My apologies for the lengthy delay, today was brutal and life got in the way. Fortunately, the Buckeye win was a nice bright spot. Ohio State put away the Terriers 11-4 in the blowing cold of Boston, Massachusetts.
It was a homecoming of sorts for many on the Buckeye roster, made all the sweeter by a decent W. The final margin wasn't indicative of the Buckeyes' dominance in nearly every facet of the game.
Offensively, the Buckeyes did nearly everything right except hold onto the ball. Once again, the strength of the offense was the attack unit. Jack Myers and Tre Leclaire posted identical scorelines of 2 goals and 1 assist each, while Jackson Reid added 2 goals of his own.
No other Buckeye had more than one goal, though Griffin Hughes and Connor Mitchell had 2 points with 1 goal and 1 assist. Ryan Terefenko added 2 assists in transition.
The Buckeyes really had some trouble with the combination of a surprisingly solid Boston D and the cold, windy conditions. Turnovers skyrocketed in comparison to last Tuesday's relatively tranquil beatdown of Detroit Mercy.
Despite the youth on the field, Boston really put together a solid game plan of slowing down the Ohio State clear, limiting possessions with early slides and quick recoveries, and forcing the Buckeyes down the alleys.
Part of that was the Ohio State game plan, it seemed, due to the vastly different style of defense that Boston played. Regardless, Boston managed to do more than enough to put Ohio State in uncomfortable positions and force turnovers. Ohio State had an unfathomable 21 turnovers today, which is outlandishly big.
On the positive side, Ohio State did a good job getting looks at the goal, and had at least one point-blank shot go right to the keeper. That at least is an encouraging sign, even if I would like to see more dodges from the middle wing instead of the high wing into the alley.
The freshmen middie pair of Grant and Connor Mitchell are already carrying serious weight for the Buckeyes, with Johnny Wiseman and Griffin Hughes making some decent strides. Wiseman would be a nice invert dodger, in my opinion, but Myers is doing a good job from X.
Defensively, Ohio State was once again lights out. They seem to have gotten even better, despite the loss of Matt Borges from last year's defense.
Jake Snyder and Ben Williams are studs, making the future of the Buckeye defense extremely bright. The short stick middies are also killing it, making it impossible for any of the Boston middies to get by them, really.
Each time down the field, Boston looked out of ideas. They had an embarrassing .095 shooting percentage, and only managed to get slightly more than half of their shots on cage. Ohio State effectively smothered them on defense, and it is impressive to see that unit do so well this early.
In cage, Josh Kirson stood tall. Despite the many complaints I have raised about his consistency, Kirson put up 18 saves in his best outing ever as a goalie. To be fair, the defense made most of the shots he faced easy saves, but Kirson still had to stop them. And he certainly did. For this week, at least, Kirson gets a good star.
Finally, faceoffs are officially a problem. Justin Inacio is out for an indefinite period, but Ohio State better hope it's shorter than a full year injury, because the backup FOGOs are just flat bad.
Feliziani got absolutely roasted by Sean Christmas, Sam Faber lost his only draw, and the LSMs didn't fair any better. Drew Elder will be a nice addition, and he better live up to his #82 ranking coming in next year. The Buckeyes are in a bad way when it comes to faceoffs.
All in all, a solid win for the Buckeyes over the Patriot League's number two team last year in the regular season. Up next is a ranked (for now) UMass squad that got absolutely mangled by Army.
Thanks for reading, and Go Bucks!
