Garfield Downs MI 7-5 Recap

Tonight, we will see the match up of a Mercer Island team fresh off of a successful road trip, and Garfield off the game of year short-handed.  Has MI finally gelled?  Will Garfield open the offensive cannons early?

Kevin Mahony wins the first face-off. Snider is paired against Kevin Mahony on Defense, and Howell on Snider on Offense.  Greg Mahony gets a nice split but shot is wide.  Garfield gets possession on shot back up and clears to the midfield right away.  Snider picks a pass off from Schwartz and breaks his ankles on the way to a 1-0 dunk on cage with 6:45 left in the first quarter.  Mercer gets a technical break when Snider pushes out of bounds, giving Mercer 30 seconds to convert one.  Both Ellis and Frankel get shots, but Montoya grabs it and moves it to Snider, and just misses an opportunity to ring up another as Snider’s stick is checked at the last second.  Garfield possesses the ball in the 2-3 when they throw the ball away after a brief offensive stint.

This time, MI brings the older Mahony to clear.  MI goes into 2-2 and Garfield has the answer.  Montoya is commanding between the cages.  At the end of one, MI is down 1-0 with 5 ground balls and 7 shots to Garfield’s 4 ground balls and 6 shots.
Brazg is shutting off Snider as Garfield gets possession, but gives it up to MI, unable to control the ball after shooting.  MI begins working the offset 1-4 looking for an inside shot but turns it over on the crease from great defensive work.  Garfield cannot hang on, giving MI some settled shots from up top which either went wide or were saved by Montoya.

With a clear to Rohrbach Garfield calls a timeout as soon as they touch the box with 6:55 left in the half.  Snider starts with the ball as play resumes and Garfield gets a man-up for 1 minute from an MI slash.  Snider and Hoffman trade passes before Snider fires a rocket high right scoring number 2.  After a shot on Montoya, Garfield turns the tables with the ball as Snider beats his defensemen and fires another twinefinder top center scoring the third unanswered goal on Schwartz.  MI tries their offensive hand again, dropping the ball as Garfield takes possession moving the ball to Snider from Hoffman for another goal and Snider has a hat trick already.

With 2:34 left in the half, MI uses a time out, only to turn the ball over to Garfield with too many men on the field.  Garfield cannot advance and gives it back to MI.  Snider has changed to long stick, and MI is trying hard to work their offense, but turns it over with under a minute.  Garfield clears the ball to Rohrbach who gets a shot but does not score and does not have any shot backup.  Garfield finishes the half up 4-0 and completely stifling the MI offense.  Snider has all but three of Garfield’s shots with 11 shots and 10 ground balls.  MI has 13 shots and 8 ground balls.

Garfield gets possession to start the second half, and moves the ball incurring another man-down for MI.  Garfield takes advantage by feeding Rosella from Snider, scoring number five for Garfield and Rosella’s first.  Garfield leads 5-0 in the third.
MI gets a man-up opportunity and cannot convert leading into a pile-up on the crease.  The ball sneaks past Montoya, but MI is in the crease.  Garfield has a couple other shots but does not score.  MI frustration is showing in small penalties, as Garfield continues shooting.  With 6:16 left, MI shows their first possession and throws it away.

Just afterwards, Mahony breaks the silence with a solo effort bouncing into the back of the net with 4 minutes remaining in the third quarter.  The score, 5-1 Garfield.  Mahony takes his hand at the wheel again scoring solo from up top by himself with 3 minutes left scoring number 2.  Kevin Mahony gets a ground ball and is trying to get his Islanders going as his younger brother finds a right-hander screaming past Montoya making the score 5-3 with 1:41 left in the third.  Greg Mahony actually scores with under a minute in the fourth, and follows with another with 42 seconds in the quarter.  At the end of three, MI has tied it up 5-5!!  MI has scored 5 unanswered goals on Montoya and now has momentum.  Garfield has got to get back to the slide package if the want to stop the Mahony onslaught.

Rohrbach snipers a top left corner with 8:18 left making it 6-5.  MI cannot seem to hang onto the ball on offense, but gets the ball back following Snider’s shot into Schwartz's stick.  With 4:35 left in the fourth quarter, MI calls a possession time out to draw up a play or two.  The idea would be work Kevin against Drew with a long pole and runs a fake flip.  This is immediately saved by Montoya, who feeds defenseman Paul Byrne, who goes coast to cost for a score on Schwartz rolling in under his stick.  Garfield is up 7-5 with three minutes remaining.  Both MI and Garfield serve a man-down with nothing gained in either case.  Garfield possesses the ball for most of the last few minutes as MI drops a close one at home. 

Final score, Garfield wins 7-5.  MI had 34 shots and 27 ground balls, while Garfield. Had 31 shots and 22 ground balls.  Montoya had 17 saves with Snider scoring 4 goals, Kevin Mahony scoring 3 goals and Paul Byrne scoring the long stick back breaking goal.  Coach Kelly had this to say, "the defense bent in the 3rd, but didn't break.  They got it done for us."  Garfeild's defense came up huge tonight.  Great job!