The Gophers’ veteran defense was too strong for the young Quakers as Guilford fell to Goucher College, 18 to 4, in the men’s lacrosse season opener on Feb. 21. The Goucher Gophers’ defense was ranked third in Division III men’s lacrosse last year, only allowing an average of 5.75 goals per game. While Goucher has experienced, veteran players, Guilford’s 25-man roster is filled with 15 underclassmen-11 of whom are first-years.

“I think we were just nervous in the first half, being so young,” said sophomore Ken Keesee. “It showed in the second half after we got the nerves out.”

A minute and a half after the opening whistle, the Quakers’ opponents were on the board. After several minutes, the Gophers had increased their lead to three.

“I think (the Goucher) contest will help us in the long run; we played a very good team and saw what happens when we don’t execute at a high level and play at top speed,” said head coach Andrew Rowe.

The Quakers were held scoreless until sophomore David Heltzel’s unassisted score, with three minutes left in the third period.

“We were trying to break the ice; everyone wanted to score the first goal,” said junior Charlie Robinson. “We broke down as a team because we stopped playing for each other and changed our focus to individual success. This left us to play a mainly defensive game, which we were not prepared for.”

In the fourth quarter’s first five minutes, Goucher added three goals, while the Quakers added one.

Mark Guillen, a sophomore goalie, made eight of his 13 saves in the last quarter, and the Quaker attack scored twice more in the game’s last minute.

“We showed some small things that we need to work on – on both sides of the field,” Keesee added.

In the second half, the Quakers showed more confidence from saves in the goal to shots taken. The Quakers only took six shots in the first two periods as opposed to the 16 they took during the last two.

“We (know what we) need to work on as we move toward our extremely difficult conference schedule,” said Rowe. “The main focus for our staff has been (and will continue to be) to improve each day and to get to a point where we’re playing our best and as hard as we can, day in and day out. The results will take care of themselves.