The Deerfield Big Green (MA) defeated the homestanding Salisbury Crimson Knights (CT) by a final score of 12-10 in a big NE West I matchup at the Salisbury School on Wednesday afternoon.
The win moves Deerfield to 14-1 on the season. Salisbury suffered its second consecutive loss and fell to 7-5.
Coupled with other results earlier this week, the win gave Deerfield the 2013 NE West I title.
The games first five minutes were played evenly, with the teams trading possessions that did not yield goals. Salisbury had a few good looks and a man-up opportunity, but could not get the ball past Deerfield goaltender Ahmed Iftikhar (Penn), who was magnificent on the day.
Following the opening scoreless stretch, Deerfield would finally cash in. After some excellent ball movement caused the Salisbury defense to slide, a nice cut and inside finish by Adam Philie (Dartmouth) resulted in the games first goal. After the ensuing Knights possession led to another big save by Iftikhar, Deerfield would strike again, as Matt Brohpy (Princeton) made a strong move from the top of the box and finished low to give the Big Green a 2-0 lead.
Salisbury would answer to cut the lead in half on an excellent skip pass from Shane Simpson (North Carolina) to Sean Donnelly (Hobart), who would finish calmly inside. However, Salisbury would take a penalty on the ensuing faceoff, and Deerfields Christian Wolter (Michigan) would make a nice step-around move to score on the advantage and push the Big Green advantage to 3-1 after one.
Deerfield would take control of the game in the second, where it opened with four consecutive goals, including two off the stick of attackman Joe French (Virginia). While Salisbury faceoff midfielder Domenic Massimilian (Cornell) who was outstanding all day won a majority of the draws in the second, the Knights could not make the most of their possessions, failing to get any consistent offense going.
The teams would trade goals to end the half, and Deerfield took a 7-2 lead into the break.
Salisbury began the second half with a man-up but could not convert, and shortly thereafter Deerfield would convert their own man advantage opportunity to make it an 8-2 game. Salisbury would battle back, however, and got consecutive goals from Ryan Simmons (Syracuse) and Donnelly to cut the lead to 8-4.
Deerfield was able to quell the Salisbury surge, utilizing another man-up opportunity to push their lead back to five at 9-4 on a goal from Jackson Finnigan (Deleware). The teams would then trade goals to end the third quarter with the Big Green leading, 10-5.
Salisbury would open the fourth with another run, scoring two consecutive goals to make it a three-goal game at 10-7. After another Massimilian faceoff win, Salisbury had possession and plenty of momentum. But a turnover would prove costly, and yet another penalty would lead to a Deerfield man-up.
On the advantage, Philie would display his deft inside handle to score and make it an 11-7 game with just under six minutes remaining. The Big Green would strike again a minute later to push the lead back to five at 12-7 with four minutes left.
But Salisbury would not go quietly. Utilizing an aggressive ride, the Knights were able to force some Deerfield turnovers and score a few goals off broken plays to cut the lead to 12-10 with :51 seconds remaining. The Knights were best on the day in unsettled situations.
Massamilian would win the ensuing faceoff for Salisbury, but Iftikhar would make one final big save to put the game out of reach. As was the case most of the second half, Salisbury made a run, but was not able to get closer than two.
Deerfield would run out the clock to secure the 12-10 victory.
Be sure to check back for much more from this one, including a video recap.
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