April 26, 2012|By Edward Lee
UMBC’s thrilling 17-16 overtime decision over America East rival Albany last Saturday – which included a five-goal run in a span of 2 minutes, 18 seconds in the fourth quarter – put the Retrievers squarely in the mix for the top seed and homefield advantage in the conference tournament.
While that victory was reminiscent of the program’s nine-goal rally in a 14-13 win against the Great Danes in the America East Tournament final in 2008, coach Don Zimmerman said he would prefer if the team didn’t dig itself such a big hole.
“I think if that’s your attitude, sooner or later, you’re going to come up short, which we have in the past,” he said Wednesday. “I think the focus and the emphasis is on avoiding a situation where we have to come back like that. Those are exceptional circumstances and normally when you get down by five goals late in the game, it’s very, very difficult to come back. We were fortunate to be able to do so.”
Saturday’s result can embolden the players and give them confidence, but Zimmerman said the players shouldn’t be duped into thinking that they can do that in every outing.
“It definitely breeds some confidence, but again, you have to be realistic and realize that you put together a great run there and guys stepped up and did their jobs,” he said. “But we don’t want to go to that well too often because sooner or later, it’s going to come up dry.”
