The first midfield of Drew Snider, John Haus and Mike Chanenchuk were terrific and played like warriors.
Snider played like a guy who wasn’t ready for his collegiate career to be over. The fifth-year senior scored two of his three goals in the fourth quarter to help the Terps erase an 8-6 deficit at the end of the third. But the goals were only part of the story as it is the “1″ in the stat line under the heading “GB” that really stands out. When Owen Blye’s shot with 1:29 left was turned away by Lehigh goalie Matthew Poillon (who stood on his head in this one, giving his team a chance to win) the ball was loose on the right side of the crease. Four Mountain Hawks had a crack at the groundball, but it was Snider, who knifed through the scrum and came up with it to retain possession for the Terps and eventually led to the final possession.
Comments—Drew Snider started excelling his Junior year around playoff time. There rarely have been wins in the past 2 years without scoring from Drew. In the MLL he is labeled as can’t miss due to his rep as purse offense. Look for Drew to step up big time on Saturday.
Chanenchuk has been on fire since going through a four-game goal-less streak and his effort on Sunday did nothing to cool him off. The redshirt sophomore had two assists, both coming on goals by Snider, including the first of his two goals in the fourth quarter, and a goal. That goal was exactly what we expected when Chanenchuk agreed to become a Terp. The original play looked to be going nowhere and he made a quick move down the right alley to get enough space for him to rip a shot around his defender and inside the left pipe where Poillon had no chance of stopping it.
Comments–The Hopkins defensive way is to rely on Pierce Bassett to stop the direct 12-15 yard shots. That might work with some of the Terps but it won’t work with Chanecnchuck. His shot seems as deadly as Grant Catalino’s. I’ll take my chances. Mike had a bit of a dry spell earlier in the year but he is back!!!!
Haus’ stat line isn’t one that would stand out to anyone, but stats often don’t tell the whole story. Haus was a threat the entire game and that eventually wore down the Lehigh defensive midfielders. Twice he broke through the Mountain Hawk defense and got off two great shots only to be victimized by equally great saves by Poillon. If you watch the replay the early slides Lehigh used in the first three quarters were not as quick to get there in the fourth and that could be because of the effort Haus showed throughout the games, wearing down Mountain Hawk defenders.
Comments—There never was a Haus who wasn’t a big time player. When Carolina released john’s father several years back, Maryland and dave Cottle received a true warrior. Now in his junior year, I really don’t believe the recent successes of Maryland would have occurred without #26. Unfortunately we lost his brother will to Duke. A run to the final four will include huge plays by John. This first midfield is special, even though you will hear much more about the opposition.
Analysis by Patrick Fischer—Comments from yours truly
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