SHAKER PLAYS COMPLETE GAME AGAINST CBA
COLONIE, N.Y. » Every successful team needs a solid foundation. Some teams are one dimensional. Some teams are built from the net on out. In the case of the Shaker Blue Bison, it all starts with a perplexing zone defense, midfield grit and in turn an impressive resulting attack. All of those elements were on display as the Blue Bison doubled up the CBA Brothers, 12- 6 at CBA.
“I think we definitely have one of the best defenses in the state, that always helps to have a good offense, so they can always get the ball down to us,” Blue Bison attacker Andrew O’Connor said. “I think the key was the preparation for this game and we knew what they had and we were ready coming into this day.”
Both ends of the field were able to feed off each other and although the Brothers jumped out to an early 1- 0 advantage, the Blue Bison found themselves ahead 8-2 at halftime.
“I think as an attack line we really work well off of each other,” Blue Bison attacker Jack Cheney said.
“I found myself in great spots, due to the movement of Andrew O’Connor and Luke Julien. I think I just got lucky, I found myself in the right spot at the right time with a couple of dodges I’ve been working at in practice,” Cheney said of his five-goal performance, four of which came in the first half. “I think we have one of the better defenses in the section, so every day I get to go against them, which helps in the long run.”
“It’s just all teamwork, I can’t take all the credit for anything. It’s always the extra pass that gets most of the credit,” O’Connor said of his teammates, including Julien, who dished out five assists to go along with a hat trick. “I’m just the one who ended up finishing it today.”
“Every day it’s somebody else and today I had a nice day,” O’Connor said of his four-goal outing, which included a hat trick in the first half.
“I thought we played very
hard today,” Shaker head coach Shawn Hennessey said. “We came out, we needed to play well. We knew CBAwas a good team but we really just needed to play hard. I thought they did a wonderful job.”
Much like his players on the field with the ball, coach Hennessey was quick to share the praise around with the all around effort of his squad.
“I think our attack is one of the strong points of our team. All of our players have very good skill and when we spotlight that skill, especially playing zone we did a good job sharing that ball and everybody was getting the ball to the people they needed to for people to score,” coach Hennessey said. “So, we asked them to share it and play for somebody else and they did a great job today. I think the benefactor was the attack though, I think they did all the scoring today but that means the middies did what we needed them to do and they put them in a great spot to be successful.”
Coach Hennessey also spoke at further length of the attack line of the aforementioned Julien, O’Connor and Cheney.
“Luke Julien gets a lot of the draw and when they put a lot of pressure on taking him away, I think Andrew and Jack are equally as good and they were very opportunistic today,
coach Hennessey said. “I think they handled the load that they had to and they were able to do what we needed them to do to be successful. Those are two hard working kids that are great lacrosse players and the more we get into the season, we expect big things out of them.”
On the opposite end, when the Brothers were able to gain possession, they certainly made some noise toward the end. Three consecutive tallies by Hunter Pemrick, Freddie Smith and Luke McMahon, shaved the Shaker lead to 11- 6, with under four minutes to play in the fourth quarter.
“It’s tough, their faceoff guy was very good, he was very strong,” CBA head coach Rich Scully said. “We tried to avoid giving them fast break goals or transition stuff and I think we were pretty successful with that but if it gets away from you, they have a lot of weapons.”
Despite the loss, Scully was proud of his club’s effort in what was a measuring stick game.
“I thought we played a real strong first quarter. The second quarter got away from us a little bit. I think the second half was 4- 4,” coach Scully said of his team’s ability to play Shaker to a draw in the second stanza.
“They’re a good club and they’re the team to beat. Until somebody beats them, they’re still section champs,” coach Scully said. “We love playing these type of games. It’s a bunch of good kids over there and a real good coaching staff. These kids all play hockey against each other, so there’s a lot of history, it’s good stuff.”
It was the type of game the Brothers will hope to build off of in the future.
“I think we still have seven games left and a lot of work to do and anything can happen in the postseason,” coach Scully said. “It’s a tough hill to climb over there, it’s a bunch of good kids and a good program and I think they set the bar pretty high.”
A bar set from one crossbar to the other.
“Our defense, we have big strong kids, we had good goaltending today,” coach Hennessey said. “Our zone is tough for people to look at and we’ve been doing it for a little bit now and each year I think it gets a little bit better.”
If the defense gets any better, the Blue Bison may be calling themselves Section 2 champions once again.