The late winter weather has wreaked havoc with our schedule of late. Last week we had to make up the Southern Connecticut game (from the week before). And this week, our game against New Haven was moved from Wednesday to Thursday evening, due to an impending storm. All of this has caused a shifting of days off and put a squeeze on preparation, for both teams. I was hoping the break in routine would shake us up, in a positive way.

New Haven is another high level opponent (ranked 19th, at the moment). In my time at Molloy the Chargers have been a team we have used to gauge our progress. Two years ago we lost to them 14 – 9. Last year we lost 11 – 9, after leading in the fourth quarter. So, going into last night’s contest, despite all of our early season woes, I was cautiously optimistic, that we would play well against a quality team.

After much contemplation, we changed up our pre-game warm up routine, hoping to end the spate of slow starts that have plagued us, thus far. Perhaps it worked. In the early going, the flow of the game was choppy, with neither team able to score, until the Chargers broke the ice at 11:21 of the first quarter. The Lions answered a couple of minutes later, and already we had a better start than in previous games.

But New Haven began to gain control, and led 4 – 1 at the end of the opening period. We scored again with 6:26 left in the first half, making the score 5 – 2. In those last 6 plus minutes, the Chargers surged to a 9 – 2 half time lead! With each goal during that span, you could feel the morale and spirit of our team, begin to sag.

The second half would be more of the same, with the Lions unable to mount any kind of rally, as New Haven cruised to a 12 – 3 lead at the end of 3 quarters. They would go on to net 5 more in the final stanza, for a 17 – 3 road win.

So, the progress we had hoped to see, just did not happen. This awful spiral we are stuck in, continues. I am trying mightily to remain positive. Not an easy task, after being dominated, like we were last night. Still, there are definitely some positives to be taken from our performance. I don’t think anyone could have foreseen this type of start to our season. My biggest concern, is that we lose heart. We have to find it within ourselves to continue to work hard and believe that we can still become a good lacrosse team.

I still believe that.

Go Lions!