The signs were there last year, when Penn State averaged almost a dozen goals a game, knocked off Denver and played almost everyone it encountered tough.

The Nittany Lions didn’t make the NCAA tournament, but with only one starter departing, there was some promise in Happy Valley.

It still had to happen, though. The wait for the breakout might — might — be over as No. 10 Penn State (3-0) ranks second in the country with 18.7 goals per game with the help of a lot of holdovers coupled with the arrival of freshman Mac O’Keefe.

“You’ve got eight of the nine playing who played for us last year,” coach Jeff Tambroni said. “That kind of maturity and chemistry is playing a role. These guys are fairly familiar with the offense also familiar with each other. They each got a little bit better. They’re collectively doing a better job of managing their tasks on a day-to-day basis. Add Mac to that group of eight guys and he only increases the productivity and efficiency of the offense.”

O’Keefe, a member of last year’s U.S. under-19 national team, is an obvious headline with 16 goals and three assists in his first three college games, while Grant Ament (11 goals, eight assists) is following up on a promising freshman year during which he led Penn State with 54 points.

Eight players already have multiple goals, though Tambroni points to another factor in bolstering the offense. Gerard Arceri has won 70.7 percent of his faceoffs just a year after the Nittany Lions won 47 percent of their attempts.

“We hoped we would be a bit better, and the other side of it is faceoffs,” Tambroni said. “Look at Gerard Arceri as a freshman faceoff man. He is a big reason that are season has gone as it has. We’re winning a lot more faceoffs. He’s provided a huge boost, and it’s just provided more opportunities and more touches on offense. The more opportunities they get, the more productive they are.”

And that makes it more likely this could be the season so many have anticipated since Tambroni left Cornell for Penn State after the 2010 season. Penn State made the NCAA tournament in 2013 but went 20-22 over the next three years.

Last year could have unfolded differently were it not for consecutive one-goal losses to Maryland, Johns Hopkins and Rutgers (the latter two in overtime) in April. Flip two of those results, and Penn State has 10 victories and a strong NCAA tournament case.

“We were getting a lot closer,” Tambroni said. “We were competitive against Denver, competitive against Maryland, competitive against Hopkins, competitive against Rutgers --- playoff-caliber teams --- but we weren’t getting over the top. We felt we were competitive enough to be in every game. We had a couple unfortunate and extenuating injuries and the tragedy to our goalie [the late Connor Darcey]. It was just too much for us to overcome with a young team.”

These Nittany Lions aren’t devoid of experience with four seniors starting. But their leading scorer, faceoff man and goalie (Colby Kneese) are all freshmen. They could plateau as the year unfolds.

Tambroni is reluctant to get too far ahead of things so early in the season, but he is unmistakably upbeat about the early returns as Penn State enters Saturday’s trip to Villanova.

“This is a fun group to be with,” Tambroni said. “They’ve really bought into the approach of working hard and getting better. There’s optimism. Hopefully, this will be a year we take the step forward that we haven’t been able to take the last couple years.”

PHOTO BY KEVIN P. TUCKER

The Terps’ Stiffest Test

No. 2 Maryland (3-0) has aced every test on offense so far, dropping 15 goals on Navy before overwhelming Saint Joseph’s and High Point last week.

Senior attackman Matt Rambo has parlayed his strong finish last year into a monster start, collecting nine goals and 10 assists this month. Four other Terrapins have at least five goals, so it initially appears as if Maryland will enjoy similar balance as last year.

How far along Maryland’s offense really is will be revealed Saturday, when it plays host to No. 6 Yale (noon, ESPN News). The teams have met three times in the last two years, with the Terps taking regular-season losses by margins of 10-6 in 2015 and 8-5 a season ago. Maryland also took an 8-7 decision in the 2015 NCAA tournament.

“Five goals isn’t going to win this game,” coach John Tillman said.

Yet it might not take much more than that. While both programs can lean on charismatic offensive players (though Yale could be without attackman Ben Reeves, who left in the second quarter of the Bulldogs’ season opener on Saturday with a hamstring injury), there’s a good chance these programs’ strong defensive identities dictate the course of this year’s game in College Park.

Weather or Not

The biggest difference this season compared to the previous two might not be a rule change or a new coaching philosophy or an effective schematic tweak.

Rather, it’s an incredibly mild February that has not led to a postponement yet.

In 2015, there were a dozen postponements or venue changes through Feb. 22, with a few more still to come before the end of the month. Last year, there were 13 games either moved up or postponed thanks to lousy winter weather.

This year? The biggest disruption anyone experienced was a busted water main in Chapel Hill, N.C., that prompted North Carolina to move its Feb. 4 season opener against UMBC a half-hour away to Raleigh. Meanwhile, games like Virginia-Loyola (4,618), Maryland-Navy (3,226), Loyola-Johns Hopkins (5,222) and Penn-Saint Joseph’s (2,437) have drawn well on warm days.

(Maryland-Navy and Loyola-Hopkins would probably do even better in late-season weekend slots, but that’s an argument for another time).

The sport isn’t going to dodge snow every February, and the start date of the season remains a reasonable point to debate. This season, though, it hasn’t been a factor.

PHOTO BY JOHN STROHSACKER

On the Radar

A couple years ago, a late February matchup between Marquette and Richmond qualified as an under-the-radar game. Not anymore.

The teams will meet in Richmond for the third consecutive year, and the series has rapidly evolved from a pairing of well-constructed programs that were just finding their footing to NCAA tournament contenders. No. 15 Marquette (1-0) won the Big East tournament and hosted a postseason game last season, and set a school with in goals with a 17-1 pounding of Jacksonville in its opener.

Meanwhile, No. 16 Richmond (3-0) owns victories over Fairfield, UMBC and Mount St. Mary’s behind attackmen Ryan Lee (10 goals, three assists) and Teddy Hatfield (eight goals, six assists) and goalie Benny Pugh (5.00 goals-against average, .700 save percentage). Make no mistake: The winner of Saturday’s game likely will pick up a valuable victory for postseason positioning in the process.