On Monday night, in a contest of the ages, the Portledge Panthers took on LaSalle College High School in an instant classic. Unfortunately, the Panthers dropped the game by a score of 5-2. The Panthers came out firing on all cylinders with 2 unanswered goals scored by two freshman, Jeremy Wilmer ‘21 and Gabe Staiano ‘21. Assistant Coach Jon Sandos told me, “The guys were excited, obviously, to get out to a 2-0 start against a very high quality opponent, but we remained focused throughout the game, and I think our compete level stayed true throughout the entire contest.” Well, the fight was there for most of the game. La Salle came marching back after the second intermission scoring three goals in less than 10 minutes. Sandos told me, “They (La Salle) are a good hockey club. They have 4 full lines which keep coming at you and that’s what they did in the 3rd. Secondly, I think that we had a few lapses in the defensive zone which led to those goals, we got beat off the wall a few times and also didn’t pick up the second wave of attack of the rush. And third, right now we are working on our depth, and we ran out of gas a little bit.” Despite all the troubles the Panthers faced, Coach Sandos remained uplifting and positive towards his team. When asked about keeping that mindset Sandos told me, “I think a positive mindset is huge, it’s one of the most underrated parts of sport, your mindset and mental preparations. We have a good group of guys that support each other, and just want to compete, so I think it’s really a credit to them that we stay positive throughout the contest.” The Panthers would eventually drop the game by a 5-2 score which doesn’t reflect the team's effort fairly as Salgado stopped 32 shots and both Brandon Chabrier ‘20 and Spence Evans ‘20 looked like the true leaders on the ice that the team needs in order to be successful. The boys will look at this game as a benchmark of the potential they have. When asked about the success of the rest of the season Sandos said, “I think if you look at the big picture it’s great, tonight was a great game, and we were winning for 36-40 minutes, which is great especially for such a young group.” The final score from Dix Hills was 5-2 as Portledge falls in their first league game of the season.