 Hello and welcome to the Paul K. DeVenny Show presented by Buffalo Wildlings. I'm Greg Royce showing by Stevenson Menza cross coach Paul K. DeVenny. Coach, how you played three games a season? Kind of mixed results, kind of a little mixed bag, but just talking about how the season's gone for you a little bit so far. Well, you know, it's been a little bit up and down a little bit. I think that we played really well at times, but I think we've also not been up to the job at times as well. I think that we got some good kids and we're putting ourselves in some situations, but we need to be a little mentally tougher and we need to play in the fourth quarter a lot better. I think the two games that we've lost, the fourth quarter's really not been our best quarter, and we need to do some better things there. We've been in a position each of those two losses to kind of get back into games and we kind of find a way to make the plays to lose the game instead of make the plays to win the game. But we still like your team and we still got a lot of great games left and I think there's a lot of good things on the horizon for us. Yeah, certainly. I'm sure the probably most complete game of the season was the dancing game. You go out to dancing, obviously tough place to play, tough team to beat on the road and you're able to go out there and beat them down to a quick start. Talk a little bit about that game and how that could go on. Anytime you get in the bus, you have to travel seven hours to go out to play somebody. It's going to be a little tough, but it was good to get away a little bit, I think, to get the team together and bond a little bit so it was well and we're able to get off to a great start and get on top of them early and I think they kind of was like the opposite of kind of us a little bit is that they kind of made a lot of plays to help us out and make it easier on us and we took advantage of those, but that's a great team done this and I think they're going to win a lot of games and then we were able to play well. So we just got to get a little more consistent from game to game but it was a good win for us. They got a very talented offense. They had everybody at the top, six returners, scores back. We were able to hold down the six goals and it was good to have Sam Ross back in this first start of the year after sitting out the first game due to an injury and I think that our sand gives us a big boost there. I think the defense was happy to have him back. Yeah, absolutely. Then obviously this past Saturday, you played Gage's where you can kind of game you fell behind a little bit, but battled back a couple of times. Like you said, that fourth quarter kind of did you a little bit. Yeah, you know, we got kind of behind early. I think we just made a lot of fundamental mistakes and kind of gave them some easy goals early, which they were a good team. They're going to take advantage of them. We had 10-7 there and we had two chances to get to 10-8. You know, it could have been 10-9 and then in the fourth quarter we kind of just made some silly mistakes here or there and I think a couple of Sam just kind of missed a few shots that he usually has because he's just a little frustrated probably and they got on us and that's a good team. They're going to win a lot of games as well at a really tough conference. And so, you know, we played three ranked teams all that are now ranked in the top, they're probably 13 or 14 in the country and you know, we got three more coming or four more coming. So we got to continue to be ready. Yeah, how do you develop that consistency? Obviously, and again, no time to rest because obviously you got Salisbury and Sweden, the Mustang class that we've been after. How do you continue to try to develop that consistency so you can play with those things? Well, we got great kids. I think the first thing that knows we got great kids is that care and we have a lot of talent but they have to find a way to start to sacrifice a little bit more for themselves in order to help the team out. I think a lot of our guys are trying to help everybody else out instead of just doing your job, which is a great trait to help your teammates out but we got to start doing our jobs better and in the fourth quarter, it's going to give us a chance in all our games and we just got to get better in that fourth quarter, win our matchup, make the plays we need to win and be a little more mentally tougher and I think things will come and we're going to have a lot of great teams that continue to get that ready until we get into the conference play and that's why we play the schedule that we do and that's why we like to do it. Yeah, you got to stretch your games all coming up at home on Salisbury on Saturday and then like so the following, the Mustang Classic you play at Lynchburg in New York and then you play Tufts on Tuesday. We're going to have a lot of great games at home and hopefully help you to continue your ball. We just got to compete, you know what I mean? That's what the chance to do and I think we got great opportunity against Salisbury. It's a game that we always play them really tough. It's always a great game. Lynchburg is always a really tough game so a lot of these teams are very similar than on New York and then Tufts is going to be up and down. They're going to give up a lot of goals but they're going to probably score a lot of goals but we're eager to get for the challenges and that's why you come here to play in great games under the lights and under the best atmosphere We're not always as successful as you'd like to be but we're going to give ourselves a great effort and I think we can do a great job through these next four or five games we can put ourselves in a really good situation. Yeah, absolutely. Probably just talking about the Mustang Classic. We've got a couple new teams this year, five games every day so talk about the excitement that's around that. You've got Wesleyan coming and a couple other, you know, after that a couple really good teams coming in. I know you're excited about the five games a day, Greg, so I know how you're going to find that. We like to keep you busy but we appreciate all the hard work you guys do but a chance to add Middlebury and Wesleyan this year was a really good thing for us. They kind of called and said we love to come here and play and be a part of it so we added them anytime you add the defending national champ into that, you know, I think it's a good thing and getting Franklin and Marshall involved this year is another great team that we're able to get in there but it's a great event and you're going to see a lot of great lacrosse over, you know, ten hours a day and I don't think anybody else puts anything on like that or is willing to do so I give our school a lot of credit and the security and our AD and all that, people in the athletic department who do such a great job to put this on, it's not just me out there going, hey, let's play some lacs. It's everybody that's, and it's a long day we'll be here for 15 hours a day of course, but it's a great thing for Division 3 Lacrosse to really put on that and show all the great players that we have in Division 3 Lacrosse and inside the cross they do such a great job every year coming there to help us out to do that but it really gets the show teams to showcase themselves in a special event and that's why the teams is coming back each year because it is a special event they come here, games are going on to watch that game and play your game, you only get 20 minutes to warm up and you're playing and so you really got to rely on your players a lot more than necessarily your preparation because the games are so tight and it's really tough to go by but every team is going to be great and every game is going to be a tough one. Back to back aspect as well, something that you don't see, especially at a high level Lacrosse. Yeah, I think they really kind of bodes well for Division 3, you know those D1 guys we need three weeks to get ready for one game so to speak, but I think Division 3 is a lot more mentality, it's about the players and they want to get out there and not afraid to play back to back or play three games in five days or play two or three times in a week, I think that really bodes well to the Division 3 player and they're willing to go out there and they work just as hard as their D1 brother and I think they just do a great job you know, that's why it's no big deal none of these coaches here are worried about playing back to back and the NCAA tournament might come around to that in a few years because we have so many people in it now that's so much bigger that we have to might start playing back to back and that's one of the proposals they have coming up. Yeah, absolutely. Alright coach, we wish you the best of luck we're looking forward to some fun lacrosse in the next two weeks at Mustang Stadium and we'll chat again soon. Thanks Greg. Go Stangs! Alright, for Paul Canterbury, I'm Greg Royce this has been the Paul Canterbury Show. Go Stangs!