Brockport/Geneseo Weekend

It has been a long and emotional weekend for all of the boys. We opened conference play against two of the tougher teams in the league, Geneseo and Brockport. Anyone who has ever played in a SUNYAC game knows that these games are like no other. The physicality and intensity is through the roof and if you don’t come prepared then it is likely that you will be in for a rough ride. That is exactly what happened to us on Friday.

The last time we saw Brockport was when they were celebrating on our field with a SUNYAC championship. That was last year after they had beaten us in pens and most of us hadn’t forgotten it. We talked and talked about what it means to get off to a good start in conference and how we owed them something from last year. For some reason we really weren’t there mentally or physically and we got everything that we deserved and more.

From the first moment Brockport took it to us and we couldn’t get anything going. They beat us to every loose ball, won every 50-50 and seemed faster than us. They outworked us and gave us a lesson in how to play with heart and intensity. After 35 minutes we were down 2-0 courtesy of two long range strikes from their center back. Both goals were absolutely preventable, we didn’t clear our lines from a set piece and we gave them too much time on the ball around our box and then the second was a result of atrocious marking on our part from a throw in.

The scary thing is that we could have gone into the half tied up at 2-2. We had two golden chances to equalize or at least pull them back to within one and we wasted them. In conference play every goal is a huge momentum swinger and we had a chance to get a foot hold back in the game.

At half time we talked about raising the intensity and some of the older had their say about the performances we were seeing out there. A lot of us knew we needed to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves if we were representing everyone to the best of our ability. The worrying part of this is that after all the talk at half time we came out in the second half and were arguably worse than the first. They put another one in after an hour and it was over for us. We didn’t have the heart to come back. Coach decided to empty the bench for the final half an hour and some people went out there and made some noise. There are some people on our team with big reputations who didn’t live up to them on Friday. It was the people who came in at the end who put some of us to shame.

It was a long night for us and I personally didn’t sleep at all because I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I was embarrassed and felt I had let the team down because of my own performance and I know a few others felt this way too. It is a good sign that we were hurting so badly after a loss and we know we don’t want to feel that way again.

The next day didn’t get any easier for us with Geneseo coming into town. They are one of the most physically tough teams around and we have never had an easy game against them.

We didn’t need any motivation or any pumping up, we knew what we needed to do. Coach mentioned that this was as close to a must win game as it comes but I really believe that this was a must win game. To go 0-2 on this weekend would have been a disaster and it would really hurt our chances of hosting SUNYAC’s.

We didn’t start too well and Geneseo played vertical and tried to put us under pressure. After about 10-15 minutes we started to move the ball a little bit and possess with some composure, something we have lacked lately. When we kept the ball moving they couldn’t touch us and we had times were we played them off the park.
With heir direct style they put our goalie, Andy, under pressure but he has grown a lot in confidence this year and is a totally different player from last year. He stood strong and took a couple of hits from them but they just bounced off of him.
Towards the end of the half we got a free kick on the edge of their box and I hit one off the crossbar. Hamilton was looking for the rebound and he headed one in to take a load off our shoulders. Going into half time up 1-0 is something we are used to this season. We usually then sit back and absorb the pressure but Geneseo is a team that you don’t want to do that against. Their direct and physical approach can pay off if you let them do it. We came out for the second really well and pinned them back in their own half. They couldn’t get out and we probably should have had one or two penalties awarded. In the end we were awarded a free kick which I put in, I catch a bit of stick from Waterbury about my free kick taking and although he is probably right it gets on my nerves and he knows it so I was happy to stick one away. After the second goal we didn’t let up and kept them on their heels and it paid off when Googz went on a great run and hit Shaughnessy with a pass, he made a fantastic turn and pulled one back from the end line, Byrnes dummied the ball and Hamilton slid in his second of the game.

Although some of the usual players get the credit and the headlines I think a few unfamiliar names made the difference in this game. Erik Hakim played the most minutes of his season and was a great physical presence in there, also Joe Aratari or Tuna as he is known, was a surprise coming in off the bench but he was outstanding. His pace and tenacity caused problems and he certainly didn’t look out of place. Last of all a special mention has to go to Ryan Connors. He replaced Bart at center back and although you are always going to miss a player of Bart’s standard, Connors was very good in both games. Despite the score line against Brockport he played well and was even better against Geneseo.

It’s a positive sign that players like Tuna, Erik, Connors, Caden and Greene are playing well and getting minutes because they are the future of the program. We are going to lose a lot of excellent players after this year and they have some big shoes to fill but everyone has the confidence that they can do that.

We leave on Thursday for Cortland and Oswego. This is going to be another tough weekend and we have to start making 2-0 weekends part of our season. Oswego has beaten us twice in the last two years and we just can’t figure them out but I am confident that this time will be different. Despite us not hitting our stride yet I know that this team can make it to the NCAA tournament and then make some noise there, it is just a matter of showing up mentally to every game.