Earlier this week I had a chance to sit down with Nick Myers the head coach of the Ohio State Men’s Lacrosse team. I asked him questions about last week’s game against Villanova and we looked ahead at the Buckeyes’ first road matchup of the season against Bucknell.
Myers: “We got back to basics on Monday and took a look at the film. It’s very humbling when you look at it and break it down. We were excited with a win to start the year but we feel like we need to do a lot of things better.
We really stressed the importance of playing with the lead. We had a four-goal lead twice (against Villanova) and saw it evaporate. Credit Villanova we had a couple of costly penalties. We just talked a lot about playing smarter lacrosse.”
You have talked about this team having a young offense and early on in the season relying on a more experienced defense but the freshman stepped up in a big way accounting for seven of the team’s ten goals and three of the first four.
Myers: “That was not as big of a surprise as you would have thought. We have scrimmaged all preseason and after almost every scrimmage we have had almost 50% to 70% of the goals scored by the freshman. They have really solidified themselves in starting roles and key roles. It’s a matter of continuing to coach those guys but they have done a great job adapting to our schemes. They are very coachable. I think they fit nicely into our unselfish mentality on the offensive side sharing the ball and working off of each other.
It’s a long season for these young guys. We are about six or seven weeks into training, which feels like a season to them but we are only two weeks into our game schedule. So we need to pace those guys and make sure we bring them along and understand there is going to be some highs and lows.”
You had a four-goal advantage going into the fourth quarter, after Villanova scored three straight and you needed a goal to ice it. Were you confident that the freshman would respond positively to that kind of pressure?
Myers: “Without Joel Dalgarno we really have not established a go too guy down the stretch and in the fourth quarter we did not have anything specific drawn up for one guy. What we did was run our offense. A year ago we would have put the ball on Joel’s stick and run something for him but this year we really just put our best six guys on the field and allow them to play together.
I thought the key goal was the one Jeff Tundo had off of a pass from Logan Schuss and he made a nice hard inside move and he put it away. It was a big goal for us.
Jim Green, suspended for the first half, starts off the second half with a goal. He finished with two, talk about his impact on the game?
Myers: “Jim is guy that brings a lot to the table for us. He has played four years for us, he is a very athletic and fast. We had a set piece put together for him at the start of the second half, which I thought he executed very well. He got a nice shot on cage. He has the speed to dodge the poll and the biggest thing for Jim’s success is the continued development of our young guys. It will really allow the focus to be off of Jim and spread it around a little bit.
You open the season with a 10-8 victory what was the mood of the team after the game especially after all the hard work during the off-season?
Myers: “I was proud of the effort of the guys and you always like to start the year with a win. Again, Monday was humble pie. We got back at it and just showed them the film and challenged the team to get better.
This week you travel to take on Bucknell. How has the team handled preparing for their first road game?
Myers:” Well, it’s tough because we have not been able to get outside. We have been inside Woody Hayes, which is certainly a nice facility but does not prepare you the same way as getting outside.
It’s a matter of showing some resiliency, as far as being away from home and going into a hostile environment against a really good team. With these young guys you never know, we just talked to the team about executing the game plan, playing Buckeye lacrosse. Against a team with a defense that likes to slide like Bucknell does you are going to have to move the ball quickly. We know what we have to do to go in there and we have prepared hard all week to do that.”
After you have had a chance to look at Bucknell on tape. What have you prepared your team to expect in the game Saturday?
Myers: “Going into this week we have a tough test with Bucknell. This is a team that played the number-two team (Duke) in the country to overtime. Bucknell led the entire game until the very last goal, which is a heartbreaker for them. But we know how capable they are. They are a little bit different in a sense that they slide very quickly defensively and they have a ten man ride. They have one of the top ranked attack units in the country this year. They have two seniors back. They have an excellent faceoff man.
It is something we know and the men understand, this is a team that we have had three straight games decided by one goal and two of them went to overtime. We have had some battles and going on the road, being outside, it’s going to be a lot different than the friendly confines of Woody Hayes.
The guys understand the challenge. That has been our focus, preparing mentally for that.”
Any changes in the lineup this week?
Myers: “Jimmy Green is going to be out there from the get go in the midfield. Zach Rodgers had a nice week on the attack; look for him to get some more minutes working in with the attack unit.
Faceoff wise we are going to continue to throw different looks out there until we get more success from that point of emphasis. We did an all right job for Villanova but we have to keep getting better. Trey Wilkes, for his first game as a Buckeye, did some really nice things. Brandon McClain will get a couple of looks. That’s an area we are going to continue to mix up our lineups. But other than that we are pretty much business as usual moving forward.
You can catch the entire Ohio State men's lacrosse season on Scarlet and Gray Sports Radio or on OhioStateBuckeyes.com as a part of the Buckeye Vision Subscription service
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