College Scrimmage Roundup

A pair of Michigan Universities hosted scrimmages over the weekend, with D-1 Detroit facing a pair of D3 opponents (Kenyon and Carthage) in Pontiac, and the MCLA's Michigan taking on Division-1 Bellarmine Saturday night in Ann Arbor. I'm the first to admit I follow the Wolverines much more closely, so be prepared to read plenty about them.

Detroit

The Titans' website doesn't provide a ton of detail on their scrimmages, but UDM took down Kenyon 11-5 and Carthage 12-2 for a scrimmage sweep on the day. Neither team was particularly good in D3 last year (LaxPower rated them #84 and #128, respectively), so it's tough to draw too much information from the outcomes. Additionally, it sounds like Coach Holtz emptied the bench, as 12 different Titans scored, and all three goalies saw time in the net.

The Titans' pre-season is over, and they'll open their regular season on Saturday at #17 Delaware. Look for a preview on these pages in the coming days.

Michigan

The Wolverines took down Bellarmine 14-8 last preseason in a game that wasn't as close as the final score indicated, so most people - myself included - expected a Wolverine win, though perhaps more competitively than last year's contest. An 18-11 margin in favor of the Knights certainly didn't seem like the most likely outcome.

The Bad

So, uh, what went wrong? I can't say exactly, because I wasn't there, and there were no official stats recorded (or at least published) for the scrimmage. However, a number of players sat out with injury, including a few important ones:

• Sr D Harry Freid (1st-Tm AA 2009, 2010)



• Sr D Justin Burgin (3rd-Tm All-CCLA 2010)



• RSo D Jordan Bargas



• Fr D Jake Dockser



• Fr M Andrew Hayden



• Fr M George Sutherland



• Jr M Alex Vasileff



• Jr FO Specialist Edward Ernst

Maybe the three freshmen aren't a big part of Michigan's gameplan yet, but 3 of Michigan's top 5 defensemen missed the game, including the guy who will likely go down as one of the best defenders to wear a Michigan uniform.

On top of missing a huge contingent of defenders, a midfield that was already hit hard by graduation certainly wasn't helped by having three guys watch from the bench. Vasileff, the only non-freshman of that group, notched a 3-7--10 scoreline last year, playing in 12 games.

Finally, I've covered the importance of the faceoff specialist to Michigan's success over the past few years both at mgoblog and in more detail on these pages, so not having the top faceoff specialist available was a big hit. Indeed, the numbers started out pretty ugly:

Michigan only won five of 16 faceoffs in the first half but battled back in the second, winning 11 of 14.

Backup faceoff specialist Harrison Silver struggled, going 3/11, while Brian Greiner, who recently switched to faceoffs, did much better at 13/18. Without knowing whether Bellarmine also switched out their faceoff specialist (their official site has no mention of the scrimmage), it's hard to say whether Greiner did so much better because he was facing easier competition, or because he should be the #2 man. Based on his comment to the official site, it may be (at least partially) the latter:

“Coach didn’t feel comfortable letting me jump right in and start because I’ve been out for a year with a torn ACL and haven’t actually played in a college game in over a calendar year.

When Ernst comes back, faceoffs should return to being a strength, though probably not as much as they have been in the past.

The Good

Michigan got some pretty balanced scoring (partially because they want to play a deeper bench in a scrimmage situation), with goals scored by the following players:

• Matt Asperheim



• Ryan Dutton-O'Hara (2)



• Trevor Yealy



• Doug Bryant (3)



• Chad Carroll (2)

Two goals went unaccounted for in the recap, so your guess is as good as mine as far as who scored them. It's also great to see some newcomers score, as Yealy and Asperheim were the only players listed who were on the team last year. Even if both of the mystery goals were scored by returning players, that's seven out of eleven goals scored by new guys.

Without official stats, it's hard to evaluate how the keepers performed. I would guess Stone (5 saves, 12 goals against) faced much more pressure than Fowler (4 saves, 6 goals against). Either way, it's tough to assess their play other than saying Fowler had a much better save percentage.

Up Next

The Wolverines will face Division III Wittenberg Friday Night at 7:30 in Oosterbaan Fieldhouse. The Tigers finished 2010 rated 47th in D3 to Laxpower, and they went 10-5 on the season, winning the North Coast Conference with a 4-1 record.