2013 Colgate Lacrosse Player Blog: Navy Week at The Big Crab Cake

2013 Colgate Lacrosse Player Blog: Navy Week at The Big Crab Cake

The 2013 season is here and we wanted to work closely with college programs to bring a part of the excitement to you. Throughout the 2013 season we will highlight lacrosse programs on our space for all of our readers to follow. Player blogs serve as a unique outlet for programs to showcase their season as it develops, plus highlight everything they have to offer a student-athlete. In contrast, families and fans get a glimpse into the program’s athletic and academic regimen.

Benjamin Shapiro
Senior – #19 – Midfield
Colgate Lacrosse

Navy Week at The Big Crab Cake

After the win over Michigan at Citi Field in front of many of our friends, family, and alumni, we were forced turn our attention to a Saturday showdown against The Naval Academy at M&T Bank Stadium as part of the Konica Minolta Faceoff Classic. Aside from the fact that Navy is a Patriot League opponent, which puts great importance on the game, the Midshipmen handed us our only regular season Patriot League loss last season, and pay back was in order. I know it is cliché, but these Patriot League games are always dogfights, and you can throw out the team’s incoming records before the games begin. Navy had been struggling of late, but we knew they would come out hungry in front of a big crowd down in Baltimore. It was incumbent upon our team to work that much harder to get ready for our second Patriot League opponent.

After the Sunday game coach gave us Monday off to rest and catch up on schoolwork. To Coach Scherer’s pleasure a lot of the guys still came in to lift, and had the pleasure of going “down the line” in the weight room. We got back to work on Tuesday with a mid day film session to rap up the Wolverines. Sophomore Trevor Atkins earned practice player of the week honors putting his #2 on the lunch pale, while with a 4 point effort Pete Baum received player of the game honors. No one seemed to tell Hamilton, New York that spring was quickly approaching, as we received a cold week of weather, that kicked off with heavy snow fall on Tuesday forcing us to practice inside. In what I thought was one of our hardest working practices of the year, we focused on getting better internally and specifically practiced was geared towards our 6 on 6 play. The snow continued to fall on Wednesday but this time we were outside on Andy Kerr. Despite being a sloppy practice skills wise, we were able to work on our full field game outside on the turf. The weather cleared up for Thursday’s practice outside, and Friday morning we boarded The Bernie Bus bright and early to head down to Baltimore.

The northern boys were glad to be welcomed by the sun in Maryland, as we practiced at what Chris Berman likes to refer to as “The Big Crab Cake” on Friday afternoon. We went through our usual pre practice routine, which gave us the opportunity to get acclimated to the new environment. Senior Connor “The Legend” Brown broke the team down at the end of practice, calling on us to continue our strong Patriot League regular season play, and give us the opportunity to host the Patriot League tournament. After practice The Cashmans were nice enough to host the team at their home outside of Baltimore. We were able to have a great dinner as a team, and watch some March Madness games while doing so. Tim’s dog Layney was roaming around enjoying the company, hoping people would give her an extra bite of their food. After dinner we headed to our hotel in Baltimore and were in bed after a team meeting and some more college basketball.

We shared our breakfast buffet with The Naval Academy who were staying at the same hotel as us. After competing for the fresh fruit and other breakfast foods, we went our separate ways and eat in different rooms. With the 2 P.M. game we were off to M&T at noon giving us plenty of time to get ready for the game. After Bill Manning’s alma mater high school Garden City took care of Tim Cashman’s alma mater Loyola Blakefield, the stage was set for the Raiders and the Midshipmen to take the field. It was another beautiful day in the inner harbor of Baltimore, with a large crowd on hand to watch the game. We stormed out to an early 4-0 lead on Navy, forcing them to call a timeout. The timeout rejuvenated the Midshipmen as it lead to two straight goals. After our lead was cut in half, we took over the game, and continued to grind Navy down on to an eventual 11-3 win. The game included great performances from our offensive and defensive units, with specifically Ryan “Wantagh” Walsh having a huge game with 7 points, and Connor Murphy continuing his strong play in goal. Navy battled hard throughout the game, but in the end we were able to come away with our second Patriot League victory. Saturday’s win was a lot cleaner and more convincing than the week prior, showing our improvement as a team. Still a lot more work has to be done as we welcome the other service academy in to Hamilton, New York this coming Sunday, the Army Black Nights.

-#19

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