UMBC waded through the first seven games before finally scoring in double-digits in Tuesday night's 11-8 victory over visiting Mount St. Mary's. That challenge was not lost on players like redshirt senior attackman Conor Finch.
"We've had a pretty good offense here my entire career, and we definitely wanted to put double-digit goals," the Boys' Latin graduate said. "It's tough seeing our defense play so well, and us not being able to put enough goals on the board to get a W. So one of our goals was to put up 10 goals this week, and it felt really good to get that monkey off our back."
The 11-goal showing helped the Retrievers (3-5) break free from a group that has yet to score 10 goals in a game; Canisius, Manhattan and VMI are still waiting.
Coach Don Zimmerman said he could sense the players on offense were feeling pressure to take some of the heat off their teammates on defense.
"Their job is to go in there and score goals and really help the defense out," he said Thursday morning. "I think we've been playing some pretty good team defense throughout the course of the season. But the offensive guys know their job is to put goals on the board, and when you don't get that done the way that you would like, you feel responsible for it. So I definitely think the offensive guys came away feeling like, 'Hey, this is something that we've been shooting to do, and we got it done, but let's not be satisfied. Let's keep working hard, and let's continue in that direction.'"
Zimmerman partially credited Tuesday's effort to the reformation of a starting midfield of juniors Jack Gannon and Pat Young and senior Ty Kashur, who combined for five goals and two assists. He also said that as the weather has gradually warmed, the players are staying after practice to work on their shooting.
"Everybody wants to win," Zimmerman said. "It's those teams that go out there and work hard and do the extra stuff that have a better chance to be successful. I will say that this week, we've seen more and more guys stay after practice and work on shooting, some one-on-ones. Our goalies are taking extra shots. So I think all of these things contributed to that."