The undefeated Dons headed to San Ramon Valley Tuesday evening to take on the 2-2 Wolves. And while their records suggested an advantage for the Dons, we all knew the Wolves posed a formidable threat. Dons scored first, two minutes into the first quarter, on a nice goal by Griffin Rotundo. The Wolves tied it up quickly, but shortly after Brody Darin had a strong goal for the Dons, putting them up once again at 2-1 at the end of the first quarter.
The Wolves came fighting back and scored two quick goals, showing good offensive ball movement. Griffin Rotundo tied it up with a really nice move across the middle and a perfectly placed low skimmer that hit the back of the net. The Wolves broke the tie with a score to go up 4-3 with four minutes left in the half. Things went south for the Dons at this point and the last few minutes of the half saw a prolific offensive attack by the Wolves. SRV scored five unanswered on the Dons in this stretch, including a final goal with just six seconds left in the half that put the wolves up 9-3.
SRV came out in the second half and played with great patience, dominating the time of possession. The Dons D played slowed them down the best they could, but too many loose balls went SRV’s way, and the Wolves scored a couple more times in the third.
With six minutes left in the game, Brody Darin broke the second half scoring drought for the Dons getting his second goal for the evening. Rotundo then added another for the Dons, this time scoring with a nifty move at the side of the goal that seemed to ricochet off the back of the goalie’s helmet, giving Rotundo a literal and figurative hat trick. Rotundo stayed hot two minutes later to score his fourth goal of the night with seven minutes left in the game.
Exceptional faceoff play by SRV kept the possession arrow going the Wolves way for most of the night making it impossible for the Dons to make up enough ground in the time remaining. The game ended with an amazing coast to coast goal by the Dons’ defender Henry Finegold, (his second for the season) to give Acalanes fans something to cheer about. But it was too late to mount a comeback.
This was a strong SRV squad with a very good offense. But if not for SRV’s lopsided scoring frenzy at the end of the first half, this would have been a much tighter game.
Final score: SRV 15, Acalanes 7. The Dons hope to bounce back this Friday at home against Washington in what could be a wet and cold Friday night under the lights. See you there, Dons fans.
