Exeter 8 Loomis Chaffee 9 (2OT)
Sat, 4/26, Windsor, CT - Exeter lost a heartbreaker in the beginning
of the 2nd sudden death overtime period when the Loomis long pole middie grabbed
a ground ball off the face off and fired a pass to an attackman who scored
the game winner. Exeter had several excellent opportunities to win the game
in both regulation and the first OT period. With less than a minute to play
in regulation, Mike Hines dodged his man from up top and hit the pipe.
In the first overtime period, Exeter dominated possession and once again had
two excellent chances to win the game. Gavin Nurick made a great cut,
caught the feed from an attackman, and also hit the pipe. Then with less than
15 seconds in the first OT, Mike Hines dodged, drew a doubleteam, fed
an open Tom Petty on the crease, but the Loomis goalie saved the one
on one shot by Tom. Tom was the offensive star of the game with
one goal and four assists, so it would have been a perfect Exeter ending had
the Loomis goalie not come up so big.
It was a close and hard fought game the entire way. Although Loomis scored first, Exeter came on strong and scored four unanswered goals to take a 4-1 lead a few minutes into the 2nd quarter. The scoring was spread around as middies Chris Mottau and Ryan Beer scored the first two goals, while attackman Sloan Smith and Tom Petty chipped in the next two. Exeter was playing very well, dominating possession and seemingly had Loomis on the ropes. In an otherwise well officiated game, a poor no call by the officials off of a faceoff at the nine-minute mark of the 2nd quarter cost Exeter dearly. Suresh Jones came in hard off of the wing, grabbed the ground ball cleanly in front of his man, and then got pushed from the rear onto his face as he attempted to run with the ball. Not only did Exeter not get the 30-second penalty call for a push with possession, but there was incredibly no awarding of possession call either. To make matters worse, the loose ball that rolled out of Suresh's stick bounced right through the defense and into a Loomis attackman's stick who proceeded to shoot and score. Instead of Exeter being man-up with a 4-1 lead, it was now a 4-2 game and a huge momentum shift occurred. Loomis proceeded to score two more second quarter goals to make it a 4-4 tie at the half, and then two more unanswered goals to take a 6-4 lead a few minutes into the 3rd quarter. To Exeter's credit, they continued to play hard and steadily took control again. Tom Petty assisted every 2nd half goal for Exeter with Sloan Smith scoring two, Chris Mottau his second of the day, and Taylor Evans chipping in one. Exeter had to come back from a 7-5 deficit and tied the game at 8-8 with five minutes to play in regulation. The defense of Wiley Dornseif, Will Tuttle, Stew Stout, Tom Rubel, and Jon Reed were playing tough and clearing the ball well. Goalie Julian Rodier played his best game this season with 16 saves and excellent field management. Exeter stifled a Loomis man-up opportunity with less than two minutes to play, gained control on the offensive end of the field, and called a timeout to set up the winning play. Unfortunately, we hit the pipe instead of the net, and an overtime was forced. Loomis is a very good team that plays in one of the toughest high school leagues in the country. The Exeter players should take great pride in playing such a high quality team essentially even.
|
Team |
1st quarter |
2nd quarter |
3rd quarter |
4th quarter |
1st OT
|
2nd OT
|
Game Total |
|
Exeter |
3
|
1
|
3
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
8
|
|
Loomis Chaffee |
1
|
3
|
3
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
9
|
Game Scoring - Goals - Smith(3), Mottau(2), Evans, Petty, Beer
Assists - Petty(4), Rubel, Evans, Horan
Saves/Shots on Goal - Rodier 16/25