Second day- NJ Shamrocks

Won 5-4

Awesome performance by the defensive unit. Will Baxter made some highlight saves in the first half and we cleared the ball very well.

Both goalkeepers have played amazingly well and Hurry stepped in the second half and made some key stops at important times and won the game for us in the end made, we asked the Defense to make the stops to give the offence the opportunity to win.........

Alex Russell

Matt Rowarth has played great in this tournament and does it for the team, he stepped up to score the equalizer to toe the game and the Steve Ewing scored from close in to win the game winner, the sideline went crazy as he ran at us pointing at the squad and jumping on Dags shoulder! Crowd surfing!

Steve Ewing #10 and Ben Smith #19

Earlier in the game Cape Cods finest Jake Howarth made a great cut and scored a quick stick goal, Winton continued his impressive play with our first goal of game!

Jake Howarth

Second Day vs Webster Schroeder

We didn't know much about Webster Schroeder when we arrived at the field, they had a few good players, we have been close to a lot of teams in both tournaments but just haven't got to the point of keeping our foot on the peddle and killing teams off, I won't tell you how I or Zac described this!! But we got the message across!

The Score ended 7-4 to Webster S but we could have done better the boys looked tired on try way back and exhausted sat in the hallway of the Dorms, maybe the all star game will motivate some of them but nothing an early night couldn't cure!

Scorers:
Ewing
Howarth
Russell
Winton

Second Day - Vs Fairport

Fairport has produced some great players over the years like current Albany keeper Blaze Reardon and Syracuse's Derek DeJoe its is a great program and the coaches and players made friends with out players, I spoke to Coach Sudan who played for Team USA in Manchester in 94 We swapped stories and the guys couldn't be nicer, unlike the refs!

Coach Sudan

I thought we played very well but the refs seemed to be there for the pay cheque and ignored some obvious calls even ignoring an injured player on the floor, I wasn't happy and received a penalty! The opposition coach went on to the field to complain also and backed me up on the call, Safety first the same coach had had even brought up this scenario in the Coaches meeting!

Winton once again scored the first goal of the game to get us started he has worked tirelessly in both tournaments and has turned defenders inside out with his quick footwork!

Alex Russell scored on a great dodge and dunk!

Steven Ewing leads on the field and scored again hitching his defender tucking inside to finish! Steve also had a great diving goal which was wiped out although Fairport scored a goal that was exactly the same where the player hasn't been pushed and landed in the crease and the goal was given!

Tim Nicol came with a great roll back move off the wing but the goalie made a great save!

Scott Dagnanleach tucked inside his man changing hands to hit the bar!
It's his go to move and was unlucky not to Score!

The score ended 5-3.

We had a great time with Fairport and took a picture with the team afterwards!

Bison Brawl First Day - Vs Futures

After two games already the boys where tired, fed and watered we went to play Futures, it is made up of future Bucknell University players or recruits and will be future Div 1 talent, we decided to let this motivate the lads that you could take the ball away, face off, score or save against future Div 1 talent. The game played under the lights on a grass field! I dont think I have ever played on a floodlit Grass field before!

We went a few goals down but the lads had fun with it and if we made a play or a save the lads got excited and made them play a fun brand of Lacrosse as we had at the Gait Cup against Velocity on the last day, the boys loved to have a laugh and would let the team know if they had the upper hand in anyway! Their Goalie was very good but Jake Howarth, Matt Rowarth and Alex Russell (2 Goals) pushed to the goal and got their reward, Will Baxter made some amazing saves and it seemed Tim Collins won quite a lot of face offs! Will Allsop or "King Snurdge" as we call him had a great game!

Ben Smith was unlucky not to score with a couple of shots and we where trying to get him going!

Ciaran Johnson relished the competition and played another solid game clearing the ball with ease and using his pace.

Their didn't seem to be many people on Knights Bench as Vince Cara, Joe Harris, Tig Bancroft and Joe Baythorpe all had injuries.

We walked away from the game buzzing as we had won the second half and the boys where in high spirits, on the way back to the dorms we stopped and watched a street Basketball game as it was going dark and the skills on show where awesome, once the guys realized we where English they stopped and rushed over and gave us high fives!!!

It was the end of a tough day and felt so sorry for the boys that where injured, we waited for their return from Hospital.

Apologies for not writing the blog yesterday but we had a very busy day and needed an early night.

Bison Brawl First Day - vs Westfield

I told the boys before we came out that they would have to deal with the high and lows of Elite level competition, Coach Vav and Guy where really trying to make steps to improve the team and with the disappointment of the Morning game.

In the pregame team talk I spoke about Adversity in life as well as Lacrosse and how you can turn it around to a positive and great things can come from bad situations, I wanted to see them turn it around for them as they had worked so hard and committed themselves to this program.

They certainly did that and the boys have showed lots of character in the last 7 days, the game was close all the way through but we went three down in the second half, we rallied with goals from Alex Winton in the first half and then Russell, Scott Dags. Joe Baythorpe came close from a feed from Matt Rowarth but hurt his hand and would join Tig at Hospital later that night with an open Fracture! Joe HHHhhariiss (in a cockney accent) then scored the equalizer when he dodged down the right alley to squeeze himself in front of the crease to finish on his off hand, the bench went crazy! with shouts of Hhhharrrriisssss!

The Defence played well and Elliott Hurry in the goal in the second half made some key stops!

Tim Collins  and Grady Fayle and their Wing middies won some important face offs and both have them have had great tournaments making a huge jump from the Gait Cup!

The game finished tied and as Tournament rules it would be Brave-heart which is two Goalkeepers in each goal and two players who take a faceoff to win the ball and go to goal, first goal wins!, we chose Ben Reddy as he can face off, defend and shoot like a cannon!, he didn't win possession and Westfield scored!

We had played a great game and the coaches where prod of the boys for showing they could bounce back, its just a like a penalty shootout in Football and not the nicest way to win or lose a game! On wards and up wards!

I can't say enough about Susan and Simon Smith they took the two boys to hospital and looked after them as we had another game to play! A big thank you from knights, also Alison Cara and Vincent who can't do enough for me and the boys I don't what we would have done without you!

First day at the Bison Brawl! Vs Webster Thomas

The morning was filled with excitement, I was sat in my room in the morning watching the other teams rolling in to register for the first day of the Bison Brawl Tournament at Bucknell University.
After the great few days we had had at The Gait Cup and the way we had improved I thought that we could go far!

We would play Webster Thomas from the Rochester, NY area at 2.30 in the first game of the competition, we walked over the the stadium which is a 10 minute walk over the road using a tunnel taking you under the busy road, it takes you to 5 grass fields next to the beautifully manicured soccer field and golf course. We would play on pitch one and everyone was excited for the game.

Hearts and minds our number one fan (above)

Unfortunately the game would not play out how we had planned at we where beaten not by an amazing team but usually by ourselves we made some major errors but we did have some Knight play very well and some highlights in the game to get excited about but for some reason we had taken a step backwards. Willy Baxter played amazingly well in goal but some of our Defenders created offense for the other team and failed to pick up important ground balls which every Lacrosse players knows Ground balls win games! Webster Thomas had some great players and one of their midfield players scored 5 goals!

The highlights of the game for everyone was Tig Bancroft's goal which was only a small reward for all the hard work he has put in during the last Tournament playing the Defensive Middie role with Grit, of course tig did his dance as promised that pumped up the boys and everyone crowded around him to congratulate him when he ran off into the Knights box!

Then came another reward for another Middie that had worked so hard clearing the ball and being generally Hench, definately one of the Knights players of the tour Ciaran Johnson, he never complains, takes long shifts on the field and plays as hard as his body looks! hence his new name Hench! he scored a great goal again to show that this kid is one of the best young athletes in Lacrosse!

Jay Moore is one of our top line middies and had played well in all the games scored a great jump shot, he has great technique and has been inverting behind goal, finding feeds for other players and
was rewarded with his own.

As everyone knows our mantra has been "23 Men" and a few players doesnt make a team and I and the other coaches where not happy with the lack of effort and desire to win in this game, it was simply not good enough and there was no other way to tell the team than straight. This has been my dream for a longtime and this means a lot to me and wanted to show them that, we had a meeting after wards and the players also held their own to air their views!

Compete, Intensity, Desire and leave a good impression on every team!

We would see if the players could bounce back in the next game against Westfield.

Unfortunately towards the end of the game Tig went over on his ankle and we found out later after a trip to the Hospital that he had a very bad sprain, he didnt deserve it but injury is part of an intense sport but everyone on the team have tried to help him, team mates getting his meals at the cafeteria and fetching him drinks, they are like a Family now!