When you go down 5-0, you are not going to win a lot of games – even against teams that are probably pretty bad. Detroit mounted a furious comeback, but it wasn’t enough on the road in Georgia.
Tempo Free
From the official box score, a look at the tempo-free stats:
| Mercer 2016 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Detroit | Mercer | ||
| Faceoff Wins | 9 | Faceoff Wins | 10 |
| Clearing | 12-15 | Clearing | 18-18 |
| Possessions | 24 | Possessions | 31 |
| Goals | 8 | Goals | 9 |
| Offensive Efficiency | .333 | Offensive Efficiency | .290 |
The advanced stats are going to be close when the score is just a one-goal margin. Detroit was slightly more efficient, but Mercer had a healthy advantage in possession.
Notes
The game started very poorly. By the end of the first quarter, Mercer had a 4-0 advantage on the scoreboard, 12-4 in possession (and two of those Titan possessions were failed clears). Detroit committed 17 turnovers all game, seven of them in the first quarter. By the time UDM netted their first goal – Mercer notched one in the second before UDM scored, as well – six different Bears found their way into the point column (a pair of them with both a goal and an assist).
That said, the way the rest of the game turned out was about what you would have expected from this one: relatively even, slight edge to the Titans. A furious rally shouldn’t have to come off against one of Division-1’s bottom-feeders, but almost getting there is certainly preferable to simply folding in the face of adversity.
Once the team settled in, there were some nice offensive performances. Alec Gilhooly recorded a hat trick and added an assist, Andy Hebden had two goals and an assist, Kyle Beauregard had two goals, and Sean Birney had a pair of assists. Five of the eight Titan goals – including both on the man-up – were assisted.
On the other hand, turnovers are bad (#hotsportstake). Detroit had 17, only four of them forced by the Bears. That includes three failed clears (two in the first quarter), and made a difference on the scoreboard. If you’re giving away possessions, you’d best be making up the gap elsewhere, and Detroit wasn’t able to do that.
Jason Weber had seven saves while allowing nine goals, and though that’s far from a terrible performance, if that’s the output against Mercer, I think it’s likely that last year’s NCAA-leading save percentage is not a feat to be repeated. Only three of the Bears’ goals were assisted (and five of them were scored by midfielders), so it’s not necessarily like his defense hung him out to dry too much.
Faceoffs might be an adventure for Detroit this year. Three different Titans took a draw, with freshman Mike Sforza bearing the brunt of the work and performing the best to the tune of 7/13. Maybe he’s the answer, and begins to see more time (though with just two GBs, it could be a sample size issue with wing play being the difference, to a degree – Mercer’s lone specialist Will Beacham only picked up two GBs on his 10 wins).
Paul Bitetti forced two turnovers for the Titans, but the team as a whole caused only five. The old days of a dangerous-but-maybe-reckless defense appear to be in the rearview.
Elsewhere
Boxscore. Detroit recap. Mercer recap.
Up Next
Tomorrow’s the big one. Michigan at Detroit in Pontiac.