“Losing is a habit, just like winning is,” said senior Matt Scanlon. “Once you have, it is hard to break. It is never easy.”
A five-game losing streak is hard to cope with for a team that was undefeated and ranked 16th nationally mere weeks ago in the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) coaches’ poll.
It is even harder to handle when you are a senior and the number of games on the schedule slowly dwindle.
Above all, the greatest challenge for Scanlon and fellow senior defenseman Chris Atwell is maintaining confidence and composure.
As Head Coach Ted Spencer put it, the challenge is “just looking for answers.”
Despite the recent adversity, the senior class has maintained its poise and earned a place as the heart and soul of the men’s lacrosse team,
A significant portion of that begins on defense.
“The defense has been the core of this team,” said Spencer. “They have been starting together for three years. We have to feed off them. Hopefully, if we play animated on the [defensive] end, the offense will respond.”
It may not have been a positive outcome, but the start of an offensive response began on Tuesday afternoon.
While the team lost to Vermont, 9-8, in an out-of-conference game, it was Fairfield’s strongest showing on offense recently.
The Stags’ eight goals against the Catamounts is the highest total for the team since a 9-8 loss at Bucknell.
Collectively, the Stags’ offense had only mustered nine goals in its three previous games.
“We were looking to go up to Vermont and get ourselves back on the right track,” said Atwell. “But, we [still] have a big game against Georgetown.”
Despite a multitude of changes on offense, the team is still confident that a late season turnaround is very possible.
“Team morale is still up,” said Scanlon. “We’ve been there to keep each other up, even after we lost four games. We started off hot, and we know we can be a very good team.”
If such a turnaround is to occur, it is likely that the play of a veteran defensive unit will be the much-awaited spark.
“One thing we talked about this week [at practice] was creating offensive off of our defense,” said Spencer. “We are going to try to be more aggressive, and try to set the tone on defense.”
“I think that is a great way to help the offense gain confidence,” said Spencer.
As for the offense, the Stags feel that an eight-goal effort on the road with a makeshift group put together in practice this week is promising.
Prior to the game against Vermont, Spencer continued to adjust lineups on offense around midfielder Dan Boudreau ’08 and attackman Brendan Finnerty ’08 in an attempt to create continuity on offense.
“When you are unproductive over time you have to make changes, and we’ve done that,” said Spencer. “We have a new attack lineup, a new midfield lineup and we’ll see how it goes.”
Another adjustment involved reinserting sophomore goalkeeper Joe Marra into the starting lineup. Senior Jeff Cilente started the previous two games against Penn State and Hobart.
With upcoming home games against nationally ranked Georgetown and Loyola, both of whom are currently at the top of the ECAC standings, the Stags must hope for strong defensive efforts to slow premier offenses.
With Scanlon and Atwell leading the way, that suits the Stags just fine.
“We are 3-5, and we can salvage a very good season if we work hard at it. We just have to keep that attitude,” said Spencer. “I think the guys are ready. We believe in this team and we are going to keep at it.”
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