Dominant Team Effort Secures Impressive Victory

February 29, 2024

Balanced Scoring and Relentless Hustle Highlight Win

Cody Mast ’25. Photo captured by Coach Peterson

We weren’t sure how things would go today. We don’t have much history with Viewpoint, but we knew they had come off of two big wins so far this season, and we weren’t sure how we would feel two days after an exhausting opener in Santa Barbara. Now we know we can stay focused in a close game and lean deeper into our bench to play up in big moments.

We won the hotly contested opening face-off and took advantage as Elliott netted an absolute rocket from the key when the defense gave him too much space to put us up 1-0 in the first minute. But, we needed help finding rhythm from there for most of the period. Viewpoint challenged us on the ground and did a great job of collapsing to deter our initial dodges. We weren’t quite able to execute our rotation to shed the pressure. Our defense held firm though, maintaining excellent positioning and forcingViewpoint to settle for mediocre shots, which Burak quickly ate up. Finally, Johnny threaded a beautiful pass through pressure to Quincy, who tucked it away to put us up 2-0 at the end of the quarter.

Oliver Charvel ’26. Photo captured by Coach Peterson

It looked like a tight game heading into the second. Still, we were able to pull away thanks to superior effort in the middle of the field and tremendous hustle from Crosby Rosenthal, Cody Mast, and Oliver Charvel. Our team ride looked much more coordinated, and our attack trio (Johnny, Quincy, and Tres) picked up a handful of turnovers to win us extra possessions. It helped, too, that Grant Mitchell, Julian Lee, and Riley Valente were able to hold down our settled defense so that big dogs Kristian Scurtis and Colby Roof could step forward to disrupt possessions before our opponents could get any rhythm. That gritty play in the transition game let our offense get to work. Despite excellent goalie play from Viewpoint, we were able to pick up four well-earned goals. Cody figured out how to break the double team to feed the low post, where he found Johnny and then Elliott. Kristian got in on the assist game with his nice skip pass to Johnny on a fast break, and Quincy made the pass of the day back upfield to Cody, who thundered one home. We went into halftime up 6-1, knowing that we could put the game away with a burst of effort in the 3rd.

Quincy Thorne ’26. Photo captured by Coach Peterson

We ran into minor bumps to start the second half, dropping a few passes, giving up a pair of harsh penalties, and struggling a bit to track bodies in transition. While that last issue caused us to give up two goals to our opponent’s fast, long-stick middies, we could control the majority of possession again, thanks to superior hustle. We also made some excellent adjustments in our shot selection to finish a more significant percentage of drives. Cody, Quincy, and Elliott each picked up terrific goals from nice doges facilitated by good offensive movement (and terrific feeds from Tres and Johnny, respectively).

Elliot Murray Osborn ’24 and Quincy Thorne ’26. Photo captured by Coach Peterson

The 4th quarter went by quickly thanks to nice long possessions, some great rides from Brady Mogenson, Julian, and Oliver, and superb checks from Colby. Quincy helped pad our lead with two spectacular goals, the first on a highlight real worthy behind the back shot to punctuate a terrific sequence – Cody caused a turnover at midfield, won the ensuing ground ball, and pushed the fast break to draw a body before dumping to Johnny who made the extra pass to the cutting Quincy for the finish – we’ll share video of that one as soon as it goes live… and the second on a classic read from our primary offensive rotation. While we gave up another pair of goals to Viewpoint in transition, we had enough gas in the tank to close the game with a 3-minute “kill the clock” run.

We learned more about our team today. As Kristian said in the post-game, we play together as a unit with more trust and conviction than our opponents, and that’s something we can build on. This group of guys is ready to work hard for each other. We have some clear things to work on when we’re back from break and will be excited to move together as a team through the hectic and competitive league season.

Cate is showing excellent sportsmanship post-game. Photo captured by Coach Peterson

From the coaches: “It was another great day to see our guys play together and lift each other up. Some new players got in on the scoring, especially Quincy Thorne, who made great adjustments to find space and finish in the middle of the game. We’re proud of how the team added some extra focus and hustle to the ride today, which, coupled with huge games on the defensive side from Burak Yanar, Kristian Scurtis, and Colby Roof, really helped us maintain possession and control the tempo of the game.”

Stats:
Tres Davidson: 1a
Johnny Foster: 2g, 3a
Quincy Thorne: 4g, 1a
Cody Mast: 2g, 3a
Elliott Murray Osborn: 3g