With two postponements in the first two weeks of our game schedule, this week, we finally got into the normal routine, of two games per week. One of the problems with this kind of schedule, is that you only get a couple of days to recover from the previous game and prepare for the next one. Still, going into our home game on Wednesday, against Georgian Court (who are also named the Lions), I was hopeful that we would continue our upward trajectory, after our victory over AIC.

Early on, we were playing well. The visiting Lions are a speedy team, but the home team was staying with them until late in the second quarter when Georgian Court scored four goals in the final 1:35 of the half, to take an 8 – 3 lead into the intermission! It was a blow, that Molloy would never recover from. In fact, by the end of the third quarter, the Visitors had stretched the lead, to 12 – 4! We played better in the final quarter, but by then it was far too late to mount any kind of comeback. The final score was 14 – 6. Interestingly, most of the statistical categories were pretty even. So, it was disappointing and puzzling, as to why that evenness, did not show on the scoreboard.

While, Wednesday’s loss was certainly disappointing, I was able to see some positives. The most important thing, was that we had played well for some extended periods of time. So, as we turned our attention to Saturday’s contest against Southern New Hampshire, I was still optimistic about our prospects.

I thought our film preparation and game plan, were both really good. We had mostly a “walk through” practice on Friday, before having dinner, and getting on the road. It was about a five hour trek to Manchester, NH, the final hour of which, I spent worrying about the deteriorating road conditions. By the time we got settled into the hotel, it was nearly 11:30. Though I don’t think it really negatively affected us, that kind of travel is certainly, not ideal.

We had plenty of time Saturday morning, to wake and have breakfast, before heading to the Southern New Hampshire campus, for our 1pm game. In fact, I even squeezed in a decent workout.

Their campus is very nice and the athletic facility is impressive (as is the amount of snow that has been plowed off their field!).

As we warmed up, I really thought we would build on the positives of our previous games and put together our best effort, so far. As, has become our custom, we started the game matching our opponent’s effort and intensity. But, this game did not take as long, to fall apart on the Lions. It was 5 – 1 by the end of the first quarter. But when we scored the next goal, about one minute into the second quarter, we were still hanging in there. While, our team continued to play hard, we were plagued by mistakes and unable to string enough good plays together, to make an impact on the outcome. The Penmen (a puzzling name for sure) were able to repeatedly, capitalize on Molly breakdowns, while building 14 – 2 advantage midway through the third quarter. The Lady Lions fought to the end, but the final score of 18 – 6, was hard to look at.

Unlike the Georgian Court game, this one was not statistically even. This game was, however, eerily similar to our other losses, in that we played well at times, but were unable to sustain it. We have also been unable to stem the tide, when the other team is making “a run”. In all three of our losses, the game has been closely contested for a period of time, before we go into a long scoring drought, while our opponent continues to score unanswered goals. I certainly don’t think it has been any lack of effort. But I am somewhat, at a loss, to explain, this troubling trend.

With a slow start, like this, I have been searching for a “silver lining”. All I have come up with, is that while these outcomes having been painful, our young team, has been gaining valuable experience against good competition. Hopefully, that experience will begin to pay dividends and we will see some better results.

We will be back to the grind, this week, with two more road games. Wednesday we travel to Philly, to play Holy Family. And Saturday we go to Colchester, Vermont to take on Saint Michael’s. I am hoping we can turn things around.

Go Lions!