Weekend Watch: McCampbell's Sticky Issue
by Jac Coyne | Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff | Coyne Archive | Twitter
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| Bowdoin goalie Jake McCampbell uses a blend of
anticipation, focus, and maybe a little bit of clairvoyance to make
the big save for the Polar Bears. © Brian Beard |
Jake McCampbell should have been nervous.
Most sophomore goalies minutes away from starting their first
collegiate game have the jitters. With Wesleyan, a perennial
contender in the NESCAC, on the other half of the field, the
tremors should have been ratcheted up even higher.
As it turned out, the Cardinals were on McCampbell’s mental
backburner in the moments leading up to the 2009 season opener for
both teams. The Bowdoin netminder was attending to far more
pressing matters.
“I actually broke my stick five minutes before the game
started so that kind of helped a little,” said McCampbell
about being distracted from the game’s importance. “It
got me running around so I wasn’t worried about the game. I
was so worried about trying to figure out my stick situation, I
couldn’t keep my mind off it.”
Although he was completely preoccupied with it, his replacement
stick managed to hold up pretty well. Other than a couple of
passing miscues – “I hadn’t been using [the
back-up stick] too much, so I threw away about five or six passes
in the first half,” he said – McCampbell was a
wall.
He allowed just three goals, two of which were when Wesleyan was
on the extra man, and made 18 saves, allowing Bowdoin to score two
goals in the final 1:33 to take the 4-3 victory.
Tom McCabe, Bowdoin’s head coach, didn’t know quite
what to make of McCampbell’s stick incident, but he knows he
has a goalie to build around for the next two years.
“He’s pretty high-strung, but he stops the
ball,” said McCabe. “That’s the bottom line. Put
it this way: I wouldn’t trade him for any other goalie in
this league.”
McCampbell will get an opportunity to reprise his role against
Wesleyan on Saturday when the No. 19 Polar Bears travel to
Middletown, Conn., to face the 11th-ranked Cardinals at
1 p.m.
Although he had a great start to the 2009 campaign, McCabe said
his goalie had an up-and-down year. A shoulder injury cost
McCampbell two games and hampered him in several others, but when
he was healthy he was a rock on the backline. He finished with an
8.14 GAA and a 59.4 save percentage.
McCampbell admits that it took him a while to get completely
acclimated to starting at the college level. But when he’s
really playing well, he uses a combination of anticipation, focus,
and a touch of clairvoyance to make the big save.
“Most of the time I know right before the guy shoots whether
I’m going to save it or not,” said McCampbell.
“I’ll be thinking in my head, ‘I really hope they
shoot the ball right now. Please shoot, please shoot.’
That’s when you make the save.
“When all of a sudden somebody gets the ball and in my mind
I’m thinking, ‘Please don’t shoot,’ the
ball goes in every time. It’s really a mental struggle the
whole game to stay focused on the ball and play out every single
shot they take.”
McCampbell’s mind-meld will certainly be a boon again this
spring, however he won’t have the luxury of close defender
Boomer Repko and LSM Bryan Holden – both first team
All-NESCAC picks – doing some of the heavy lifting in front
of him. Repko is credited with holding Russ Follansbee,
Wesleyan’s All-American attackman, to zero points and two
shots in the Polar Bears win last spring.
McCabe thinks it’s McCampbell that is making his defenders
better and is not particularly worried about breaking in some new
poles.
“I still think we’re solid defensively,” he
said. “We probably don’t have a take-away defender, but
everyone is playing well together.”
This early in the season, there will be question marks for both
teams. The biggest wild card on Saturday may be whether the Bowdon
goalie breaks his stick during pregame.
Crunch Time for Fraser
Canada’s Team needs a win.
A fashionable pick to give Michigan a run for the title in 2010,
Simon Fraser, located in Burnaby, B.C., was dominated twice last
weekend – Colorado State subdued the Clansmen, 12-6, before
Colorado raced to a convincing, and slightly embarrassing, 17-7
triumph. As it heads into tonight’s game with the top-ranked
Wolverines, Fraser is just trying to get back to basics.
“Any time you have two tough games you always revisit the
fundamentals in that situation” said Simon Fraser co-coach
Brent Hoskins, who directs the Clan with Jeff Cathrea. “Our
preparation heading into the season hasn’t been where it
needs to be. This is a good wake-up. It’s a good reminder to
the guys about the hard work, preparation and commitment level you
have to have to be successful, especially playing against a
schedule we put together this year.”
Last year, SFU could flip the switch and dominate any team in the
league. Against third-seeded Chapman at nationals, the Clan rallied
from a steep deficit in the fourth-quarter and almost pulled off
the upset before fall, 15-14. The game was an encapsulation of what
Fraser is capable of – stretches of disinterested play
followed by breathtaking streaks of offense.
In hopes of avoiding any initial letdown on Sunday, the Clansmen
were fired up from the start against Colorado, but the pregame hype
backfired when Colorado blunted the initial salvo and built a
lead.
“It boiled over into a little bit of frustration,”
said Hoskins. “I think this weekend we’re going to come
out focused. I don’t expect our guys to come out with a chip
on their shoulder, but we definitely have something to prove. We
prepare for each game with the objective of being successful, but
we also have an end goal in mind and that is to peak at the end of
April and the middle of May. Each game before that will be
preparation.”
Pressure Zone
The players who must make a difference for their team
to pull out the win.
Grant Covington,
Goalie, Wesleyan
McCampbell was the story in last year’s
Bowdoin-Wesleyan game, but Covington has the potential to grab the
headlines come Sunday. The sophomore has already posted a pair of
victories, but the dial gets turned up on Saturday. Covington has
made 11 saves in two games – including zero in
Wesleyan’s 14-1 snoozer against Maritime – but
he’ll be playing a team with more talent and confidence than
the last two. While the success of the Wesleyan zone is predicated
on him consistently stopping the 12-to-15 yard shot, Bowdoin is
going to get their chances in tight. In what will surely be a
close, low-scoring game, Covington needs to rob the Polar Bears of
a couple of dunks to make the difference.
Grant Firestone, LSM,
Haverford
Disruption is the name of the game for the Black Squirrels.
Gettysburg is operating with tournament-like precision, meaning
Haverford needs to disrupt every facet of the Bullets game if the
Fords want to pull the upset. Firestone will play a key role in
that. Whether it’s foiling the Bullets’ ride, blowing
up the efficient Gettysburg face-off unit, or maybe even popping in
a transition goal or two, Firestone must be a menace.
Christian Furbay,
Attack, Dayton
The Flyers, runners-up last year in MCLA Division II, have
been grinding out games so far. Granted, they were against solid
competition, but Dayton needed overtime to beat Elon and had to
rally in the fourth quarter to down SCAD. If Dayton is going to
beat Davenport, it’s going to need breathing room. Furbay,
who leads the Flyers with six goals and two assists, must be the
guy to provide it. Furbay will be the object of the Davenport
defense, but he has to play above the competition.
Cooper Kehoe,
Attack, Colorado State
The Rams are in a nice spot. They are undefeated, ranked
No. 4 in the country, and will still be underdogs heading into this
weekend. There's nothing to lose; just let it all hang out against
No. 3 Arizona State. In reality, CSU has played a tougher schedule
and will head into this game with the expectation of winning. If
Kehoe, who leads the Rams with 19 goals and 10 assists, can convert
his early opportunities, he’ll force the Sun Devils to chase
the game and play right into State’s hands.
Vicki Sahm,
Goalie, St.
John Fisher
This is just as much about the Fisher defense as it is
about Sahm. The Cardinals are scoring enough goals to win, but the
defense has not been able to step up to the level of the two NCAA
tournament contenders – Roanoke and Mary Washington –
they’ve played so far. It needs to happen. Quickly. Union,
which has also started out 0-2, is nearing desperation mode and
would like nothing more than to put this game away in the first
half. Sahm and her defense need to make sure that Fisher has a shot
at the end.
Chris Teves, Middie,
Middlebury
You don’t have to dig too deep to find the biggest
loss from the Panthers’ roster. Mike Stone was the type of
player who only comes along every couple of years, so it’s
silly to expect any one individual to fill his shoes. Teves,
however, must replace some of Stone’s production out of the
midfield or the Midd offense will struggle early on this season.
The senior scored 10 goals and dished out seven assists in
‘09, making him the top returner from that unit. He should
get some opportunities against Bates to build up his
confidence.
Tyler Tory-Murphy,
Defense, Amherst
As if finishing eighth in the NESCAC wasn’t bad
enough, Amherst also lost most of its offensive firepower from last
spring. On the bright side, the defense returns nearly intact, led
by Tory-Murphy. Against a prolific scoring team like conference
rival Tufts, the senior must have her unit operating smoothly or it
could be lights out in the first 20 minutes of the game.
Ben Towner, Attack,
Simon Fraser
Six goals against Colorado State. Seven goals against
Colorado. What happened to the prolific Clansmen attack? Could be
rust, could be strategy. Whatever it is, Towner needs to live up to
his Player of the Year potential and make sure it doesn’t
happen again. Playing against Michigan and Michigan State in a
three-day span, the senior needs to put SFU on his back and win one
of those contests single-handedly.
Slides & Rides
- Tom McCabe said he sent his defensive coordinator, Tom
Radulski – who also moonlights as the mastermind of the Polar
Bear football team’s defensive unit – down to take a
peek at the Wesleyan-Maritime game on Wednesday. In what may have
been a friendly, one-fingered salute by Wesleyan coach John Raba to
the Polar Bear staff, Radulski wasn’t able to scout this
year’s version of the potent Cardinals zone. “We went
down and scouted their game against Maritime and they played all
man-to-man, so who knows,” said McCabe, with a chuckle.
“I think they were just messing with us.”
- McCabe said that Billy Bergner, a freshman out of the Canterbury
(Conn.) School will likely start on attack for the Polar Bears. The
coach also expects midfielders Mark Flibotte and Ben Chadwick to be
key contributors. They’ll need to be with junior Owen Smith,
Bowdoin’s best player, still running with the Polar Bear
hockey team that is competing in the NCAA tournament this weekend.
McCabe said Smith occasionally comes out and shoots on an off day,
but has not been practicing at all with the lacrosse team. The
Bowdoin team will fly out of Connecticut after the Wesleyan clash
for games against WNEC and Nazareth in Texas.
- Since I commented about it the Schooling Schooler this week, I asked Simon
Fraser coach Brent Hoskins about playing Michigan on Friday and
Michigan State on Sunday without the Spartans being required to
play a game prior to the SFU contest. As it turns out, that was
just my NCAA-centric way of looking at things. Traveling and
playing multiple teams is standard fare in the MCLA. Hoskins thinks
Fraser has an advantage just having an off-day in between UM and
MSU.
“It’s nice to have that day break in between for the
rest,” said Hoskins. “In the past when we’ve made
some out-of-conference trips we’ve done Friday, Saturday,
Sunday or back-to-backs. We thought that with a day’s rest
after Michigan, that would be enough.”
- I wrote during the off season about how the Union women’s
schedule is the best around. The Dutchwomen, however, are learning
just how small the margin of error is when playing top flight teams
on a weekly basis. Union lost to No. 8 Babson, 11-10 in overtime on
March 2 and then four days later lost by the same score in double
overtime to No. 11 Stevens. Next on the docket is St. John Fisher,
the defending Empire 8 champion. One would think the first two
games should pay dividends in the third.
- We were all curious after Ithaca’s 12-7 loss to Scranton
as to whether it was just opening game jitters or the sign of a
brutal season to come. After the Bombers 11-2 setback to Union on
Wednesday, things are starting to look like the latter. Nick Neuman
was one bright spot for Ithaca, winning 12-of-14 face-offs and
grabbing 10 ground balls, but that was about it. Fortunately, after
their game against No. 10 Geneseo on Friday, the Bombers hop a
flight to SoCal and hopefully wins against Whittier and
FDU-Florham. Or at least a little beach time.
- If you missed my stories this week, we had Competing the Z, Schooling Schooler, feature on Stevens’ Alyssa Pigott, a feature on the
Tennessee Wesleyan squad, and Monday’s Making Sense column. Thanks for
reading.
- The Oneonta and Farmingdale women will be promoting autism
research at their game on Long Island on Saturday…the first
varsity men’s lacrosse game in the state of Texas between
Southwestern and Trine will be broadcast on collegetvticket.com for free on Saturday. The game
starts at 2 p.m. ET…the Drew women, NCAA qualifiers last
year, are off to a slow start. Losing to Vassar does not bode well
for the Rangers and a repeat appearance…the SLC, one of the
top leagues in the MCLA, dropped the hammer on UNLV. Both a player
and the head coach have been suspended for this year and all of next
year…the Carthage men are 4-0. Yes, they haven’t faced
the mettle of Division III, but the Red Men are undefeated after
five games. To save you a trip to a search engine, Carthage is in
Wisconsin… Wesleyan’s 8-3 win over Salve Regina became
a little more impressive on Wednesday when Salve took No. 16 WNEC
to the brink before losing, 10-9…kind of an odd, two-game
stretch for No. 12 St. Lawrence. They put the clamps down on No. 14
Haverford to pick up the big win, but then travel to Whittier and
struggled to pull out a 7-6 triumph in double overtime…she
won’t qualify for one of my Making Sense game balls
on Monday, but Morgan DeShaw deserves recognition. The Endicott
sophomore scored seven goals to help the Endicott women upset No. 8
Babson in sudden-death double overtime, 17-16 on Thursday evening.
