It was with high hopes that we hit the road Saturday morning, for our game against the Southern Connecticut Owls. We were cruising along without any real traffic for about forty five minutes, when the GPS indicated some kind of problem on our route. So we diverted to I95, which turned out to be a big mistake! We found ourselves in a terrible traffic jam, as the roadway was reduced to one lane, due to a tractor trailer fire. So a trip that should have taken an hour and forty minutes, ended up taking more than two hours.

When we finally arrived at the Southern Connecticut Campus, we quickly got dressed and began a hurried and necessarily shortened, pre-game warm up. The temperature was in the mid-twenties and snowing. Once again, not ideal conditions.

The game was a sloppy, back and forth affair in which both teams struggled. Even when we were in the lead, we were never quite able to get in sync or to find our top gear. After squandering a 3 goal lead in the first half, and being tied at half time, the Lions found themselves behind by 3 goals in the fourth quarter. We came back to tie the game before eventually losing 12-11 in Overtime. I was happy with how we fought to get back into the game, despite not being on our A game. But, this one was disappointing. We were just unable to muster the kind of intensity we showed against Pace, in the first game.

I am still digesting this defeat. It is still early in the season, but we will need to play much more efficiently, with fewer mistakes, if we are going to even think about reaching our goals. Every member of the team (coaches included) needs to evaluate their performance, thus far. We all need to hold ourselves to a higher standard – we should not be willing to accept less than that.

I have no doubt that we can do it. We need to begin NOW! Next up is New Haven at home this Wednesday.