Our men’s team travelled to the military academy of West Point in New York for the first official games of the season on Saturday, Oct 29th. We played three games of the Division 1 Northeast League against New York City 2, West Point Black (their best team) and University of Virginia. The results are positive, with two wins and one tie:
Boston TH 1 28 : 20 New York City 2
West Point Black 28 : 28 Boston TH 1
Boston TH 1 26 : 11 University of Virginia
The first game against NYC2 was more complicated than the score could tell. The game had an unusually low intensity. Our team was probably tired and asleep from 4 hours of travel in the early morning. Fortunately for us, NYC2 made lots of mistakes which benefited us. Our goalie Anar did a good job in keeping us ahead for the entire game.
The second games was a very different story. We started on a remarkable high intensity in defense and offense, which surprised West Point Black. After a few minutes of play and a 5:0 lead of Boston, WP had to take a timeout. At halftime, the lead was still +5 for Boston. The first half was close to perfect: mobile and authoritarian defense, quick fast-break, variery in offensive team plays. West Point could not keep up with the quality that we demonstrated.
However, West Point did not give up. They slowly came back, helped by their physical stamina and a few errors from our side. Boston’s defense was less mobile and aggressive, and our shots started being less accurate, enabling WP goalie to made good saves. In the last minutes of the games, avoidable mistakes led us to play 4 against 6 for two minutes. West Point tied and could have won if our goalie Anar and defender Amaël did not stop free West Point players from scoring. As a summary, it was a very good game from both teams and we certainly learned a good lesson for the rest of the season.
The last game was more easy, which gave us the opportunity to rotate our players. Thanks to a good defense, we benefited from multiple turnovers and easy goals. We played seriously until the end, which is the best way to respect this young team of Virginia.
Geoffrey Haratyk, co-coach, men’s team