Quote from: EnmoreCat on November 13, 2022, 06:22:48 PM
St Lawrence 2 Amherst 4
Sadly work interfered with my viewing in part, but I came away with nothing but respect for the way Saints play and the pro-Saints posters have every reason to be proud of their team. Nevertheless, it's not the first time Amherst has started hot and on the first goal, there were two other players who were ready to score. The 3-0 scoreline was as much about momentum and Saints really took over about 30 minutes in and at 3-1, I felt nervous, knowing the potency of their attack. The 4th Amherst goal calmed the nerves, but everyone knew it wasn't going to finish 4-1.
4-2 not long into the second half and the Saints' tails were up and the Mammoths were pushed back. It wasn't always pretty, but ultimately in my clearly biased view it felt like there wasn't lots of dangerous play in Amherst's area. But of course, it only takes a moment to change that and Saints clearly have players who can unlock that particular door. Amherst did create chances too and ultimately were rewarded for the ones they did take
Not sure what comes next and it's hard to believe we have seen the last of the upsets.
Foul count was 26/12 and 4/3 in yellows, well above pace for Amherst.
I was on the RPI team that played Amherst in the Elite 8 in 2019 and had an eerily similar experience. I had never really seen anything like the intensity that Amherst brought to every aspect of the game. My impression of Serpone was that he was kind of an a-hole but that he had his guys firing on all cylinders and operating at their most intimidating. When we played them it was like 40 degees, pouring down rain, their grass field as essentially an unplayable mudpit, but these guys were fired up and swaggering. They had this palpable arrogance about them, like they knew they were the #2 team in the country and they were going to put us down, it was unreal. They scored their first goal and the kid did like a 15 foot knee slide right in front of our bench, and it was just over at that point.
They actually moved the game to the turf at halftime (don't get me started) and we got a goal back and arguably had the run of play in our favor the last 55 minutes or so, but I've got firsthand experience of seeing how their mentality, reputation, and intensity can catch teams off guard and get you boat-raced before you even know what hit you, even in a massively important match. I'm assuming it's a NESCAC thing, that the rivalries there are so intense and the conference is so high-quality that a) the intensity is just at peak levels and b) the top NESCAC teams come out of that conference with a certainty that they're better than anything else in the country has to offer.