NFL football coach Vince Lombardi once said, “Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.” Games like Saturday, Oct. 1’s loss against Carleton (1-4, 1-2 MIAC) indicate that the Hamline football team (3-1, 1-1 MIAC) is still trying to shift away from their losing habit after dropping their first game of the season 31-34 on a last-second field goal by the Knights.

Carleton has not been an easy matchup for the Pipers in recent years, as the Pipers have beaten the Knights just three times in the last decade. Their most recent victory against Carleton came just last year, when senior running back Austin Duncan rushed for 111 yards, junior wide receiver Naji Al-Araby caught six passes for 60 yards and senior running back Ryan Ferkinhoff and sophomore quarterback Kyle Johnson each rushed for a touchdown in the 19-7 victory.

“We just have to make sure we treat it like any other week,” said Head Coach Chip Taylor. “You have to throw the record out the window and treat each game like a one-week season and come to play each week.”

It was a back-and-forth affair between the two teams in this year’s matchup, with four lead changes throughout the game. The two teams combined for over 800 yards of offense in a game that featured just one turnover: a fumble recovery by the Pipers that ended the first half.

“Coming in on the defensive side, we thought we had a pretty good game plan of what they were going to do,” said senior linebacker Jonny Nguyen. “They put in a new quarterback, their old quarterback went to receiver, and they ran a totally different offense.”

The first half was a good one for the Pipers, as their defense kept the Knights mostly in check and their offense scored three touchdowns, including one with 1:50 left in the second quarter that put the Pipers in the lead, 21-16. The second half saw the offense stall multiple times and the defense get leaky.

“We knew going into the game that it was going to be tough,” said Taylor. “Coach Pagel does a good job of getting his guys ready to go and it came down to a couple plays that we didn’t make and a couple of plays they did make and I have to tip my hat to them.”

A mishit punt was the final nail in the Pipers’ coffin, as the botched kick gave the Knights the ball at the Pipers’ 35 yard line with 2:33 left on the clock, needing just a field goal to win. The Knights moved the ball down to the Piper 13-yard line, and their kicker hit the 30-yard field goal as time expired on the fourth quarter to give the Knights the victory.

“Your heart just drops to the bottom of your body when you see a game-winning field goal go through the uprights,” said sophomore wide receiver Harrison Jones. “I was really hoping the defense could get there and block their third kick of the game.”

The Pipers’ season to date has been successful, but with six games still left on the schedule, the Pipers will need to rebound from this loss quickly to turn their attention to this Saturday’s homecoming game against St. Olaf.

“We can’t expect that St. Olaf will come into our homecoming game expecting to lose,” said Nguyen. “This week in practice we’ll be working on swarming to the ball and making tackles that we missed against Carleton.”

The rest of this season, no matter how successful, should be used as a learning tool for the Pipers. Mike Zimmer, head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, has been rebuilding his team from the ground up since taking over as head coach in 2014. After the Vikings’ 23-20 victory against the Bears at Soldier Field last year, Zimmer was asked how he was teaching his team to handle success.

“There’s four learns in football,” said Zimmer. “First, you learn how to compete. Then you learn how to win. Then you learn how to handle winning. Then you learn how to be a champion.”

Since the arrival of Coach Rogosheske and Taylor back in 2013, the Pipers have gradually started to rebuild their program from the bowels of the MIAC to a team that has gradually forced other MIAC teams to pay attention to it. Despite their 3-0 start, a loss to a team that had previously been winless this season tells coach Taylor that his team has a long way to go before they are ready to be champions.

“I’d say we’re still in the stages of competing,” said Taylor. “We took a step forward with Gustavus and took a step back against Carleton. They outcompeted us and we have to learn how to keep the foot on the gas to make sure other games don’t get away from us like that.”

The Pipers are already moving past the loss and ready to focus their frustration from a seemingly missed opportunity onto St. Olaf.

“Everyone should know that we’re ready to go,” said Jones. “We’re not letting this loss take us down and we’re gonna go make some plays and hopefully take it to St. Olaf.”

The Pipers return to action this Saturday, Oct. 8, for Hamline’s homecoming game against St. Olaf. Kickoff is at 7:00 p.m.