After Saturday’s victory over Southern Connecticut, I spent the early part of Sunday, reflecting on our team’s performance, thus far. While it had been frustrating to have played to our potential for only brief periods of time, we had been able to come away with the win in both of our first two games. As I turned my attention to our next opponent, the Golden Knights of Gannon University, I felt that we had continued to make progress, even if it had been painfully incremental.

As with the preparation for our first two games, I felt like we had had a productive film session and two quality practices leading up to last night’s contest against Gannon. Once again, the Lions came roaring out of the gate. This time opening up a 5 – 0 lead with only seven minutes played. We were dominating in all aspects of the game and frankly, that lead, could have been almost doubled. I was feeling like, perhaps this would be the game we put our “A Game” together. But the Golden Knights would outscore the Lions 10 – 3, from that point and were leading 10 – 8, with a little under six minutes remaining in the third quarter!

The Lions responded by scoring the next three goals for an 11 – 10 edge, before the Knights tied it again with only seven seconds left in the third quarter. The teams exchanged goals and the game was tied for the final time at 12, with 8:40 left in the final quarter. There were a slew of cards and mostly sloppy play by both teams, before the Lions took a 13 -12 lead with just over a minute remaining! The Golden Knights would possess the ball, take a timeout, and ultimately have two opportunities to tie the game, but the Lions were able to defend the den, well enough to escape with the narrowest of victories!

So we have played and won three games, so far, this season. At first glance and maybe on a bottom line level, that sounds good. But each time, we have jumped out to a sizeable lead, were playing very well, before somehow slipping out of that groove. Instead of continuing to build the advantage or even just maintain it, we have relinquished the lead (or at least most of it), and ended up in a dogfight!

So, I think we are all left scratching our heads, trying to figure out what has happened in these games, and more importantly, how we can address/correct it. Our next is in Albany against the College of Saint Rose on Saturday. I am choosing to see it as another opportunity for us to improve and play a complete game.

GO LIONS!