The Men’s Blues hosted Portsmouth for their BUCS South Premiership season opener today at University Parks. Last season’s fixture had gone Oxford’s way, but narrowly, and Portsmouth had only finished 1 place below Oxford in the final table. However, the Oxford attack was looking sharp in the warmups, the D was switched on, and Oxford suited up 20 players resulting in the largest bench in recent years. From the very first whistle, it was clear that the game was going to go Oxford’s way – a faceoff win from Gabe Barrie (1,0) led to a quick possession and goal for the Blues, and soon after they were put 2-0 up. Portsmouth caused some problems early in the 1st quarter - a scramble on the crease was picked up by one of the Pompey attackers, whose behind the back shot only just ricocheted off the offside post. Keeper James Kavanagh quickly recovered, and the ground ball was retrieved by Co-captain Dominic Hewitt and run out of danger. For the most part Oxford played unselfish lacrosse throughout the game – assists were bountiful from the attack – Peter Barry (6,7), Peter Baddoo (7,4) and Matthew Beresford (3,7) assisting 18 of the total 32 goals, with only 9 goals in the match being unassisted; in total, 12 players would get on the points sheet. The midfield bench was too large and the substitutions too frequent for any one individual to make a large impact, but as a whole they once again contributed to the points total (16 goals, 3 assists), and with a higher number of substitutes than normal kept a high tempo both offensively and defensively throughout the game. From roughly halfway through the second quarter, the Portsmouth defence decided to not even contest on the wing at the faceoffs, resulting in almost 100% wins for the Blues, and a distinct lack of game time for the Oxford defence. On the brief occasions that the ball did stray in to the Oxford half, Tim Sweere, Hewitt, and Bas Carter (making his debut for the Blues) looked solid and in control – some excellent dispossessions at the halfway usually resulted in a change of possession and a goal. Keeper James Kavanagh may at some point have had to make a save, but if he did, the writer of this article cannot remember it. In sum, the Blues cruised to an easy early victory – a nice home opener that can serve as a start towards building a solid season. However, Oxford face solid competition in the coming weeks, so the pressure is on to see if their team will hold together against traditionally more successful teams. Elsewhere in the league Bristol held off Cardiff in the final quarter to win out 10-6. With the loss of Dom Sandy and several other key players, it will be interesting to see if Bristol can consistently produce the level of lacrosse that they have done in previous years, and, considering the level of the Oxford team this year, whether they can put a competitive game together against the Blues. Exeter also took down rivals Bath to start their BUCS campaign - the men in green will be looking for their 3rd South Prem title in 4 years, and a win over last year’s newcomers Bath heralds a good start on that front. Points (Goals, Assists) Peter Barry (6,7) Peter Baddoo (7,4) Matthew Beresford (3,7) Tom Carver (5,1) Tom Phillips (3,0) Nick Williams (2,1) Jack Templeman (1,2) Kenny McDowell (2,0) Ed Smith (1,1) Lance Baynham (1,0) Gabe Barrie (1,0) Tohru Hayashi (1,0)
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 17:10:12 +0000
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