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The stats are out for the game today. I am a little surprised by the penalty difference and the inability of BYU to clear. It is nice to see BYU dominate at face-offs though.

any pictures?

grinderpete wrote:The stats are out for the game today. I am a little surprised by the penalty difference and the inability of BYU to clear. It is nice to see BYU dominate at face-offs though.

The stats might say they won most of the faceoffs, but I would say that they were more even than that. In a lot of cases, BYU gained possession in traffic, only to have the ball stripped away. They did not dominate in any case.

The other standout statistic was EMO...BYU killed 9 of 10 penalties. I wasn't keeping track at the time, but it felt like the calls were kind of 2-1 vs. BYU. I didn't know it was 10-3. Before all of the experts out there jump all over me, let me be clear here: The Refs did not cost BYU this game. I feel much better now.

At 8-4, UCSB looked done. They looked tired. BYU had scored 3 consecutive goals in about a 4 minute span, and seemed ready to run away with the game. Then the Gauchos did exactly what they needed to do to scratch their way back into the game. They scored a goal to get it back within 3. Next came a broken-clear goal that made it 8-6. That just took the life out of the Cougars, and really got the Gauchos (and their fans) fired up. I believe that's what carried them down the stretch.

All in all, I think BYU's defense is pretty good. That unit will keep the team in most games. The attack and midfield need more work together in order to gel. It was obvious that offensive players on both teams (BYU and UCSB) were trying to do too much. They'll need to trust each other more. I think that will come with time and experience.

Maybe this will make it so that people underestimate BYU going forward. I know they will learn from this CA trip, and will be better as a result.

DG

grinderpete

Do you know what program generated those stats, and/or where I could find it?

www.statcrew.com

Used by many lacrosse programs these days (including us).

Thanks Alex!

Time for another fundraiser...