In the 1970/71 season, with the signings of Bernard Côté and Czechoslovakian Karel Blazek, who starred in a real escape to Switzerland during a tournament in Lugano, the bianconeri celebrated promotion to the LNA. The key match of the season is Lugano-Lausanne played at the Resega in front of 6,000 spectators and won by the bianconeri by 3 to 1! The team includes as many as eight players from the nursery: Molina, Corti, Rezzonico, Giudici, Brambilla, Bernardoni, Bernasconi and Cereghetti. Thirty years after its foundation, the club thus sees the dream come true! After Valais, Ticino is the second canton to boast two clubs in the top category. Molina crowns his extraordinary career when, at the World Cup in Prague, he turns out to be the second best extreme defender ever while unfortunately the adventure of the bianconeri in LNA lasted only two seasons with relegation to LNB in the 72/73 season.
Lugano was thus set to spend nine years in the cadet league, amid mixed results, albeit with several players igniting the Resega in the 1970s such as Finns Juha Pekka Rantasila and Henry Leppä and American Tom Vanelli. In 1975 the club bianconero packed its bags and moved to the first indoor rink in the Lugano area: that of Mezzovico. I bianconeri would play two championships there before the Mezzovico Sports Hall collapsed on the morning of February 12, 1978 due to an exceptional snowfall. The time it took to permanently cover the Resega. In 1978 in the history of Lugano and Swiss field hockey enters the one who in a few years will become a great character: Geo Mantegazza. With him also materializes what many times will be the seventh player on the ice: the Curva Nord! The new management staff formed by Geo Mantegazza, Severo Antonini and Fausto Senni immediately conquers two historical results: for the first time Lugano ranks ahead of Ambri, for the first time, on October 23, 1979, the Valascia is conquered (5-2). The extra man is on the occasion Jim Koleff , who will wear the colors bianconeri for two seasons. In the 79/80 season also a player returns to Lugano after his experience in Lausanne who will remain tied to the colors bianconeri for a long time: Fabio Gaggini.
