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	The Ypsilanti Courier A Heritage Newspaper Weekly Publication

ATTACK!

Rails start strong

By Tom Perkins, Special Writer

PUBLISHED: April 24, 2008

Don't let the 5-0 start fool you, there is still much more work to be done for the varsity Rails lacrosse team.

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After breezing through the first several weeks of the season against younger programs, Lincoln didn't get the results for which they hoped when pitted against teams their more their caliber last week.

Hartland and Royal Oak handed Lincoln (5-2) their first two losses of the season, while the Railsplitters rolled over Ypsilanti 16-0 on Thursday.

"I don't want to paint a completely negative picture because we're 5-2, but hopefully we can be competitive in all of our games next week," head coach Jeff Daniels said. "Some guys have got to step it up, and as long as long as we get our middies back, we'll be in good shape."

The Splitters were hurt by the absence of two of their top midfielders, and Daniels said Hartland and Royal Oak took advantage of the situation.

"We're not doing the job defensively, which isn't the core defense, it's the middies," Daniels said. "Our defensemen are having to slide too much. Defense is a team effort and has to be six guys all playing together, and that's what we lacked in the two losses."

In both efforts, a 13-10 loss to Hartland and 16-7 loss to Royal Oak, Lincoln did produce enough offense to win, but ultimately came up short.

Daniels said Royal Oak's control game kept the ball away from his core of talented attackmen, and he may shift some positions to bring speed to the midfield. He also plans on implementing more of a pressure game defensively.

"We got impatient against Royal oak and made a few mistakes and they took advantage of it," Daniels said.

Royal Oak held an 8-6 lead in the third quarter, but pulled away on man-up opportunities.

"We were within striking distance in the third quarter. I thought we had the momentum and then we got a string of penalties and that really sunk our boat," Daniels said.

Adding to the problem is the sore shoulder of attackman and the team's second leading scorer, Kyle Anguilm (17 goals, 17 assists) who Daniels estimated is at 50 percent.

Lincoln was also positioned to take the Hartland game. At halftime, the Splitters only trailed by one and at the end of the third quarter the Eagles clung to a 10-8 lead as Lincoln poured on the pressure.

Daniels believes that with a team at 100 percent, their odds of winning would significantly improve.

"We are without are top two middies and Kyle's shoulder is banged up, so I think if we were at full strength it really would have been pretty close," he said.