Saturday night, I saw one of the roughest, most vicious 90-minute brawls I think I've ever seen.
Oh, and there was a soccer game, too.
I don't really have to offer up much analysis for this contest, as the numbers speak quite well for themselves. Mercer committed 25 fouls on the night. I'll have to double-check, but that could be a Summers-Taylor record. They also took just five shots, while ETSU took 20. (Argue home cooking on the shot counter if you like, but I thought those were reasonable numbers for both sides.) Six players were booked, four from Mercer (three of those came in the last ten minutes, so they didn't have a huge bearing on play, but that's still more than any game this year).
The Bears wanted to turn this into proverbial trench warfare. It seemed like every time ETSU tried to develop an attack, they would foul and break up the flow of play. It stymied the Bucs in the first half, and the Bears got a goal off a great corner from Ian Cameron to go into the intermission 1-0. This was the first time the men's team went into the intermission trailing at home, and just the second time they've trailed at the break all season. Against a team that plays rough like Mercer, that can be tough to come back from.
Coach made some adjustments at the half and the Bucs eventually took advantage of the Bears' rough-and-tumble play, with Alesi Osorio cashing in on a rebound off a Gui Reis free kick twenty yards out.
Blaike Woodruff was the hero in the 78th minute when he appeared out of thin air on the back post to cash in on a Geno miss. Nobody was up in support of Geno on the break, and Woodruff just popped up in the right place at the right time. He looked a little surprised that the ball ever got to him, but he deserved it: he was literally all over the pitch Saturday night and has been a huge contributor to the offense since moving to fullback.
The Bucs held on to win 2-1, but there wasn't ever really that much work for Ronnie Hreha. The defense did very well; Mercer didn't really seem like a team that had much pure skill in the attack and used their strength as the fulcrum of their offense. Cameron stood out as a very solid skill player, but nobody else made a lasting impression.
Why didn't they? Simple: bruises heal, losses don't.
Speaking of losses not healing, it looks like Heather Henson's squad could be in for a long season after their heartbreaking loss to Belmont back on September 26. They lost to UNF and Jacksonville by a combined scoreline of 5-0. They were out-shot by a 39-18 combined margin. Now we'll really see if Coach's decision to bring in a sports psychologist will pay dividends, because this team can't let these losses shake them with Stetson and Gulf Coast, the other two teams in the top four in the conference table, coming in this weekend.
On the other fall team sport front, the VolleyBucs finally got into conference play. Some folks will still be skeptical about this team simply because of its track record, but I'm taking the "innocent until proven guilty" stance after they swept Campbell. Everyone has a role, and they're all playing their roles to perfection. This is exactly how they need to go into the Lipscomb tilt on Friday, but what's important is how they rebound from that match with Belmont the following day.
That's all for now. And no, I will not start wearing Braves memorabilia just because they made the playoffs.
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