Lehigh 13, Detroit 9

Detroit 1-5.

This game happened more than a couple days ago, so I won't preface it too much: The Titans lost to Lehigh in their home opener. We'll figure out why by starting with the...

Tempo-Free

From the box score, here's your tempo-free breakdown.

Lehigh
Lehigh		Detroit
Faceoff Wins	18	Faceoff Wins	6
Clearing	9-12	Clearing	10-26
Possessions	46	Possessions	35
Goals	13	Goals	9
Offensive Efficiency	.283	Offensive Efficiency	.257

The Titans seem to have found some things that work on the offensive and defensive ends of the ball. They're improving in efficiency, and doing so against teams that are not only competent, but actually good.

So, it's the possession that sucks. Detroit got pasted at the faceoff X, and put up what is probably the worst clearing rate I've seen in a single game (Michigan games against the Purdues of the world notwithstanding). They managed 11 fewer possessions in a game played at only slightly above-average pace.

As previously noted, they did almost as well with those possessions as Lehigh did. You can't win games if you can't control the ball.

Notes

Brandon Davenport was pretty bad on faceoffs, winning only 5 of 16... but that made him the best of the 6 guys who took one (aside from maybe Matt Gregson, who won 1 of 3, but sample size definitely comes into play there). I think it might have been a mistake to go away from him, and almost certainly a mistake to cycle through so many guys instead of trying to let your #1 play into form.

Shayne Adams has emerged as an excellent scoring threat, putting in 4 goals against Lehigh. Having a regularly dangerous offensive threat will help the Titans pull themselves out of the depths of terrible efficiency.

Defensively, Jamie Hebden and Max Zwolan each caused 2 turnovers, but Hebden more made up for it by committing 4 of his own. It seems like he was a big part of UDM's troubles clearing.

A lot of the reason the game was close had to do with Lehigh taking its foot off the gas (the Titans scored 5 of the final 6 goals), so don't read toooo much into an ultimately competitive score.

Elsewhere

Detroit Recap. Lehigh Recap. Box Score. Also: I recently noticed this, so apologies for not doing so quicker. UDM has a Youtube channel. NO highlights from this game up yet, but there is an interview with Jordan Houtby and Shayne Adams after their MAAC player of the week honors from a week ago.

Up Next

The Titans next played Mount St. Mary's (last night). Recap forthcoming ASAP.