Goucher bouncing back at right time
Coach Kyle Hannan is philosophical about Goucher’s 1-4 start.
The way he sees it, the lethargic beginning was just the first third of the season. The second third entailed a 5-0 run that has the Gophers sitting at 6-4 and poised to undertake the final stretch with five opponents from the Landmark Conference.
“We were 1-4 in our first season and then 5-0 in that middle third,” Hannan said Monday. “So that’s what we’ve been harping on. And now we have our third season, and the goal is to be 5-0. We just did it, so anything less would be disappointing. I think the guys are confident, but also understand that we need to continue to get better if we want to accomplish the goals that we have this year.”
Hannan said the program spent a lot of time poring over its strengths and weaknesses after a shocking 13-12 loss to Randolph-Macon on March 5 that dropped the team to 0-3. Since that setback, freshman Max Roach has replaced freshman George Skelos in the starting attack, and the first midfield has moved from junior Pat Peddicord to sophomore John Curry to freshman Pierce Ingram, who has started the last two contests.
Another key to Goucher’s reversal was blending a group of veterans with newcomers, which, Hannan seemed to hint, involved a clashing of egos.
“We had so many guys return from last year’s team, but then we brought in a lot of talented, young kids,” Hannan said. “So I think early on, we had a lot of guys back that were proud of some of the accomplishments over the past couple of years, and we had some talented young kids that were really competing for starting spots. We were trying to find out who we were, where we were going to play guys, and how we were going to get our most talented guys on the field. It took a little bit of time, but over the last two weeks, we’ve played very good lacrosse.”
The Gophers begin conference play on Saturday against Susquehanna at home, and Hannan said Goucher, which won the Landmark tournament and represented the league in the NCAA tournament last May, is ready.
“I think it gives us a lot of confidence not only because of the wins, but they’re out there every day and they sense how much better we’re playing right now and how the leadership has come together,” Hannan said. “So we’re in a good place right now. We’ve got to keep working like everybody else does, but I like where we are heading into this stretch against just conference opponents.”
