Junior midfielder Ryan Mulford and the Stags earned a 5-3 win over Bryant on Saturday afternoon. (Peter Caty/The Mirror)
Ask any player on the men’s lacrosse team why the team defeated Bryant this weekend, and you’ll likely hear the standard response: defense, timely goaltending, execution.
But as far as the Stags are concerned, the team earned a 5-3 win long before the Bulldogs make the trip from Rhode Island to Alumni Field last Saturday.
“I think we had the best week of practice we’ve had since the fall,” junior defenseman Sean Bannon said. “We played so hard during practice, we competed with everything. If you have a week of practice like that, it is going to show in the game. The cliché is that you play like you practice, and I think that showed this week.”
That showing was markedly different from the previous week, especially defensively. In the team’s season-opener against Lafayette, the Stags permitted 15 goals, including sixth fourth quarter goals. A week later, spurred by a strong showing from senior goalkeeper Joe Marra, Fairfield allowed only three goals in the entire contest.
“I just thought we really fought and clawed our way to get this win,” head coach Andy Copelan said. “I don’t think it was the prettiest victory, bu
t it was really important to our guys, and you could just see it in the way they prepared this week and the way they practiced.”
Specifically, Copelan lauded assistant coach Kevin Conry, the team’s defensive coordinator, and goalkeeper Joe Marra, this week’s Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Co-Defensive Player of the Week, as one among many of the fundamental differences for the team’s improvement.
“I’m really proud for what we did with the defense and how they responded to a not-a-great performance in Week One,” Copelan said.
Week Three, however, will bring an even greater challenge for the Stags. Following a game against Villanova this Saturday, the Stags will travel to Houston to play Notre Dame, which currently sits at third in the USILA national rakings and is among the country’s best in goals per game (11.5).
The Irish also boast five pre-season All-Americans, including senior goalkeeper Scott Rodgers, who led the nation in goals-against average (6.14) and save percentage (.663).
Bannon
The Stags, however, know that the Wildcats come first, and before that the same week of preparation that yielded winning results against Bryant a few days ago.
“You kind of have to have selective amnesia,” Bannon said. “You enjoy the win, and then (this week) we start thinking about Villanova. They say the games matter on Saturday, but the whole week, whether you win or lose, it starts on that Monday because it shows how you practice.”
“If we practice hard that whole week, I can almost guarantee that we’re going to play our butts off,” he added.
Copelan echoed a similar theme, adding that a weekend ago the Stags succeeded because “we were better this week than we were against Lafayette.
“I know it sounds cliché, and we say it all the time, but we just have to try to be better against Villanova than we were today against Bryant,” Copelan said. “Assuming that trend can continue, I think we have a chance to be pretty special when we enter conference play starts when it matters the most.”
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