Knights vs AIST (USA)

Knights Vs AIST (USA) Sunday 10th August 2014.

Knights 7 - AIST 4

It was certainly a game of two halves, one half played in Baking sun and the other in a cruel Monsoon rain which was a product of Hurricane Bertha! 

Its always great to see the lads from 2013, what a great bunch of people, we where missing Charlie Edwards, Ben Ready, Scott Dagnanleach and where also missing our talisman Tig Bancroft. We also asked some friends to rep Knights In Dan Watson, Tom Hallam (who was asked to be an original 2011 Knight) James Ready and Jamie Powell. 

The Knights started the game very well with strong face off play from Tim Collins who had spent his summer with Laxachusetts of Boston in the US and his wings Ciaran Johnson and Tom Hallam.

Ben Smith dodged and fed very well and found Joe Cara on a number of occasions, Joe had also spent his summer on the US tournament circuit and looked very strong, he is always a matchup problem for the opposition but has started to play with his head up finding the open man and really finishing his shots! 

Matt Rowarth had a great game and dodged very well. He has great vision, finding the open man with sneaky feeds and finished a strong dodge and jump shot!

As always at Knights our strongest position is in goal, our goalies Elliott Hurry and #2 Will Baxter both played very well coming up with some amazing saves!

The defense looked solid with leadership from Josh Peachey and some great team Defense from Tom Hallam, Grady Fayle and an impressive performance from the young gun Matt Tatton (2015 Knight).

At half time it was 5-1 Knights and the AIST made some adjustments putting their poles at the top of the box as our Middies did the damage for most of the first half, AIST also threw in a bit of zone!

Alex Winton, Alex Russell and Joe Baythorpe play very well together and as we dodged from the wing we noticed that AIST where not getting their 2 slide in quick enough to the crease and once they slid they left the crease open - Alex Russell and Winton capitalised from cuts to the ball and finished well!

As the Monsoon began in the second half it was hard to play with high winds, heavy rain and a waterlogged pitch somehow the English boys, who should be used to the rain, took their foot off the peddle and through good play AIST fought back! With another goal from Joe Cara and Alex Russell we stretched the lead and made it too much of a mountain to climb for the US team. 

Knights played with class and intensity, we don't get beaten too often on English turf and it was great to see them play together again! 

Thanks to the Knights family for coming to support in horrible conditions! It means a lot to see people still coming back!

Thanks to the coaches Mike

Armstrong and Chris Peacock and manager Lynne HarveyBurnham and most of all to AIST, Wilmslow Lacrosse club and the Perrins for the opportunity to play!

Knights Goals:

Joe Cara 3

Alex Russell 2

Alex Winton 1

Matt Rowarth 1

Assists:

James Ready

Alex Winton

Ben Smith

Tim Nicol

Monsoon Time: Joe Cara Makes it Rain!

Knights U16 vs Maryland Express 01/08/14

MDX from Maryland USA where again being hosted by Timperley Lacrosse club and gave English Knights an opportunity to play them as part of their UK tour. 

We relish the chance to play any US competition and it was a good time for our lads (who have been practicing together for 8 months now) to be tested. 

We had a number of the Knights away on Holiday or playing in the US with Stockport Metros we still have a very strong squad.

We had prepared the night before with a walk though practice and we could tell that the lads where looking forward to the game.  

The next day we had our pre team positional meetings, we wanted to focus on a few things and also discuss our offensive philosophy. 

The Knights started well controlling the face off and creating offense for ourselves in the first quarter. Our ride was very effective and we made the US team think about their clearing sometimes resulting in them turning the ball over in their own half. 

The game was 5-1 to the Knights at half time and could have been more if it was for some fine goalie play by of MDX,Jonathan Hulsman (remember the name) has very quick hands and his best saves where off stick side low which any goalie will confirm is that hardest shot to save, he impressed me a lot and as the Knights continued to create chances and shoot intelligently he frustrated them with save after save! Camnie Syme had a fantastic shot on man up low to high which was going to ping the top office corner but on e again the goalie cat like reactions saved them.

Jonathan Hulsman highlight tape:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axpUKOqM1mU

Jack Burke in cage for Knights communicated and organised for us very well and also came up with some huge saves through-out the game. The Knights defenders (for the most part) forced MDX into bad shooting areas for the first three quarters and did a great job!

Oli Loveland controlled the offense and looked very comfortable behind goal. 

Charlie Syme dominated the face offs and his wings Sam Harris and a mix of Dan and TJ played excellently on both sides of the field with TJ scoring the Knights first goal.

Knights played intelligently for three quarters and made MDX make adjustments in clearing and at face off!

At the third quarter break everyone was relaxed and confident and the knights coaching staff asked them not to lose focus!

Unfortunately we just didn't have enough of the ball in the last quarter (although we won over 50% of the face-off) due to bad clearing errors, turnovers and most of all penalties. MDX had a dangerous shooter on the right post and we didn't realise it it focus on him enough and he made us pay on a series of man-ups for MDX and that triggered the fight back! After not putting up enough points in the 3rd we had not stretched the lead enough and bad decisions for Knights and good play by MDX made the game level 7-7 at full

Time.

Two 4 mins extra time would be played, the first period of overtime saw MDX score first and then a spirited effort straight from the faceoff from Chas Syme brought us back to a draw. MDX then scored in the second period of OT on a fast break effort from MDX, the

Middies hadn't got back in quickly enough and the defensive slides couldn't stop MDX from Going up by 1. Knights had their chances to level the game but MDX ran out winners on the day with a great come back! 

We learned a lot from this game and enjoyed the experience. We will be better because of this and will learn how to manage games in a more positive way, it will help the coaches prepare the team for our tour!

Thanks to MDX, Tomperley and Mr Loveland.

Knights Goals:

TJ Burgess

Jake Parker

Billy Kershaw

Oli Loveland

Matt Smith 2

Charlie Syme

Cian Conway

Assists:

Matt Smith

Oli Loveland

Saves

Jack Burke 12