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DI Semi-finals: Mercer's Second Half Comeback over Strong Bellevue
Submitted by walax on Wed, 2007-05-16 19:50.
Tonight’s Semi-final game between Mercer Island and Bellevue revisits a contentious rivalry between friends in two powerhouse programs. Baumann vs. O’Hearn: two former teammates now opposing coaches both responsible for the rise in their respective programs square off tonight.
After the 11-9 loss to Mercer at home, Bellevue comes with more confidence and poise to Mercer’s house to take away Mercer’s shot at defending their title for the fourth consecutive year.
Bellevue will open with possession, and take it down and settle. A Crease violation will send it the other way, and Mahoney will start the night with a huge rip off high right. Mercer loses possession as Jaberi’s strip pays off, but a bad pass will change possession twice more in the first three minutes of play. Wright drives GLE for a shot, but turns the ball over to Bellevue who starts transition down to the attack as Larrivee keeps it hot to keep the recovering defense off balance. Chris Mutzel comes in for an uncontested shot inside which bounces past Bowen from five yards away. Bellevue scores first leading 1-0
Mercer wins the next face, and Choe beats his man to the cage, but his shot is wide. Jaberi handles the ground ball, and feeds the ball down to Medwell who works inside and out, and finds Andreas Blumer for goal number two, and the Mercer Defense looks like they are man down right now.
Leading 2-0, Bellevue wins the next face-off pressuring the ball and goes man-up for one minute. Drew Nordstrom takes it behind, and hits Larrivee on the wing, as he fires a cannon past Bowen who hasn’t had a lot of assistance. At 5:49, MI has yet to answer the 3-0 Bellevue lead.
Mahoney doesn’t seem his usual self, Platt is able to take the ball, and now, Bellevue will work their offense keeping what seems like 75% of the possession time in the first quarter. Le-Cerf intercepts a crease pass, and Mercer cannot clear the ball. Bellevue again, has possession at 2:42 in the first quarter. Wettack snipes a pass and legs it down for a touch as Mahoney goes behind. His dodge inside draws the slide and forces a bad angle shot sending it back to Bellevue to have another look. Mercer’s Le-Cerf goes coast to coast clearing through two guys, splits up top, and fires the ball past Linton with 18 seconds left in the first quarter to break the seal for MI. Bellevue leads it 3-1 after 1.
Mercer wins the face, and takes it down to settle at the Attack. Dawson has a look inside, and has the ball knocked down. Ellis will get the next opportunity, driving hard to the GLE and places a perfect finish past Linton as the tally is now 3-2 thanks to Ellis. On the next face, Mahoney will do it himself rifling a huge right hander at 10:37, and just like that, the game is tied 3-3. Bellevue will answer back as Kyle Mutzel looks Blumer in and finds him driving the left pipe finishing past Bowen, and Bellevue leads again 4-3 at 10:10. Bellevue will have another opportunity of the face, and again, they are threatened by several shots. Bowen stands his ground, and Mercer will have possession. Settling the transition game down, Mercer is has control of the tempo right now. Mercer calls a time out at 5 minutes, and they will talk about it. Right off the time out, Mahoney starts with the ball, to avoid the shut off, and dodges two looking around. He drives inside, rolls back out and snipes the top right corner over his left shoulder in a fading question mark at 4:50. Mercer ties it up, 4-4.
At 3:20, Bellevue answers back winning the face, taking it behind the cages. Larrivee drives, sells Mercer hard on a fake inside as he takes two more steps and lets loose number five for Bellevue. Mercer had not led this entire game. Bellevue’s offense has controlled possession, and effectively ridden the Mercer defense to create opportunities.
Mercer will get another possession attempt, and they call a time out under 2 minutes to get a plan together. Mahoney will start with the ball, as he swings it down to Ellis who drives, dodges and seas the early slide as he hits Wright across the crease for a quickstick goal and Mercer will tie it up again. 5-5. Bellevue will have the next possession, and will give Bellevue a one minute man- inside of one minute. Lasting out the quarter, Bellevue will have a mental advantage and a man advantage as they will start man-up with possession in the second. Halftime stats have even shots and ground balls with Blumer’s 3 points leading Bellevue’s offense and Mahoney’s 2 leading Mercer.
Bellevue will start the second half, after a dead even first half, man-up. Mercer will outlast the penalty, and possession will go back and forth for the first three minutes. Mahoney has a wide open look inside and beats his man only to hit pipe. Bellevue gets it back, and they battle for the ball. Jaberi clears it, finds Mutzel, who looks up through the slide and finds his connection as Blumer rolls the pipe and finishes in the far left bottom corner at 7:09 and Bellevue leads again, 6-5. In a very clean game with only one penalty thus far, Mercer will get a man-up for one minute, just under the seven minute mark in the third. This will be a crucial possession for Mercer, who cannot afford not to score here. Bellevue picks the ball up, and calls a possession time out as these two continue to battle to the man, every possession. At 6:01, Bellevue still leads, 6-5. Mercer will go man down again, and have to fend off a high percentage Bellevue man-up for a third consecutive time. Platt will take advantage of the man-up opportunity in a big ground ball battle down on the crease at 4:02 as Bellevue extends their lead to 2, leading 7-5. Bellevue has taken some momentum here with that last goal, and have really worked Mercer hard. They have led or tied the entire game. Mercer makes a big stop, but sends the ball to the other end still down one man. Linton tries to clear it, but has a pass stolen by Mahoney who hits Ellis. He paralyzes Linton, and places a shot around him for a score at 3:02 as Mercer continues to make up ground now down by one 7-6. Bowen makes another save but has to send it the other way. As Linton comes out to clear the ball, he loses it on the sideline when Ellis rides him hard. Mahoney will bring it in, and drive straight to the cage getting an overhand ripper to the outside pipe to tie it up at 1:17.
Bellevue has really forced the mercer defense to work hard, as Blumer pulls his defensemen out, and beats him to the corner to shoot alone on Bowen near-side with a late slide coming. Bellevue leads again in a game of see-saw leads and ties ending the third quarter.
Bellevue commits two penalties and adds another onto one going two men down at 10:45, and leading by one. Mercer seems confused on their man-up, here another crucial momentum switch. At 10:18, Ellis hits Mahoney, who gets it to Frankel as he cranks a bouncer past Linton from top center to tie the game again 8-8.
Bellevue has possession, but Mercer pressure defense will cause a turnover into the offensive half for Mercer. Wright takes the ball from behind, shoots as he drives the cage and finds net to take Mercer’s first lead of the game all by himself on a great shot.
Mercer has picked up some momentum here, as they get the next possession off the face. Mercer gets the ball to Ellis who slows the game down before racing to the cage, dodging his man, ducking the slide and fires a fading jumper for a finish past Linton at 6:20. Mercer now leads 10-8, and calls a time out with their next offensive possession at 4:34. Mercer will try to ride out as much time as possible with the ball, and Bellevue is letting them. Bellevue finally gets another offensive possession with just over two minutes. This possession will be crucial if Bellevue hopes to rally. Bowen saves the ball, sends it to the other end and Mercer will call a time out. At the end of the timeout, Platt strips Mahoney with a Kayak, and Bellevue will clear with 40 seconds. Medwell will face-fire a shot at 20 seconds, and Bellevue with possession will call a time out for a final goal attempt with 14 seconds left. Mercer will win, 10-8, and will now defend their title against either Garfield or Bainbridge this Saturday.
Pictures of tonight's game will be available HERE
congrats MI
But can we please stop calling Bellevue a "powerhouse" until they accomplish more. Great they made the playoffs for the first time in years and they have a great group of players, but come on, a "powerhouse". Not yet