Falling into a 1-0 hole with eight minutes left in the first quarter of Saturday's game at Patriot League foe Lafayette wasn't a huge cause for concern for Loyola Maryland coach Charley Toomey.
But Toomey saw enough to call a timeout and have a stern conversation with the players about their level of enthusiasm.
"We called a timeout and just kind of talked to them a little bit to settle them down," Toomey said Wednesday afternoon. "We're on the road, and it was a new environment for us, and it was their spring break, so there weren't a lot of people in the stands. It was really more about, 'Hey, we've got to be excited to play this game. We've got to play with another level of energy.' It's a little disheartening to have that type of talk because you only have 13 or so games, but they needed it, and they responded, to their credit."
Despite the discussion and the timeout, the No. 16 Greyhounds found themselves trailing, 5-2, with 9:01 left in the second period. But a faceoff unit headed by sophomore Graham Savio won 12 consecutive draws, and the offense took advantage to embark on a 10-1 run en route to a 19-10 rout.
Loyola (5-4 overall and 3-1 in the conference) scored eight goals on 30 shots in the second quarter. To put that in perspective, the offense took more shots in 15 minutes than six Division I programs have averaged thus far.
Again, Toomey credited the offensive surge to Savio – who ranks 16th in the country in faceoff percentage at 59.8 percent (113-of-189) and 15th in ground balls at 6.3 per game – and his teammates on the wings.
"It was make-it, take-it," Toomey said. "We had the ball for the entire second quarter and when we didn't, I think they started to press a little bit and took a quick shot, and we had the ball again. Then we were running our early offense, getting good looks. We played a lot of middies, and I think for the first time this year, we played three lines of middies. … In that second period, we were running. We were playing fast-strike offense, and we were getting the ball at the faceoff X. So we got the next opportunity."