Indy, and it was Maryville and Lewis. And and to see them do that again and then come back and play a game in the opening round, first round, and they it's 11-10, just another great game. It's great to see that kind of lacrosse being played by new teams in the tournament, even like Pace. Pace hasn't been there since 2017, they've been there before, but that's what I love seeing is some new teams, new blood in there, see what they can do. That's what I'm kind of excited about on automatic qualifiers because I think there's some teams that haven't gotten the shot because of where they sit geographically, that they could do some damage in the especially in the first round.

SPEAKER_04 54:29

Well, and I'll and I'll tell you this too, you know, going way back. Um, you know, when I first got into division two, I think there was like 29 teams, and two teams went to the playoff, and it was pretty much controlled by New York Tech, Adelphi, CW Post. And then and then the NCA stepped in. You know, we go to four teams, it starts to expand. Um, and I'll and I will tell you a story. We had, I won't name names, but we had a signed, I was still the assistant at Mercyhurst at the time. We had a signed contract with one of those three teams to go to their home field the following year and play. And all of a sudden, this root, you know, all of a sudden the NCA steps in, we're gonna go to regionalization. Um you know, the the uh the the the the division two syndicate was broken up at that point, yeah, they didn't like it. And this particular coach called us up and said um that he wasn't gonna play us. And we said, well, you know, we you know, we have a signed contract, and he said, if I play you guys, I'm supporting the NCA welfare system. And oh yes, from from that point forward, and I also tell you, I never we never lost to that coach. So just saying karma's karma, it is what it is. But what what happened then was limestone that year, I believe, won a national championship and gave gave sort of bolstered this idea. You had the emergence of dowling of mercy hearst, Lemoyne started to build you know an empire in Syracuse. So again, when you talk about EQs and the effect that it could have on other teams being able to grow, if the NCA hadn't stepped in at that point and said, listen, we're gonna take this over, we're gonna expand the tournament um and guarantee the division two championship, then you know, Danny, Timmy, and myself and and other coaches wouldn't have been able to go out and have have the you know the arrows in our quiver to be able to go out and recruit the way that we did. So the Qs are gonna be a huge, huge boost to the division. I mean, I just think it's a it's a uh terrific sign of maturity for for for the division.

SPEAKER_03 56:51

Totally agree, totally 80 80 teams in division two this year, coach.

SPEAKER_04 56:56

80 teams 29 when I started.

SPEAKER_00 56:58

Wow, crazy, crazy, and that was only like five, six years ago, coach, right?

SPEAKER_04 57:03

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think I was like 21. Dog years, dog years.

SPEAKER_00 57:08

Yeah, all right. Let's move on to the Lenore Ryan limestone game. Game, yeah. This is another uh always a battle. Lenore Ryan pulls it out 15-13. This this was just a tight game all the way through. Five-three after one LR, and then it was seven six at half in the third. This is where I picked it up, Danny. This was funny. I'm actually flying. So, this is what I hate, coach. They put the every game for the division two NCA tournament on the exact same time. Four games. One, you can't watch them all. Like, if you really want to grow the game and grow division two, split them up so people can watch different games and see different teams and see what they can do. They do that for division one. All right, I'm off my soapbox now. But anyway, I land, Annie. I land in LA. We land early by about a half hour. So I'm like, oh, cool. I think I can watch the whole second half of the LR limestone game. And then the pilot comes on and says, Good news we land early, bad news, there's a there's a plane still at our gate, so we're gonna have to hold tight for about 10 minutes. I dial up the game on my phone, luckily. That's the beauty of technology today. I watched the whole half from my phone because it took us 45 minutes to to get into the uh into the gate.

SPEAKER_03 58:29

Well, the first half was high speed, high energy, really fast-paced game. Both teams going up and down the field, taking shots and went back and forth. I I swear it, when these two play, I feel like I'm watching the D1 caliber game. Studs on both sides of the ball for both teams. They just there's not very many mistakes being made. There's not a lot of passes getting overthrown, or you know, why you know, winding up on the ground. It's just a really well-played game between two really, really good, good lacrosse teams.

SPEAKER_00 59:03

And then you look in the second half, and in the third quarter, to me, it seemed like limestone just clicked, right?

SPEAKER_03 59:10

They were kickoffs, found their rhythm offensive, they were strong.

SPEAKER_00 59:14

They were strong on D, and their offense was putting on a show. And they found their rhythms. And there were some goals they had against Rob Pence Benny, almost like you could see his frustration. Like, it's like, was he is this breaking him? Like, uh, did they finally get to the guy, the guy next to Dylan Renner, or I thought has a shot.

SPEAKER_03 59:31

Yeah, because they ran off three in a row real quick in that third quarter.

SPEAKER_00 59:34

Felt like they had possessions for most of the quarter until the very end. It's 12-8 near the end of the third. And then all of a sudden, Mancini comes back in for faceoff for Lenore Ryan, wins a couple of them. They scored twice to make it 12-10. They scored two goals in the third, they score five more. They go score seven unanswered against Limestone.

SPEAKER_03 59:56

Well, Limestone was leading leading after the third quarter. Yeah, 12-10. Yeah, 12-10. I thought it was I thought it was 12-8 after three.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:04

12-10 after three. They came when Orang came back the last couple minutes, scored two to make a 12-year-old.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:10

Right, right, right. And then they scored another one in a row. Yeah, seven in a row, unanswered. LR's good, man. They proved why they're the national champs. They showed fortitude to me, they showed patience to me, because you know, they haven't been down by four or five goals, I don't think, all year. Yeah. And limestone went on that little run there, and that was and you know what? They kept they kept steady. They just kept steady.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:35

Yeah, that's my question.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:36

And guys, what that is, that's an experienced team.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:40

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:41

So that was one of those game is the game goes like this, that experienced team just stays nice and steady, knowing that it will come back to them and they don't panic.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:50

And well, and this is what's this is what's funny, coach. One of the broadcasters said it going into the fourth quarter, this is a game of who wants it more. I don't know if I totally agree with that, but I I can say, just from my neophyte perspective, that when you see what Lenore Ryan did at the end of the third quarter and through the fourth quarter, that's one of those teams, like you said, with experience that seemed to go to the next level to win that game. Like they knew they could, right? Like, yeah, we've been here before. Just just relax, just relax. We've got this. And then they turned it up a notch. That's what it looked like to me. I mean, so is that all experience? Is there is there, I mean, what do you think?

SPEAKER_04 1:01:34

Yeah, absolutely. It's a it's a winning mentality. Um, I remember one year we were playing Queens and we went down. Jimmy Jim Fritz was the coach at Queens at the time, and I think Queens jumped on us like four, five, one, and they were all going crazy. And Jim said he turned and he looked at our sidelines, and he said, I was standing there with my arms crossed, and there was he he said he looked and there was absolutely no panic, nothing. And he and he said at that minute, he goes, I had a really bad feeling about how the rest of the game was gonna go. Yeah, and you know, and again, you know, it's a game of runs, it's a game. I I just sort of, you know, it's a game that goes up and down, it goes all over the place, it doesn't move linearly. Yeah, and that team that can just stay even, you know, and be the be what the game spins around as it moves forward, knowing again that the game's gonna come back to them, right? They've been there before, they've won championships. And when you get into these close games in the playoffs, that kind of experience is something that tips the scales. You know, they didn't go throw the ball away, they didn't go force bad shots, they didn't panic on the clear, right? Steady, steady, steady. Yeah, and and you know, and at the same time, the inexperienced team, if up, will still start to press. You know, as that clock ticks down and they see that final, the the light at the end of the tunnel, they'll start to press, they'll start to do things, and that's when an experienced team, you know, would you would you say they scored five in the fourth?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:06

Seven, yeah, seven in a row. Seven in a row in the end of the day.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:10

You know, and one of the things, one of the things I think of in that time is is, and I don't know, but you know, how many turnovers did limestone have during that time? And that could be a very telling stat.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:22

Well, the other thing was they started winning more. Lenore Ryan started winning a lot of the face-offs in the fourth, which was a little bit different from the third, and now they've got possession, and they didn't waste the possession. And it was exactly what you said, coach. It was 12-8, and one of the announcers says, Why isn't Coach P calling a timeout? And the other announcers, like, there's nothing to call a timeout on. His team, his defense is playing well, they just got beat on the shot. There's nothing to his guys aren't doing anything wrong. If there was something doing wrong that they could correct, okay, but there was no need, and sure enough, you see that you just like you said, that experience of like it'll come back to us, and it was a it was a great game to watch.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:02

Both it's it's gonna, it's gonna take it's gonna take a lot of talent for a team to beat Lenore Ryan.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:08

Yeah, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:09

Oh yeah, it's gonna take a lot of talent because they've they've already bled on these fields.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:15

Like I said, they just showed a patience to me, they showed uh a veteran leadership. I I saw I saw Greg a little crazy a little bit on the sideline, a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:27

He gets a little bit doesn't get crazy on the sideline.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:30

He gets a little he got a little animated, but you know what? I have a lot of respect for Coach Paradine and what he's done there at LR, you know, and me being a wing gate, me being a wing gate dad. I gotta face that guy all the time. We have to face him all the time, you know. And like the wing gate double overtime game in the sax semis was a great game. Like, I mean, coach, it doesn't get much better than that in division two. You got two speaks.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:56

No, I talked to Timmy uh that night, I think it was.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:00

Uh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:01

We have we have some late night conversations, Tim and I.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:04

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:05

He he he he forces me to open up a Guinness on my side of the phone. Yeah, yeah. And that's when he starts complaining about it.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:12

Yeah, there we go. I love it.

unknown 1:05:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:17

Yeah. So, you know, LR, LR's tough, man. Donnie Powell had himself a game, man. Four goals. And he first scored the first three goals for Lenore Ryan. He's only a sophomore. I mean, you know, Will Kanada, Hatcher, Duncan, the the the the uh what's he, to the Towson kid? Where'd he go? Towson, Duncan, I think so. Stewart. They had like eight guys, Mancini scored a goal. I mean, they're tough, LR. They're gonna be tough.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:43

So you you know, you talk about the things that we've hit on in this telecast, the Jimmy's and the Joes. You just named off five of them for Lenore Ryan. You talk about how they came back in the fourth and won face offs. All right, you we talk, we talk about sort of that winning pedigree um with it. You talk about the the the X factor that coaching can be. And again, it's going to take a lot of talent to uh overcome Lenore Ryan.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:07

Yeah,

Final Four

SPEAKER_00 1:06:08

so let's get into that. Let's get into the final four and let's talk about that game. Tampa against Lenore Ryan. The last two national champions going head to head in in this regional final.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:24

Yeah, thanks. Thanks for reminding me.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:28

Well, you're only in one of the games, Coach.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:30

You know, that's I'm not even getting paid. I'm not even getting paid for this. And I gotta come on here.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:35

Hey, I'll tell you, I'll tell you what, coach. We'll send you the first shirt we put together that says I'll send you two in the crease glasses to drink your Guinness out of. How's that?

SPEAKER_04 1:06:45

All right, send send one to Tim, one to me.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:49

There we go.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:50

So go go on with whatever you were saying.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:53

So, but now so Tampa loses in the regular season alone for Low Ryan 12-9 in their third game of the season, and that was at a neutral field. Now they're playing at Tampa. You know, we can go back. You talk about the uh Jimmy's and the Joes on defense and offense, you know, Beto versus Powell. You can talk about offense, Birch, Milani, Beyshaw, and then you can boss, Powell, Canada, et cetera, et cetera. You just go down the line with these guys. So even on both sides of the of the field. And then you talk special teams, Mancini against Poma, Pennsylvania versus Mercado. Mercado's been playing really well recently in goal for for Tampa. I think this is gonna be a close. I mean, and then you talk, coach, like you said, it is gonna be a very tough team, tough team with a lot of talent and to be able to beat Lenore Ryan. I think this one is gonna be really close, but just like you said, I have to give the nod to L R. And I think one of them may be Pensa Bene. And I think like we just talked about this last game, it almost seems like they have that extra switch just to say, okay, we can go one step higher.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:05

Yeah, and and and I think I think the other thing that you you know, you're you're not gonna you're not gonna knock the king off his throne until defeat his army.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:16

And um, you know, so so right now, um I I I yeah, I mean, I I would have to go with sort of uh what Lenore Ryan is bringing to the table. And again, their experience of this, um, it's gonna be invaluable. You know, I will go back, it's a little bit different with a team coming out of North Carolina, but I don't know what time that face-off is or what the temperature is gonna be. But I'm sticking to my climactic factors uh is playing down in at Tampa. Um, but again, you know, if if a team, no offense to those guys in Tampa, JB does a great job. They've earned their way there, they're ultra talented, they always are. Um, I think this one is gonna come down uh to depth, just going off of what I know about playing down there. And we took we took we talked about that being one of the factors. You know, can you can your second can your second um midfield line produce points? I also say situational lacrosse. Can your man up produce points? Like can you win the game in these in these areas as you as you as you look at them?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:23

Good point.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:24

So if you're breaking the game down, you know, can you win the face-off battle? Can you win the ground ball battle? Um, and I'll say this too. What team can operate in what I call the dark areas? Okay, and the the things that you really don't notice, what what team comes up with that super tough ground ball, what team, what guys on the field are willing to go that extra step, right? That maybe you don't score the goal, right? But someone, someone, you know, it causes ripple effect down, and and all of a sudden something happens. So so I really think when you have two evenly, evenly um uh match teams, right? Championship coaches, championship programs. Here we go in the national semifinals. Look for which team can make those plays in the dark areas of lacrosse, those hustle plays. And that's who that's who your winner's gonna be.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:20

I I also think uh a match within the match is gonna be at the faceoff X between Poma and Mancini. And I'm gonna uh again, I'm gonna have to give the edge to Matt Mancini on this. The kid's really, really good, and and and even when he doesn't win the clamp, he winds up getting ground balls. You know what I'm saying? Like he's just one of those kids, just really tough at the X, and he's good athlete, and he makes smart decisions with the ball when he wins, you know, to clamp right outright.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:47

No, and that's you know, that that's one of those little things. Like somewhere, somewhere in the progression of the game, okay, we took this turn, and all of a sudden we had midfielders that can't play defense, and we had face-off guys that couldn't throw a 10-yard pass. Like, I don't know what the hell we ate at dinner one night to have this cause this to happen. But um, like last year at Mercy at Mercyers, we had Sean Dorn. Yeah, one of the things that drew me to Sean when I was recruiting him was the fact that he could handle the ball. Like, and it just gives you an extra, an extra weapon, an extra layer, someone you can trust with the ball. You know, Sean ended up last year in the semis against Lemoyne, you know, pulling up from 13 yards and canning one.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:34

I know, I know. I remember that one. I remember that.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:36

Yes, and those are the those are those extra plays because your your guy could beat their guy at that particular matchup. So, you know, it's it's having having a face-off guy right now that can handle the ball, you know, look, look, look, look what Streedy did the Merciers.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:54

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:56

He was was the final score of that game.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:59

It's 16 to 10.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:01

Yeah, and he had five, and he had five points. Yeah like that's it. I mean so it's it's it's one of those, it's one of those things that can really make a huge, huge difference. When you're splitting hairs, again, it's gonna come down to who can make those those types of plays.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:18

Now remember, Lr beat Tampa already in the beginning of the season. And if you ask me, I felt that LR should have had that one spot in the South region because of that head-to-head matchup. You know, they they beat some good teams, Lr. So now you got to piss off LR for getting not getting the one.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:36

With with how emotional both these teams are, though. You know, they're they're both gonna come out hooting and hollering and and everything else. Like, I I think it would be I I they I don't I don't know if there's really a mental edge to this because LR is pissed off, right? Yeah, but Tampa's pissed off because of what happened last year and not getting you know, they thought they had a national championship level team, and yeah, yeah, and everything else. Like, I I think this one blow the whistle, you know, put your brass knuckles on and we'll go figure this. Yeah, we'll go figure this one out with it within 110 yards of the field.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:09

Yeah, yeah. And again, one more thing, but like for with me with LR, I just think they're the defending champs, they're the king of the castle right now until somebody can knock them off.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:19

Yeah, I agree. I I have to give the edge. Yeah, I gotta give the edge to LR. Yep. I'm with you. I'm with you. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:25

I'm I'm waiting for hate mail from Coach Clark, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:29

I'm staring at my phone over here.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:33

But we'll give it a little time to get ready for it because the podcast won't drop for another couple of days. All right, so you're so you're good. Yeah, so you can you can kind of prep yourself, prep yourself.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:41

All right, so so then if they win, I'm gonna I'm gonna get the I I heard you and I told yo, take that. I'll get I'll get that from like yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:49

All right, so let's go to the other game, which I also think is gonna be a great one. A Delphi St. A's third meeting this year. The scores of the first two games, a Delphi won both eight, seven, ten, nine. And in that second one, we talked about this, a Delphi lost all of the face-offs and still won the game. Every single face-off. But Granara is getting better. I the I don't know. They the well, so their defense was really good, and actually they played a good off when they did get possession. Well, the game was 10-9. I mean, that's what it came down to. They just they're able on their defense to get the ball back enough to score. And I'd have to go back to the I have to go back to EMO and a few other things of why Yeah, I'd love to know what the turnovers were in that game. Yeah, yeah. And so it it St. A's did not play as much as as well, I don't think, as they played uh against Pace, you know, and Bentley when they played those. I mean, Mercy and and Bentley uh in these in the tournament. But I think this is gonna be a close game. Granara's getting better each game for Saint A's, but Dylan Renner is Dylan Renner.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:03

So here's here's going off the stat though, uh Kevin, here's one of the things that sort of runs through my head a little bit. I would I would love to know what the turnovers know if turnover numbers were. Like I'd like to I'd like to know if St. A's was like 20 plus in the turnover stat because that would negate their face-off advantage. So one of the things you have to worry about, though, if if St. A's is gonna enjoy that kind of domination at the face-off X, and they do take care of the ball and they do shoot smartly, it could be a situation where Renner has to come up with 20 plus saves.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:44

And if that's the case, that puts a Delphi, no matter how talented they are. Um, you know, at this at this time of the year, your shortcomings are going to shine. Like if you're if you're weak in an area, it's going to be exploited. And and I'm wondering, unless a Delphi can find a way to even even get to 40 60 at the face-off axe. All right. But if not, you're gonna be you're gonna be forcing Renner to have a 20 plus save uh day, and and uh that that can be tough in these situations. It would be an all-time performance.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:26

In the last game that they played in the semis in the NE10, um, Saint A's had 18 turnovers, the Delphi had 10.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:35

There it is.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:37

Uh 12 for 17 on the clear. Yeah, that was the other 23. There's your difference. And Dylan Renner.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:46

It doesn't matter at that point if you're winning, if you're winning all the face-offs, you're turning the ball over.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:50

And Dylan Renner in goals. You know, Saint A's has some lethal offensive weapons, the Larson boys. They got some guys there that can play and shoot the rock. And you know what? They're getting they're getting looks, but Renner's making stops.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:03

So St. A's controls the face-off, cuts down on turnovers, and shoots smartly, they win the game. Quite literally, it's it's gonna be if they do those, and and obviously it sounds like clear the ball, which which comes into your turnovers because what 12 of the 18 turnovers would have been on the clear.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:23

Yeah, so and so that's exactly right. So a Delphi that game owned the middle of the field. Yeah, you talk about those the dark areas.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:31

I consider that one the dark areas when you yeah, so so well, and and the other thing, if if you have that many turnovers, I would wonder how many, especially in the middle of the field, I would wonder how many transition or scramble situation goals a Delphi was able to come up with off of turnovers on the on the ride, um, with it. But what we're talking about are scenarios that completely negate your advantage at the faceoff end.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:55

So if I'm if I'm coach Giamana right now, you know, you're you're trying not to turn clearing into a thinking man's game out there because you can overcoach this right now. But if they can clear the ball, which will cut down on their turnovers, yeah, almost by 75%, and you shoot wisely, okay. Um just if you go if you if you just go by analytics, that's a that's a tough, that's a tough game for a Delphi to win. Um if a Delphi can bring that that face-off percentages closer together, right, and still produce some turnovers, that that's gonna be a tough game for for Saint A's to win.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:33

Yeah, 20 21 to zero in the face-offs last game.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:38

Say A's like a bad football game.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:41

Wow, and then they wind up losing by one. It's like, oh my god, how does that happen? Then you look at the defense, you know, you look at the what the defense has been able to do, cause turnovers, make them, you know, they're having trouble clearing the ball. Yeah, but they're forcing them into some bad shots, if you know, forcing them into late into the clock, that type of thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:03

When you lose a game where you control the face-off X, for me, the first two things you go to are saves and turnovers. And you can also, and you just alluded to it, you can also go to uh your shooting because those three things will negate this gigantic advantage that you have at the face-off X, those are the things that just burn it away um with it. And again, if I'm seeing A's, I'm saying, hey guys, here are the three areas that we need to improve on. And if you do this, we're gonna win the game.

unknown 1:19:37

Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:38

It's just the way that it is. You're you're gonna produce a volume that's gonna get to runner at some point. If I'm if I'm if I if if I'm coach purdy right now, I'm saying, hey, let's keep the pressure on, let's play it a high tempo, you know, let's get after him on the ride. Maybe you junk it up, you know, if they're gonna double pull, put a pull at the face-off, junk up the face-off X to try to get that thing as close to 50-50 as possible, then it becomes a game that's gonna be very difficult for St. A's to win.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:07

Yeah, I think their defense is so good at Delphi, like what they did to Pace. Pace, good offensive team. They got some studs on offense, and yeah, they just they just couldn't get into an offensive rhythm all day. And I just felt that pace was uh more athletic, a little bit faster, a little bit bigger. Just you know what I mean. Once they got the ball, they could do what they want. It's just a matter of when they got the ball.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:28

So who are you who are you thinking, Danny, between a delta and saying?

SPEAKER_03 1:20:32

I tell you, you know, if like what coach just said, if St. A's can really do much better in the turnover, I think they have a shot. I think they have a you know what they call a puncher's chance. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_04 1:20:45

You lost by one with 18 turnovers.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:48

I know, I know.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:49

If you only turn the ball over 10 to 12 times, you probably win the you have though that many more possessions, you probably win the game.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:57

So I I I like Saint A's because I think they're gonna play much better this time, and it's the third meeting.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:04

The same law of averages, coach.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:06

But it wouldn't shock me if you know Coach Birdie and the Panthers you know sneak it out, or it wouldn't surprise me, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:15

Coach Volpe, Coach Volpe wants me to pick Saint A's anyway, because if I'm I'm always wrong, so that means they're going to the final. That's what he's gonna want. So

Shout outs

SPEAKER_00 1:21:26

it's time now to close it out with shout-outs. Do you have any, Danny? I do not have any shout-outs tonight, Kevin. All right, so I I've got a few. First, we've got to shout out our our sponsor, laxjobs.us, who's been sponsoring us all season. We've got one more, one or two more episodes left with them. They've been a great partner of ours. Always happy to talk to them and and see what they're doing, and they're doing a great job. It's all for free. You can post your resume and you and and employers can post their jobs there, and they're really kind of creating that lacrosse community, finding uh lacrosse jobs for lacrosse people.

unknown 1:22:06

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:07

My next shout out goes to all the teams that have played in this tournament because it's been a lot of fun watching. I can't believe we're into the final four, and I guarantee these next two games are gonna be barn burners. Oh, absolutely. And my final shout out, and we're never having him on the show again because he's too good, and one of us are gonna lose their job. Of course, we don't get paid either. So I don't know if really Coach Ryan wants this job, but I want to thank you, coach. Shout out to you for coming on. This has been so much fun and having your insight in in playing the game, coaching the game, just the matchups, what you look for. You know, Danny and I, like you know, we never play, we never coach, we're just two big, huge fans that love talking about it, and we try our best. When we get a guy like you, or we had some of the guest analysts that were players, it really adds a really new, new and great dynamic to the to the podcast. And we really want to thank you for coming tonight.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:03

No, thanks for having me on. I love I I love being around you guys, it's always fun when we I think last time didn't I have like my niece's cowboy hat and a little boa boa, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:13

Yeah, you guys, I was not a brand new and a brand new mount sweatshirt. A brand new one.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:20

Yeah, I was I was at the end of my rope uh at that point. That was a long week of recruiting we were doing there. So uh, but no, you and again, I know everyone says it to you, but it's the exact truth. What you guys are doing for division two cannot be replicated anywhere else, like the momentum, the exposure. All right, I think the kids, I think the kids feel great that you guys recognize so many people, so many coaches, so many programs, and you're just doing such a valuable service uh to the to the to the teams in the in the programs in division two. It's super, and I love I love coming on being a part of it.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:00

Well, thanks, coach. I really appreciate it. And you know what? I'm gonna be honest with you, you're my favorite guest out of all of them. You're my favorite. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:09

And coming your way very soon, at least in the next six months, is your and hopefully coach Boyle doesn't listen to this one.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:16

Yeah, but if he knows Coach, he listens to everything. That guy, that guy sits in his office. All I can picture is Dr. Evil in there with his ball card with monitors all over him, like he's like he's in some James Bond movie and some subterranean evil layer watching everything and two across game simultaneously, and it just all like goes right through his head. Uh it and it just gets recorded. So there is no way curiosity will kill Tim's cat with this. He's all gonna listen. Uh he's absolutely gonna listen.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:55

And so with that, Danny, Coach Ryan, and Coach Boyle, that's a wrap. That's a wrap.