It's early, but there is reason for cautious optimism surrounding McDaniel.
Through nine games, the Green Terror have surrendered an average of just 7.1 goals. In the Centennial Conference, only Ursinus (4.9 goals per game) and No. 4 Gettysburg (5.8) have been stingier.
"We're pretty deep defensively," McDaniel coach Matt Hatton said Monday morning. "We feel like we're getting quality play. I think we're pretty organized on that end, and we've got a lot of different guys we can play on game day whom we are confident in. When we starting doing things a little differently and at a higher level on the offensive end, we might be able to get after people more defensively, which might be to our advantage."
According to Hatton, the defense has been buoyed by junior goalkeeper Eric Ritchie, who ranks second in the conference in save percentage (.616) and third in goals-against average (7.11). Senior Ryan Weiss and junior Kevin Nicholas have anchored the short-stick defensive midfield position.
But the biggest development has been a rotation of four close defensemen -- seniors Drew Cortese and Zac Bitzer and sophomores Will Kroppe and Alex Hanna -- and three long-stick midfielders in senior Alec Schunk, junior Tony Roney and sophomore Emmett Turley.
"We can go five or six guys at close and feel pretty confident that there's not going to be a big drop-off," Hatton said. "We can go three-deep when we're healthy at long-stick middie. We go four guys deep all the time at short-stick D-middie, and we feel like all of those guys are contributing in a very positive way. I think our depth helps, I think our leadership helps. Those guys have taken it upon themselves to be really organized in their approach to our opponents, and that has been a critical part to their success."
The Green Terror are 5-4 overall and 2-1 in the Centennial, where they edged Dickinson, 8-7, on Wednesday and Haverford, 4-3 in overtime, on Saturday. The team gets a week to rest and prepare for Saturday's home game against Franklin & Marshall (3-6, 1-2).
"The complexion of the conference is a little different this year thus far than maybe it was the last couple of years," Hatton said. "Some of the teams that have been very, very good are struggling to win some games right now, and I think at the end of the day, being in the driver's seat with the ability to win some games and have the ability to extend our season is where we want to be."