We had Thursday off, which left only two days to prepare for the Georgian Court Lions, at home on Sunday (yesterday). Film and practice on Friday and then an early practice Saturday morning in lousy weather, once again. I felt like we were very well prepared and but for some nagging injuries, hopefully, ready for that breakout type game against a good opponent.

I went home and thawed out a bit, before driving over to Adelphi University to watch them play Roberts Wesleyan, a strong team in our Conference. Adelphi raced out to a big lead and remained in control throughout the contest. Showing why they are a highly ranked team. Despite, the score though, I thought RWU was a very good team. They have athletic, skilled players in almost every position. They lack depth, which is tough since they play a high pressure zone defense – which is very taxing. It was good for me to get a look at them in person. I know that game is over a month away, but I was glad to get the chance to scout them.

Sunday morning, I hit Heavenly Bagels again. It just seems like the right way to start a Game Day. I love the Noon start time for a weekend game, it arrives so much quicker than the night games. I still arrived early in anticipation of this Battle of the Lions. I always look for signs during warm ups, as to whether we are ready play well. I did not see anything bad, and chose to take that as a good sign.

It took a few minutes for our team to settle in, but by the end of the first quarter, I thought we were beginning to play better. The second quarter was the best quarter of lacrosse, that we have played, thus far, as we built a five goal lead, in a dominating way. I am not sure what happened after half time, but our comfortable lead was only 10 – 8 by the end of the third quarter. We were once again plagued by a number of unforced errors. In the final quarter, Georgian Court pulled to within one, three separate times, but were never able to even the score. We were able to possess the ball for the final minute of the game and preserve a hard fought 14 -13 victory!

How did we almost let this one get away from us? We had several players who definitely had their best games of the season (possibly their careers), and again, the 2nd quarter was the best we have played as a team, this season. Somehow, we lost that momentum and ended up in a dogfight. We have plenty of things we need to get straightened out. We need to find a way to sustain the kind of performance we had in that 2nd quarter, throughout the entire game. If we are going to become the kind of team, I think we can be, we will need to learn from this game and continue to improve. On the positive side of this, though, we never relinquished the lead. As things were kind of unraveling, we showed just enough composure and resilience to squeak out the win.

The journey continues.