Gunnery 9 Millbrook 5

Coach's Name:	Nick Carter
Coach's School:	Gunnery
Coach's E-Mail:	cartern@gunnery.org
Date of Game :	05/25/02
Gunnery	Overall Record: 10-5 / League Record: 8-3
Millbrook	Overall Record: 10-6 / League record: 8-3
League Game?	yes
Home Team:	Millbrook
BOXSCORE: Teams 1 2 3 4 OT final Gunnery 2 4 2 1 0 9 Millbrook 1 1 0 3 0 5
Gunnery's Goalie (s):	Bertolone
Gunnery's Goalie Saves:	13
Millbrook's Goalie (s):	Murphy
Millbrook's Goalie Saves:	14
Gunnery Scoring:	Weet 5-1-6 Volet 3-2-5 DeLauri 0-4-4 Byrne 0-1-1 Bridges1-0-1
Millbrook Scoring:	Bucktooth 2-0-2 Conrad 2-0-2 McCracken 0-2-2 Smith 1-0-1
Gunnery Coach's Commentary:	Given the reduced numbers of shot attempts we were getting in playing a zone recently, we opted as a team to start with "man" this game and see where we were at checkpoints. This game, as well as some hotly contested hockey games, has become a rivalry; after all, for the last two years it was 'for all the marbles' with the away team coming out on top. I wish this one was for all the marbles, for it was probably our best game of the year. Watching Millbrook's goalie Murphy warm -up and noting his quickness and ability to throw, I knew two things immediately: that we would have to bounce any shot taken from the permimeter and just hope even then, but preferably, we would work to get an inside feed, meaning fewer eventual shots on goal with the extra pass. The other component, we felt, was getting our offensive and defensive middies on the field in smoother transitons which required a high soft attack ride to keep the ball low initally if possible. At the start, Volet was plagued by Millbrook's very refined ability to double from their match-up zone; our counter, as Berkshire did to us in our tough loss on Wednesday, was to hold the ball longer than usual without turning it over before we could get a good shot and so our offense could control the pace if we got ahead. Here Volet and Weet and DeLauri were superior on this day with laser passing. We assisted on goals at a higher percentage than usual. On the defensive side, Tim Finkle, who deservedly received the second largest number of votes to Jake Dean on the first ballot for defensive player of the year I am told (he only started playing longstick after our third game), rose to the challenge -and together with Bertolone -frustrated a very dangerous shooter in Bucktooth so that only in the waning three minutes of the fourth quarter could he get untracked. Justin Sherman, a first year player and sophomore, played a very quick Conrad especially well even up, Conrad scoring on interior feeds on Millbrook's dangerous man up. Like this game can often be, and like sport itself, we were the ones most ready on this particular day, but you could see that perhaps if we had not jumped to an early lead and shaken them in some way, that on another day it could be another score. They had athletes and players at key positions like goalie, attack and longstick. Millbrook played clean and hard, and alas I saw too, that Bucktooth was a junior and realized that coach Mike Fuller now has the lay of the Divison II landscape. I would like to say thanks for so many excellent consecutive Gunnery seasons to Bertolone, our goalie, off to Fairfield, and to our three year starting attack group of Volet, Weet, and DeLauri who each will pursue lacrosse in college. Leadership and talent together are hard to find. Congratulations also to Suffield who truly beat some excellent teams to win the league.
Gunnery's Player of the Game:	Weet (A)
Millbrook's Player of the Game:	Murphy (G)