By JEREMY TEPPER
MVI Sports
A bump up in competition often forces a team to take its fair share of lumps.
Thomas Jefferson — which moved up from Class A to 2A this season — found that out early on, dropping each of its first two games.
If Monday’s game was any indication, those losses seemed to have served as a learning curve for the Jaguars.
Thomas Jefferson beat South Fayette on Monday, 5-2, a dominant victory that saw five different Jaguars score goals.
“I think the most relieving thing is we played how you have to play to win at this level,” said Jaguars coach Bill Crousey. “The effort was there, and we worked on some things, and the credit goes to the kids for a 200-foot effort by all 18 of the skaters.”
After its loss to West Allegheny, Crousey said his team worked on some specific things, like consistent backchecking and when to know when the proper time is to attack and take the shot.
But more than anything, Crousey preached to his team that it takes a consistent, three-period effort to beat teams in 2A.
Against Baldwin, a 3-1 second period derailed the Jaguars. Against West Allegheny, it was the 2-0 third period that forced overtime. Against South Fayette, Thomas Jefferson imposed its will for three periods.
“We had a good practice and we went over a lot of things about what it takes to win at this level, and the kids came out and executed it today for 51 minutes instead of two periods like the couple games before,” Crousey said.
“I thought we played really, really well in spurts. And in our bad spots, we weren’t bad by no means. We gave up some chances on some mistakes, but then we fixed them.”
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