As I said going into the game, Detroit should have expected an easy win, and that’s what they got. Several players scored for the first time, and the Titans got a few players their first game experience.
Tempo Free
From the official box score, a look at the tempo-free stats:
| Mercer 2012 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Detroit | Mercer | ||
| Faceoff Wins | 10 | Faceoff Wins | 16 |
| Clearing | 20-22 | Clearing | 19-27 |
| Possessions | 40 | Possessions | 45 |
| Goals | 16 | Goals | 7 |
| Offensive Efficiency | .400 | Offensive Efficiency | .156 |
The Titans did not perform well on faceoffs (as mentioned in the preview, Mercer’s Justin Evans has been a bright spot on a bad team so far this year), but performed much better in the ride/clear game to stay relatively close in possessions.
That, of course, didn’t matter all that much, thanks to the discrepancy in efficiency. The Bears would have needed nearly three times the possessions of the Titans in order to win the game while performing so inefficiently.
As mentioned at the top, Detroit emptied the bench in the fourth, and nearly half of Mercer’s shots and goals took place in the final frame.
Notes
The Titans’ most-used faceoff specialist in the game was… uh… Jason McDonald? He had never taken a faceoff before, and won four of eleven draws. Brandon Davenport won three of nine. That’s all to be expected of a weak faceoff unit going against a strong one, but there will be a game or two down the road where poor performance on draws will lead to a loss, or at least put UDM in position to fall. Tyler Corcoran had the best performance, winning three of five, all against Evans.
Balanced scoring output from UDM, with Nick Schesnuk, Jason McDonald, and John Dwyer earning their first collegiate goals. Scott Drummond was the only Titan to score a hat trick, and he also added two assists to led the team in scoring. Tim Lehto – who didn’t start – wasn’t far behind with two goals and two assists. Scott Harris, Joel Matthews, and Alex Maini had two goals and an assist each.
It was a sloppy game – The Titans committed 31 turnovers and Mercer committed 41. Detroit’s typically-stellar defense actually caused fewer than Mercer did, with a 14-15 deficit (that’s a lot of uncaused turnovers, by the way). Joel Matthews and Jordan Houtby caused three apiece. On the wrong side of the ledger, Alex Maini committed seven turnovers(!), while no other Titan committed more than three.
The Titans committed four penalties for 3:00, and Mercer committed three for 2:00. Only one goal was scored on the man-up during the game, the final tally of the contest from Shayne Adams.
Damie Danseglio got his first collegiate action between the pipes, making one save and allowing no goals in 4:15 of play. A.J. Levell saved eight shots while allowing seven goals during his time in net.
Elsewhere
Official site recap from Detroit. Official site recap from Mercer.
Up Next
Detroit faces Georgetown in D.C. at 1 p.m. on Saturday. It’s a good opportunity for the Titans to get a victory over a “name” team, because while Georgetown isn’t on the level of, say, Mercer, they aren’t Carolina either.
Full preview of the Hoyas later in the week.
Why haven’t the Titans tried Joe Mclean? According to your preview he was supposed to be one of the two guys taking a few… Is he hurt?
He has played in all five games, but hasn’t taken any faceoffs. He only took a few last year (Davenport took the vast majority, despite a subpar performance), so I guess the coaches don’t like what he brings to faceoffs enough to play him there this year.
72 turnovers in a game? Detroit plays a very aggressive style, which puts the ball on the ground a lot, but that’s an extraordinary number for a D1 game. Probably due to them playing a lot of backups, and their defense still playing their takeaway style against a not-very-good Mercer team.
Note: Just checked the boxscore. UDM forced 14 turnovers and Mercer forced 15. That begs a couple of questions. One, does Mercer also play aggressive defense? Two, were there really 43 unforced turnovers? That’s ugly. Anyone who saw the game who can provide some details?
If you look at the saves and clear attempts compared to the turnovers, I’m wondering if their stat guy just called every ground ball a turnover even if the same team recovered. I’ll try to keep some stats when I watch the film, but those numbers seem inflated after talking to the UDM guys. The fact that they have McDonald down for a :30 slash tells me that they may be lacking in the rules/stat department.
Either way, good to see them getting good scoring out of the midfield as Lehto, Harris, Drummond and Schesnuk all got goals. One concern was if they would to rely too much on the attack for all the scoring this year. Happy to hear McDonald scored too. If hockey has the Gordy Howe Hat trick, I’d like to see lacrosse have The McDonald. Score a goal, win a faceoff, have a CT, a GB and take a personal foul.
I agree. The numbers would require a turnover to happen every 50 seconds. I’ve seen subbing rotations that take 50 seconds. I’m guessing the stats are suspect. Last year Mercer “lead” the nation in turnovers per game with 24. Nearly doubling that in a single game is suspect at best. Having both teams over that would almost require an honest effort to turn the ball over that much on purpose.
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