Detroit 9, Wagner 8

Detroit sure knows how to keep it exciting. Mike Birney one-upped his own third-quarter distance shot against Michigan by doing so in the fourth to put in the game-winner.

Tempo Free

From the official box score, a look at the tempo-free stats:

This was about as close as a game can be. The teams were even in possession (albeit doing it in different ways: Wagner won more faceoffs and rode much better, while Detroit had several more clearing opportunities following those Wagner faceoff wins).

Detroit’s dagger with eight seconds on the clock was the deciding blow, and it can’t be much closer. Of course, being that close against Wagner… is probably not a very good thing.

Notes

As has happened with Michigan, Detroit has gone from a decent-to-good faceoff team to a relatively poor one. Wagner’s faceoff unit isn’t bad, so it’s not quite as confusing (plus Detroit’s top specialist, Damien Hicks, was over .500 while Tyler Corcoran went 1/7). Still, the Titans need to be able to dominate possession to a degree until the offense continues rounding into form. When the faceoff game was working well – the odd quarters – Detroit was functional all around. The possession story was, at times, the flow of the game.

Speaking of that offense, Detroit started the game very slowly (three goals through the first two quarters), but rounded into form during the third quarter – four goals on nine possessions – thanks in part to a better faceoff performance (as listed above). Wagner was able to come back in the fourth quarter thanks once again to the possession game. It was such a key in this contest.

Alex Maini and Scott Drummond were the key offensive performers, with Maini scoring four goals and adding an assist (while committing three turnovers – actually an improvement over recent games, at the very least in terms of the ratio) and Drummond notching two of each. Both Brandon Beauregard and Mike Birney added a goal and an assist.

Speaking of Birney, he didn’t have production throughout, per se (his assist came in the third quarter), but the timeliness of his goal was unbelievable. While he’s taken some flak for shooting off the cage at times, and turning it over more than he should, there’s no denying his great sense of timing.

Defensively, Paul Bitetti was a standout – as he has been en route to leading the nation in CTs per game (as the Titans slowly shift back toward that pressure defense with the experience they’re gaining in the early season – with two caused turnovers. He was actually outdone by attackman Alex Maini, who had three CTs, though Maini obviously did it in a different way.

The leader of the defense, however, was freshman goalie Jason Weber, whose 18 saves on 26 SOGs (.692) was part of the weeklong performance that saw him earn MAAC Rookie of the Week honors (a good performance in defeat against Bellarmine was the other half). If the Titans can find consistency between the pipes – and based on early-season returns, they’re expecting it to be Weber – they could be building that momentum that has seen them make late-season runs through the conference in recent years.

All that said, this performance still came against Wagner, which is and has been one of the country’s worst teams. That’s not a squad that you’re stoked to hear “lights-out performance by goalie and last-second (man-down) goal to beat.” The Titans have a lot to work on, and finding that offensive consistency is one of them. I’m confident that the defense will round into form – the offense and possession game will be keys.

Elsewhere

Boxscore. Detroit recap. You can rewatch the whole darn thing on the NEC’s website. Wagner game recap.

Up Next

Detroit welcomes Marquette to the Motor City Saturday afternoon. Assuming reasonable weather, it should be the first home game at Titan Field this spring (after a few previous games at Ultimate Soccer Arenas in Pontiac). It’s also the final non-conference game for the Titans, so a lot of intangible stuff going on here.

Marquette is 1-4 on the year, but is likely to drop to 1-5 with a game against Duke tomorrow evening. Despite that, the Golden Eagles are rated slightly higher by Tempo-Free Lax than are the Titans. It should be a pretty even matchup, and one that the home-field advantage could help equalize.