Detroit Fall Ball Preview: Denison

Fall Ball Scrimmage

Denison Big Red Lacrosse

Fear the Big Red!

Saturday, October 22nd
Granville, OH

The Titans take on their only external opposition of the fall in a pair of scrimmages on Saturday. Up first, the host Denison Big Red.

The Big Red are a Division-3 team that finished 14th in LaxPower’s computer ratings at the conclusion of last season. They lost to RIT in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to finish with an 11-4 record.

Tempo-Free

From their official 2011 statistics, let’s take a look at Denison.

Denison 2011
Opponents Denison
Faceoff Wins 165 Faceoff Wins 154
Clearing 191-250 Clearing 190-225
Possessions 450 Possessions 438
Goals 94 Goals 190
Offensive Efficiency .299 Offensive Efficiency .434

As you can see, Denison dominated a lot of games. Their clear percentage was much better, and they were ruthlessly efficient at times. On paper, this looks like a really really good team.

HOWEVA, there is definitely a strength-of-schedule argument to be made here. The Big Red played a bunch of really weak teams, running the likes of Otterbein and Oberlin (#122 and #117, respectively, to LaxPower’s computers) off the field, while getting smoked by Stevenson.

When they played good teams, the games were competitive. When they played poor teams – which was the case all-too often – Denison got easy wins.

Personnel

Faceoffs – By the end of the year, Denison had settled on Chip Phillips, now a sophomore, as they primary faceoff guy. He finished below .500 – like everyone else on Denison’s roster. Everyone else who took more than a handful of faceoffs also returns, so a small amount (though likely insignificant, if the trend is the same across divisions) could be expected.

Scoring Threats – Denison had a very experienced scoring unit last year, and despite graduating three of the top four scorers, it should be positively grizzled in 2012. Tanner Smith, now a senior, led the team in scoring last year, primarily racking up assists. The next three scorers all depart, and they appeared to be mostly finishers. However, the next five scorers (everyone else who had double-digit points) all return, and four of them are seniors. Midfielder Davis Lukens had 18 goals and 9 assists last year, and Zach Walsh seems like a dedicated finisher.

Defensive Field Players – Tommy Harrison led the defensive unit in ground balls last year as a freshman, and was second in caused turnovers to sophomore Spencer Riehl. Nick Farrell, now a senior, should join them on the top defensive unit, though LSM Colin Ryan graduated and will need to be replaced.

Goalies – A trio of returners highlights the goalkeeping corps. Junior Nick Petracca was the top guy ahead of senior Gregg Shannon last year, and had much better stats. He saved .588 of shots faced, and allowed fewer than 6 goals per game.

The Lowdown

As meaningless as fall ball scrimmages generally are, cross-divisional games mean less. Whereas Michigan’s three scrimmages gave them a chance to see where they stack up against their fellow Division-1 teams (verdict: eh, check back later), this will simply give Detroit a chance to get on the field against someone other than their own teammates.

We should get a few interesting tidbits, of course. Will the faceoffs be improved for Detroit? If they struggle against a mediocre D-3 team, it could mean trouble. How will the offense share the ball with Joel Matthews returning to the roster?

It should be more of a chance to run their schemes in a competitive, game-like environment, and get out on the field. However, I’m compelled to give a prediction, and I think (assuming regulation conditions, which is unlikely) Detroit comes away with a 14-4 win.

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11 Responses to Detroit Fall Ball Preview: Denison

  1. Clark Bell says:

    Tim,
    Thanks for the writeup. One thing though, Denison is not a “mediocre D-3 team.” A 14 ranking is well within the top ten percent. Two losses were to Stevenson and RIT who were ranked in the top 5 of the D3 at the end of the season. Haverford is no slouch and it was a tough contest that Wittenberg won as a North Coast rival. Denison is a perennial D3 Midwest power who would get better if it played the better teams on the east coast more. This will be a good test for Detroit and is a nice matchup.

  2. Guest says:

    Rumored inactives for UDM: Matthews, Adams, Drummond, Lehto, Maclean, Wilson, Sible.

    • Tim says:

      All except Adams and Lehto were little-used (or completely inactive) last year, so those guys aren’t “losses,” per se, but losing Adams and Lehto is a hit, and I was looking forward to seeing some of the redshirted guys step in with the offensive pieces from last year. Hell, Adams alone had nearly 20% of the team’s total points. It’ll be interesting to see how they adapt.

  3. Michlax says:

    Look for Garippa to pick up the offensive slack

  4. anon says:

    Detroit loses 10-7. Didn’t see most first liners after half time. Didn’t see Matthews, Adams, lehto, levell, drummond or maclean at all.

  5. Reg Hartner says:

    Final Score: Denison 10 UDM 7

  6. Reg Hartner says:

    Sounds like the event was a complete cluster F.

    UDM was supposed to play Denison 6 quarters. Then Lake Erie showed up and UDM was told they were only playing 4 quarters. They were still determined to play everyone and use it to evaluate talent while Denison ran it like a game trying to win.

    UDM sat a number of starters and it sounds like even doing that most of the UDM guys didn’t break a sweat and the players were pissed they rode the bus for a waste of time.. They were trying to go deep into the bench and they just couldn’t get all the shifts they wanted in 4 quarters when they had scheduled it originally for 6.

    So Denison gets bragging rights that they beat a D1 team and UDM comes home thinking that were bait and switched and the trip was a waste of time.

    • Tim says:

      It sounds like UDM didn’t really take it seriously as a competitive event (which is totally fine for fall ball). I’m betting the outcome would have been totally different with a ful lineup and an attitude of playing to win.

    • Tim says:

      I was in Cleveland early Saturday afternoon, and was considering a drive down to Granvillle to catch some of the scrimmage. Now it sounds like I made the right choice by not going.

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