Champ Camp Game 8: Fog City wins 8-3

The final game in Fog City's Champ Camp odyssey resulted in another win and a 7-1 overall record at Champ Camp. As you'll read, the Dukes, a multi-school team with 35 DI commits, went on to win Champ Camp again. There is a big dichotomy that is worth understanding here. There are tournament teams, built from All-Stars from a wide array of schools, usually – though not always – from a specific geographic area. The Dukes are such a team. Then, there are single school teams. These are teams with all their players from one High School. Fog City is such a team. Fog City plays at Champ Camp to improve team coordination and team bonding. Regular readers of this blog will recall that I am a big, big fan of single school off-season travel teams. I've commented before on my admiration for Monte Vista, De La Salle, and Saint Ignatius for their devotion to team above all. These schools follow a path of improvement among teammates.  They prepare for the season. The season, the Conference Championship and the Section Championship are EVERYTHING. Big-time summer tournaments are merely a vehicle to prepare for the season. This is pure  Lacrosse. It is all about team and nothing about individual. It is heaven to watch!

Here is Ed McGovern's report on Game 8 at Champ Camp 2012:

Fog City vs. Paragon of Connecticut

Billy Sullivan starts in goal.  Riley Burke, Cole Steigerwald and Lorenzo Iacomini at long poll D.  Dave Fleming, Joe Lang and Marcus Holzberg at attack.  Brendan McDermott at face off with Spencer Evans and Charlie Ford at midfield.

Paragon (White) controls the face off.  Quick shot on goal but Billy Sullivan grabs the shot and clears.  White is called for a penalty and FC immediately goes man up but we can’t score and possession back to White.

Wolverine Iacomini forces a turnover and clears to Cullen Vincelette.  But again, FC can’t score.  On the transition, Marcus Holzberg forces a turnover and passes to Spencer Evans at the top of the box.  Evans passes to Moore Harris cutting towards goal and he buries the shot from the left alley.  1-0 FC.

It’s now pouring rain! But for anyone who was at this very same field at St. Paul’s last year where it was over 100 and every parent was fighting for any little shade, this was more like SF weather.

Cullen Vincelette on the face off but ball goes to White.  Cole Steigerwald knocks the ball loose, grabs the ground ball and clears to Cullen Vincelette.  Matt Emery gets loose for a shot from the left but it goes just wide.  Possession back to White.

Wolverine Iacomini scoops up a loose ball on the wing and clears to Cullen Vincelette at midfield.  Vincelette dodges 4 White players at midfield and pushes the ball to FC offensive end.  Joe Lang gets off a nice bounce shoot that goes a little wide, but Dave Fleming is there to grab the loose ball.  Joe Lang gets the ball again and hits Chad Bell driving to goal in the left alley.  Bell buries the his overhand shot in the bottom corner and FC goes up 2-0.

Brendan McDermott on the face off and Charlie Ford grabs the loose ball.  But ball gets loose at midfield and Joe Lang is there to pick it up.  Silky sprints towards goal and the goalie is helpless as Lang buries the shot in the top corner.  3-0 FC.

Ryan Pidgeon at LSM grabs a tough, contested ground ball and clears to Spencer Evans.  But Evans shot is stopped and ball goes back to White.

August Peters now in at long poll and makes a great play knocking a ball loose and scooping up the ground ball.  Peters clears to Spencer Evans but ball goes back to White again.

This time White gets off a shot, but Billy “Brickhouse” Sullivan is impregnable and stops the low corner shot.  Sullivan clears to Brendan McDermott.  Danny Casey gets loose cutting across the goal, but his shot is stopped by the White goalie and they clear.  

But again, great team D with August Peters, Lorenzo Iacomini and Riley Burke in at long poll and White turns the ball over.   Defense has been impressive during the whole tournament.

Chad Bell gets loose for two different shots – one wide and the other somehow stopped by the goalie – and White tries a fast break.  But Billy Sullivan is aggressive in net and intercepts a pass to prevent a shot.  FC clears.

This time Brenden Hahn and Spencer Evans team up with Hahn making a nice pass to a cutting Spencer Evans in front of the goal.  Evans is deadly there and shoots it top corner to push the lead to 4-0.

Next face off, Ryan Kase in at middie grabs the loose ball and gets tripped by White.  Possession by FC.  Boys work it around to Joe Silky Lang behind the cage and Lang shows his magic again, curling around the crease on the goalies right and one-handing a bounce shot past the goalie to push the lead to 5-0. 

Halftime.

2^nd Half. 

Cyrus Scott in goal.  

Brendan McDermott on the face and controls for FC.  Pass gets to Joe Lang on the left wing who hits Spencer Evans driving down the left alley and Evans finds the back of the net to make it 6-0 FC.

Cullen Vincelette wins the next face off but ball goes back to White.  But tough transition D by Vincelette and he finds Brenden Hahn who quickly hits Joe Lang in front of the crease and Lang scores.  Now 7-0 FC.

Brendan McDermott wins another face off and ball gets to Silky Lang behind the cage.  Lang curls around from the back (it must be a nightmare to try and guard him) and as he’s falling down he buries the shot past the goalie.  8-0 FC.

Fog City gets another couple of chances, including a nice play by Brenden Hahn who gets a shot in the crease that somehow ends up in the goalie’s shirt for about 5 seconds before he can locate it.  But FC doesn’t score.

Boys make some nice plays before the end of the game.  Ryan Pidgeon forces one turnover at midfield.  August Peters plays tough D.  Charlie Ford forces a turnover.  Ryan Kase plays tough and makes catches a very high pass in the middle of the field and clears down to offensive end. Riley Burke is terrific with some one on one D and Cyrus Scott makes some nice saves including at the end of the game and clears to Moore Harris as the game ends.

White was able to get three scores at the end after we were up 8-0 but FC was clearly a superior team.

Scoring:  Goals: Joe Lang 4, Spencer Evans 2, Moore Harris 1, Chad Bell 1.  

Assists: Spencer Evans 1, Joe Lang 2, Brenden Hahn 2

Tournament Notes; 

First, be very, very proud of your sons.  They are gentlemen, grateful, well mannered and mature. They are a credit to you and to their school.  To see them sing the fight song in front of parents and other teams here was moving.

Second, this was a terrific bonding experience for this team.  Right now at the airport, they are all sitting together laughing, talking, and enjoying each other.

Third, this was an incredible result.  To go 7-1 in this tournament and to have the only loss be to the team who did win the tournament today (The Dukes won 7-6 over Got Skills for the Dukes 6^th Champ Camp championship) is a phenomenal accomplishment.

Fourth, there is an incredible amount of talent on this team.  We lost a lot of talent with the graduating seniors last year, but we have young men ready to step up and step into those rolls.  Some things need work, but this tournament showed there will be very little, if any, drop off from last year.

Fifth, they were very publicly appreciative of the help and coaching from John Eagan and Wells Stanwick.  I saw them all come up and shake hands and thank both coaches after the last game.  Very classy.

Watch out LAX world.  Can’t wait for Spring!

My thanks to Ed McGovern for his great reporting from Champ Camp! As a final note, just as the Dukes defeated Fog City in 2011 and went on to win that tourney, they were the team who defeated Fog City in 2012 and went on to win this year's tourney. In the 2012 tourney, the Dukes, a regional All-Star team defeated GotSkillz, a NATIONAL All-Star team in the finals. In 2011,  the Dukes regional All-Star team, similarly defeated Gotskillz National All-Star team. Hmm.  Fog City represents a set of schools who play the game the right way. The Old School way. I'm quite impressed by Fog City. A little school, with less than 700 boys, makes the Sweet Sixteen at Champ Camp. The other contenders were all Regional and National All-Star teams. AMDG.