In its first two games this season, Stevenson has been penalized 14 times for a total of 14 minutes.
The No. 3 Mustangs' penchant for penalties helped top-ranked Rochester Institute of Technology score six goals in eight man-up opportunities en route to a 17-10 victory on Monday. Messiah had five extra-man chances Wednesday but couldn't convert on any in Stevenson's 13-1 thumping.
Coach Paul Cantabene said he's not worried about the number of penalties.
"We're just getting used to the calls," he said Thursday. "I think some of the calls were justified. At the end of the RIT game, we were trying to get the ball back to do some things, and we had to be a little more aggressive and got a few fouls out of that. Yesterday's game, we were up in Pennsylvania and we've got to go with what they called. Some things we agreed with, some things we didn't. It is what it is. But we play an aggressive style, and we always foul more than other teams and we always get fouled more than other teams. But we've got to stay away from the one-minute fouls. We can handle the 30-second ones, but we've got to stay away from the one-minute ones."
Although he might not be concerned with the frequency of infractions, Cantabene said his focus has been on man-down defense and clears. In addition to allowing six goals in eight man-down situations in the loss to the Tigers, the Mustangs failed to clear the ball nine times in 31 attempts.
"We've already addressed them and we will continue to address them," Cantabene said of the problem areas. "We made some changes in our man-down personnel already, and we're working on the clears. I just thought we were very timid in the clearing game. We've got to get more aggressive, get up the field. I didn't know why we were so timid, because we're never like that. So we addressed those and we'll work on them again in practice. Those are the things that killed us. We've got to play better on man-down [defense], and we've got to clear the ball. We're talented enough on the defensive end and on the offensive end to do some damage, but if we're giving teams second and third chances by not clearing the ball, then we're going to pay the price."