By LES BOWEN, Daily News Sports Writer
Philadelphia Wings coach Dave Evans doesn’t want to put undue pressure on his 0-2 Major Indoor Lacrosse League team. But the season, after all, consists of just eight games. And Saturday’s 8 p.m. Spectrum matchup against the Baltimore Thunder is game No. 3. And the Wings don’t yet have win No. 1.
“A loss Saturday is not the end of the world,” Evans said. “But as they say, you can see it from there . . . This is a must game. We can’t let ourselves get behind the eight ball.”
Maybe the Wings will get a boost from playing a team that isn’t the Washington Wave, which accounted for both of those losses so far, 14-13 and 10-9.
“I’m not happy with our record,” Evans said. “But all in all, I’m not disappointed. Both losses were by one goal; we could have won very easily.”
Evans was disappointed enough to deliver a spirited lecture after the second loss, Jan. 16 at the Spectrum in front of 13,814 fans. Evans said he didn’t like the way his team was outhustled for groundballs, or the team’s penchant for turnovers. And he thought there was at least a possibility that the Wings got carried away on the emotion supplied by their zealous fans.
“I was quite pleased with the crowd,” he said, “but sometimes they cheered at the wrong things. They would get excited over the big hits, and we took some boneheaded penalties near the end of the game.”
Evans said that in both games, the Wings tended to try to rush back on offense before actually securing the rebound of a missed shot – a failing that led to several easy rebound goals. He said they can’t afford to do that against 1-2 Baltimore, which defeated Washington last weekend.
“They (the Thunder) shoot an awful lot,” he said. “They shoot from all over the place, then rush in for the rebound. It’s almost like a serve-and- volley game in tennis. We’ve got to put pressure on the ballcarrier, force them to pass it more.”
WING TIPS: Among the brightest spots for the Wings thus far has been the play of goalie Vinnie Pfeifer, who had 45 saves in the last game. Dave Evans has been studying ways to get Pfeifer more offensive help. Currently, one of the Wings’ three lines – J.C. Conley, Mark DeCicco, Pat Lamon, Gary Martin and Scott Carruthers – has accounted for a disproportionate share of the scoring.
(Philadelphia Daily News, January 28, 1988)