Head coach Andy Copelan, flanked by senior defenders Billy Honovich and Matt Petre, emerged from the locker room with a rather sobering look on his face.
Quite the opposite of what you’d expect from a head coach that just witnessed a stunning fourth quarter comeback and his team’s fourth consecutive victory, a 10-8 win over Vermont.
‘I’m sorry you had to witness that,’ Copelan said,’ before I could even get a word out of my mouth.
There’s an old saying in sports: Complacency kills. Copelan, who stresses the importance of ‘continous improvement’ probably has that one on a poster somewhere.
Still, if the team’s recent wins against Hobart and Vermont illustrate anything, it is that his players are very much buying into that mindset.
And one other rallying cry.
‘Coach [Copelan] really drives it home that we’re the only team in the conference that controls our own destiny,’ freshman goalkeeper Charlie Cipriano said.’
At the moment, the Stags are one of two teams [Massachusetts] in the Eastern Coastal Athletic Conference (ECAC) with an unbeaten conference record.
That stat includes Georgetown, Fairfield’s upcoming weekend opponent, and Loyola (Md.), another daunting game that lies in mid-April. Given that Fairfield has yet to play either of those teams ‘- or’ UMass ‘- the’ jury is still very much out on Fairfield’s postseason hopes or the year’s ultimate ending.
But as the season progresses, continuous improvement begins to rear its head. At the moment, a’ national ranking and a 6-2 start is just about as good as it gets.
But complacency kills. So while the school celebrates four straight wins, Copelan and company turn their eyes toward Georgetown, and beyond.
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