By Paul Vozzella
Hometown Weekly Sports Reporter
The Raiders could not break their early season slump on Wednesday night as they fell to Medfield 2-0. They have fallen to 3-3-2 on the season with their most recent win coming on December 18.
“My biggest wish is we would come out from the beginning,” said head coach Alex Marlow. “It’s now been Medway, Watertown-Wayland, a little of Lunenburg that we’re waiting for the game to come to us instead of just dictating the game ourselves.”
Dover-Sherborn-Weston was not able to get going on offense and tried to fend off the Warriors on the defensive end, but Medfield’s attack proved to be too strong as they netted two goals before the end of the first period.
Throughout the second period, the physicality took a step up. The Raiders found themselves in a five on four advantage following a Medfield penalty for roughing. Just a couple minutes later, the rivals got caught up in another altercation resulting in a player from both teams getting sent to the penalty box. Although they weren’t able to crack the scoreboard, there was a clear switch in effort following the dispute.
“We could have played better, but we brought the tempo in the second half of the second period and third period,” claimed alternative captain Max Patenaude. “We could have played better overall, though - gotta net some goals.”
Coach Marlow was not hesitant to emphasize that the energy shift was too little too late.
“[We] can’t wait until the third period to start going. You want to tire out a goalie, put a lot of shots on at the beginning of the game, and then he’s gonna leave holes open. We waited until the third period to drive to the net and produce something, and it was just too little too late.”
Trying to spark momentum with a schematic change, Marlow made an in-game adjustment by moving Patenaude from the attacking zone to defense. While it did not result in success on the scoreboard, he alluded to potentially trying the same thing again in the future.
“I’m not sure if we’ll change too much. Maybe like tonight - how the game [was] going - shorten the bench… We put Max Patenaude back on [defense].”
Patenaude was open to the change, as well: “I think it’ll help the back end, help get more shots to crash the nets. I think it’ll be good.”
The Raiders will look to turn the tide with the upcoming game against Holliston on January 17.
