Detroit 8, Jacksonville 10

Opportunity lost. The Titans led 8-6 late in the third quarter, but allowed 4 straight Dolphin goals to close the game, leading to a heartbreaking loss in J-ville. The Titans could have been the MAAC frontrunner, but instead look like they could have a rough time even reaching .500 in-conference.

On to the…

Tempo Free

From the official boxscore, your tempo-free breakdown:

This… is probably even more painful than losing in almost any other way. In a brutally slow game, the Titans actually kept pace in terms of possession, but were unable to finish the chances they got – and prevent JU from scoring themselves.

This is the reverse of your standard UDM loss so far this year. The skill players have been excellent finishing, and the possessions have lagged far, far behind. Really tough way to drop out of the lead in the conference standings.

Notes

Brandon Davenport has had his share of struggles this year, and I’ve been firmly in the “keep riding him, he’ll turn it around or is at least your best shot at success” camp. He bore that out yesterday by winning 12 of 19 draws, and LSM Jordan Houtby took a single draw for UDM, losing it (worse – with a GB pickup by Jacksonville’s faceoff guy).

As mentioned above, UDM’s offensive skill guys were not their usual flashy selves. Shayne Adams had 2 goals and no assists on 5 shots, and Troy Dennis had a goal and an assist. Scott Harris had a single goal on 7 shot attempts. In a very close game, all of those misses unfortunately count.

AJ Levell did everything he could to keep the Titans in the game, making 13 saves and allowing 10 goals in the loss. The Dolphins’ goalie, Peter DeLuca, only needed to make 8 saves and he allowed 8 goals.

It seems like the Titans were really outworked on this day. Jamie Hebden caused 7 JU turnovers and picked up 7 GBs, but Tom Masterson was the only other non-faceoff Titan with more than 2 picked up. The Dolphins had 8 players with at least 3 ground balls.

Elsewhere

Official site recap. Jacksonville site recap (includes postgame video with the JU coach).

Up Next

Detroit continues conference play on the road with a trip to New York to face Siena on Saturday.