Another game. Another W. Going into the game, I thought it would be a high scoring game but we would win out due to superior talent. However, we played a very sloppy first half and if I was PSU’s coaches I would been thrilled to only be down one at halftime. Adjustments were made and things got rolling after halftime and we started executing at a high level in the 3rd and put it out of reach. We played down to our competition in a sense but it was nice to see really good goal play and lock down defense. I will say both teams were fun to watch on the ride and it was non stop action.
The big four.
#1 Jared Bernhardt - A (senior
3g, 4a
#12 Logan Wisnauskis - A (redshirt senior)
3g, 2a
#16 Anthony Demaio - M (redshirt senior)
1g, 1a
#2 Bubba Fairman - M (senior)
1g, 0a
Again a very special group. Jared will get his own segment later because he was the MVP. Wiz was highly effective as usual and has really became such a complete player. His passing has improved so much from the second he arrived on campus. And he will also be mentioned in the play of the game segment. Demaio struggled to get going today and hit a few pipes but he still made an impact. Bubba Fairman, isnt the focal point of the offense but every week he seems to put together a really athletic finish. He also will be mentioned in the play of the game segment later.
The other two offensive starters
#37 Danny Maltz - A (Sophmore)
4g, 1a
#23 Kyle Long - M (Junior)
1g, 3a
Maltz continued to show his elite ability to get open in a phone booth and he picked up right where he left off game one. Most of his finishes are layups because of his ability to break free and get wide open. I thought long was the 2nd best player on offense today because of his ability to create. He started the scoring off almost a carbon copy of week one. Just using elite speed to run by his man. But his passing in the 6 on 6 is a thing of beauty.
D Fence
#8 Matt Rahill - D (senior)
#43 Brett Makar - D (junior)
#54 Nick Grill - D (senior)
This unit were sensational. 14 GB’s between these 3. Nick Grill made another case for defensive player of the week as he limited mac o keefe to one goal. Three of psu’s 7 goals were “garbage goals” which is a made up statistic that I use that the defense doesn’t really have any control over. So I only accounted for 4 goals given up which is exceptional. For a young goalie. You want to limit the number of clean shots and even the looks PSU had weren’t great which led to a number of easy saves from the young goalie. Also of note. Rahill had a fantastic bounce back game and Makar was brilliant as expected. Best unit of the day bar none.
LSM
#20 John Geppert junior
#17 Justin Sherrer Sophmore
Penn states ride made clearing difficult today and led to a few turnovers. But our ride was equally as hindering to their success. The wing plays on faceoffs was average to below average but these two excelled on the defensive end to make up for it. Sherrer absolutely blasted one guy.
SSDM
#8 M Roman Puglise - Sr
#39 M Alex Smith - Sr
#57 Jake Higgins - Sr
#28 Josh Coffman Junior
Puglise was his good as expected. But Higgins and Smith took a step back today. Alex Smith got beat bad once and also had a terrible turnover where he gave them a goal. Higgins still had a few good moments but not as good as last week. Coffman was a non factor. This unit is still really good and one of the team strengths. They just weren’t as smooth as last week.
Goalie
#35 Logan McNaney (Sophmore)
He was awesome today. 16 saves and only 7 allowed. The defense was really good and limited some bad shot selections but he made the saves he needed to make. Really good bounce back game. Did not get beat low too often. Penn State has some elite scorers and he limited them. Huge step in the right direction.
Face-offs.
Justin Shockey #3 (senior)
Conor Calderone #14 (Sophmore)
Shockey who appears to have struggled adapting to the new face off rules was 0-7 to start the game and got replaced by the young buck Former 5-star Conor Calderone. The latter going 7-17 on faceoffs. Let me just say Penn States face off X Arceri is an absolute beast and will be one of if not the best we will face all season. But he abused Shockey and won most of them clean without a fight which is why we didn’t possess the ball for the majority of the first quarter. Calderone is very tiny but scrappy and put up a long enough fight to get the wings involved and hopefully he’s the guy going forward. But this was a matchup that we weren’t going to win on paper. So I think we will need to see how we stack up against other teams to draw better conclusions about the X
The 2nd Midfield!!!!
Honestly it was just window dressing with these guys. No stats to report. Nothing of significance with this unit.
Player of the game:
#1 Jared Bernhardt, A, Sr.
I hate to do this because it’s expected out of him. But he was hands down the best player on the field Friday and it wasn’t even close. We are used to seeing him blaze by single coverage. And he had a few of those moments where he did that and he had his signature tip toe crease dodge goals but it was his pin point passing to wiz and Maltz that just should make us all thankful he came back another year. He was exceptional in the ride and his trail checks were a thing of beauty. 3 goals and 4 assists for the people’s champion.
Runner Up:
D: Nick Grill #54 - senior.
So you never know what to expect when a guy is laying on the ground. But Nick Grill took a dirty cheap shot and laid on the ground for a minute then got up and played like a man possessed. I think he was better this week than last week and he was the conference player of the week last week.
Play of the Game:
The play of the game was from a penn state player who had a diving behind the back miracle goal but no one cares about penn state so let’s talk about the good guys.
Three play stood out.
Two involve bubba Fairman. Who is not going to light up the box score as I’ve mentioned but is an impact player.
The first play was a full extension trail check by Bubba to cause a turnover and The guys stick went flying and wiz picked it up and fed it to Bernie for a slam dunk.
The second play was When Bubba trucked a guy in the clear.
The third play was Wiz had the ball in the corner and took on a double team. The defender pinned his arm back and it looked like a for sure turnover. He threw a pass with one hand which had the defense scrambling which led to a Maltz bunny. Incredible strength.
Top Freshman
No freshman contributed significance to this game
Overall
It was an awesome to win by 6 goals in a game that we didn’t have our “A game”. The offense had waaay too many unforced turnovers and the defense carried the load today. But it was a fun game to watch. Very very physical game. I guess from a talent perspective it’s good to see that the gap is much larger between us and penn state than I expected. They have a very good goalie and faceoff x and we made the goalie look average. Other than that we are hands down better all over the field. The defense has been exceptional through two games and that’s the main takeaway soo far. Let’s whip Hopkins Saturday baby.
The big four.
#1 Jared Bernhardt - A (senior
3g, 4a
#12 Logan Wisnauskis - A (redshirt senior)
3g, 2a
#16 Anthony Demaio - M (redshirt senior)
1g, 1a
#2 Bubba Fairman - M (senior)
1g, 0a
Again a very special group. Jared will get his own segment later because he was the MVP. Wiz was highly effective as usual and has really became such a complete player. His passing has improved so much from the second he arrived on campus. And he will also be mentioned in the play of the game segment. Demaio struggled to get going today and hit a few pipes but he still made an impact. Bubba Fairman, isnt the focal point of the offense but every week he seems to put together a really athletic finish. He also will be mentioned in the play of the game segment later.
The other two offensive starters
#37 Danny Maltz - A (Sophmore)
4g, 1a
#23 Kyle Long - M (Junior)
1g, 3a
Maltz continued to show his elite ability to get open in a phone booth and he picked up right where he left off game one. Most of his finishes are layups because of his ability to break free and get wide open. I thought long was the 2nd best player on offense today because of his ability to create. He started the scoring off almost a carbon copy of week one. Just using elite speed to run by his man. But his passing in the 6 on 6 is a thing of beauty.
D Fence
#8 Matt Rahill - D (senior)
#43 Brett Makar - D (junior)
#54 Nick Grill - D (senior)
This unit were sensational. 14 GB’s between these 3. Nick Grill made another case for defensive player of the week as he limited mac o keefe to one goal. Three of psu’s 7 goals were “garbage goals” which is a made up statistic that I use that the defense doesn’t really have any control over. So I only accounted for 4 goals given up which is exceptional. For a young goalie. You want to limit the number of clean shots and even the looks PSU had weren’t great which led to a number of easy saves from the young goalie. Also of note. Rahill had a fantastic bounce back game and Makar was brilliant as expected. Best unit of the day bar none.
LSM
#20 John Geppert junior
#17 Justin Sherrer Sophmore
Penn states ride made clearing difficult today and led to a few turnovers. But our ride was equally as hindering to their success. The wing plays on faceoffs was average to below average but these two excelled on the defensive end to make up for it. Sherrer absolutely blasted one guy.
SSDM
#8 M Roman Puglise - Sr
#39 M Alex Smith - Sr
#57 Jake Higgins - Sr
#28 Josh Coffman Junior
Puglise was his good as expected. But Higgins and Smith took a step back today. Alex Smith got beat bad once and also had a terrible turnover where he gave them a goal. Higgins still had a few good moments but not as good as last week. Coffman was a non factor. This unit is still really good and one of the team strengths. They just weren’t as smooth as last week.
Goalie
#35 Logan McNaney (Sophmore)
He was awesome today. 16 saves and only 7 allowed. The defense was really good and limited some bad shot selections but he made the saves he needed to make. Really good bounce back game. Did not get beat low too often. Penn State has some elite scorers and he limited them. Huge step in the right direction.
Face-offs.
Justin Shockey #3 (senior)
Conor Calderone #14 (Sophmore)
Shockey who appears to have struggled adapting to the new face off rules was 0-7 to start the game and got replaced by the young buck Former 5-star Conor Calderone. The latter going 7-17 on faceoffs. Let me just say Penn States face off X Arceri is an absolute beast and will be one of if not the best we will face all season. But he abused Shockey and won most of them clean without a fight which is why we didn’t possess the ball for the majority of the first quarter. Calderone is very tiny but scrappy and put up a long enough fight to get the wings involved and hopefully he’s the guy going forward. But this was a matchup that we weren’t going to win on paper. So I think we will need to see how we stack up against other teams to draw better conclusions about the X
The 2nd Midfield!!!!
Honestly it was just window dressing with these guys. No stats to report. Nothing of significance with this unit.
Player of the game:
#1 Jared Bernhardt, A, Sr.
I hate to do this because it’s expected out of him. But he was hands down the best player on the field Friday and it wasn’t even close. We are used to seeing him blaze by single coverage. And he had a few of those moments where he did that and he had his signature tip toe crease dodge goals but it was his pin point passing to wiz and Maltz that just should make us all thankful he came back another year. He was exceptional in the ride and his trail checks were a thing of beauty. 3 goals and 4 assists for the people’s champion.
Runner Up:
D: Nick Grill #54 - senior.
So you never know what to expect when a guy is laying on the ground. But Nick Grill took a dirty cheap shot and laid on the ground for a minute then got up and played like a man possessed. I think he was better this week than last week and he was the conference player of the week last week.
Play of the Game:
The play of the game was from a penn state player who had a diving behind the back miracle goal but no one cares about penn state so let’s talk about the good guys.
Three play stood out.
Two involve bubba Fairman. Who is not going to light up the box score as I’ve mentioned but is an impact player.
The first play was a full extension trail check by Bubba to cause a turnover and The guys stick went flying and wiz picked it up and fed it to Bernie for a slam dunk.
The second play was When Bubba trucked a guy in the clear.
The third play was Wiz had the ball in the corner and took on a double team. The defender pinned his arm back and it looked like a for sure turnover. He threw a pass with one hand which had the defense scrambling which led to a Maltz bunny. Incredible strength.
Top Freshman
No freshman contributed significance to this game
Overall
It was an awesome to win by 6 goals in a game that we didn’t have our “A game”. The offense had waaay too many unforced turnovers and the defense carried the load today. But it was a fun game to watch. Very very physical game. I guess from a talent perspective it’s good to see that the gap is much larger between us and penn state than I expected. They have a very good goalie and faceoff x and we made the goalie look average. Other than that we are hands down better all over the field. The defense has been exceptional through two games and that’s the main takeaway soo far. Let’s whip Hopkins Saturday baby.
