Originally Posted by Anonymous
ML dad here. I will attempt to give you my unvarnished take:

I watched the Venom vs Hawks game before we played in the finals. The Hawks looked strong at first. Fast as heck in the midfield (which was to be expected), solid passing at top speed, moved the ball very quickly. Nobody on the offense kept in their stick for very long. Hard to pin point why they collapsed, but Venom was good at keeping control of the ball and their D was solid in the hoop forcing outside shots.

To be totally honest, after watching that game I thought we were in for a tough one (i.e, likely loss)...and I wasn't alone thinking that amongst the ML parents. Our semi game ended about ~30 mins after H vs V and our guys were pretty gassed and only had about 20 mins to rest. Maybe that was a plus because V came out and was flat footed and didn't seem like the same team I had just watched. The V coaches were blowing a gasket when they went down 3 or 4 to 0 very quickly. That wasn't helpful, and our coach, who you all know and love, was ODDLY very quiet this game. I don't know the Venom coaches at all because we have never played them before. I know when our coach goes bonkers and tries joy-stick coaching the boys freeze up and everything collapses (it usually happens against Next Level, which makes no sense to me but what do I know!).

Our defense matched the physical play and the refs let it go for about 60% of the game and then it started getting a bit out of control. ML was also able to win a few face offs, which has always been a problem for our team, and if it isn't fixed our NAL win could be an anomaly. Long summer and I expect and hope to see more battles.

We are looking forward to playing 3d New England. Another solid team who we have never played. So if you have any tips there send them my way.

As an aside, MadDog played us very hard. They have a fantastic faceoff guy......maybe it was just the way the position matchups fell. I haven't looked at how they did otherwise, but a solid team.

Thx for the balanced analysis. Saw 3D NE in the fall. Big and athletic D poles similar to Express North. Excellent goalie.