Justin Ivey, Correspondent New England Black Wolves
Lacrosse is Awesome©
Featured Image Photo Credit: Justin Ivey
The Georgia Swarm (4-2) came into the weekend with the only perfect record left in the NLL. Friday night, they lost a tough game in Toronto and Saturday wasn’t any better. The New England Black Wolves’ (3-1) only loss on the season came in their first game in Georgia, and they returned the favor in front of 4,393 fans at Mohegan Sun Arena. Despite their leading goal scorer Reilly O’Connor being held to just assists on the score sheet, the Black Wolves found the will to go back and forth all night with The Swarm. The winning goal was scored with under three minutes remaining by newcomer Tyler Digby who signed in the offseason as a free agent. His goal from the middle was a true reflection of the Black Wolves season thus far. “I think there’s a lot a lot of doubters outside of our room…we have a lot of character guys on the team that take that to heart, and we want to prove people wrong every week,” said Digby when asked about the big win. He was surrounded by defenders and had to fight for the space to score the difference maker. Two of the three New England wins this season have come against the champions from the last two years. Final Score: Georgia-12, New England-13.
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New England opened the scoring just 37 seconds in as Stephan Leblanc (2G, 2A) scored after receiving Reilly O’Connor’s (6A) first assist on the night. Less than a minute later, Randy Staats (3G, 4A) evened the score. In just two minutes of play, the back and forth tone of the night was set. Leblanc scored his second of the quarter 2:50 in on the powerplay. Georgia answered back with the first two goal run of the game to take a one goal lead just over five minutes in. Staats assisted on both goals that were scored with a man advantage. Miles Thompson (2G, 3A) scored first, and 31 seconds later his brother Lyle Thompson (4G, 1A) scored his first of the game. New England tied the game as a streaking Ryan Fournier (2G) finished in transition after catching a glorious outlet pass from goalie Alex Buque (1A). The defenses finally found some footing after six goals were put up in just over eight minutes. Georgia was able to break through once more though when Staats scored with 2:22 left. At the end of the first quarter, Georgia led New England 4-3.
Georgia’s Bryan Cole was charged with an illegal body check and a game misconduct with 38 seconds left in the first, and the Black Wolves started the second quarter with a power play. Tyler Digby (2G, 3A) scored his first goal of the game to knot up the score at four with the advantage. Under a minute later though, Shayne Jackson (1G, 3A) scored shorthanded and Georgia took control again. New England was able to score twice more before the end of the half, but the Callum Crawford (3G, 3A) and Dereck Downs (2G) goals were sandwiched around L. Thompson’s second of the night. At the half, New England and Georgia were tied 6-6.
Georgia flipped the script and scored first in the third quarter, taking a 7-6 lead on M. Thompson’s second of the game. Just about two minutes later though, Fournier tied it up with an unassisted transition goal. Zed Williams (1G, 1A) answered the bell and put the Swarm back up one halfway through the quarter. The final half of the third quarter was fireworks. Seven goals were scored. Seth Oakes (1G) and Andrew Suitor (1G) both scored transition goals and New England finally strung together two goals in a row. Georgia’s Holden Cattoni (1G, 3A) scored on the power play and Staats’ hat trick goal with 2:48 left put Georgia on top again, but this would be the final time they saw the lead. Crawford lit a fire under the Black Wolves with two straight goals in a span of a minute. The first was a beautiful backhand shot in an unsettled situation that went right over Mike Poulin’s right shoulder. After he scored his second, Downs made it three in a row to end the quarter with only three seconds left on the clock. At the end of the third, New England led Georgia 12-10.
The air was taken out of the building just a minute into the fourth as L. Thompson scored his hat trick goal to cut the lead back to one. For just over nine minutes the score would remain 12-11, until L. Thompson scored his second in a row. Suddenly, with just under five minutes remaining the score again was tied. With a powerplay opportunity because of a holding call on Georgia, New England stepped up. Digby caught the ball in the middle, and then passed out to Reilly O’Connor. O’Connor threw a fake and stepped up, firing a pass back to Digby. Using his brute strength, he threw a high fake and shot a low ball past Mike Poulin with 2:52 remaining. The goal would prove to be the game winner in an exhausting matchup between two of the top teams in the East. Final Score: Georgia-12, New England-13.
UP NEXT:
The New England Black Wolves (3-1) host the Buffalo Bandits (4-1) on Sunday, January 27 at 6:00 PM EST.
The Georgia Swarm (4-2) host the Saskatchewan Rush (3-1) on Sunday, January 27 at 4:05 PM EST.
Justin Ivey, Correspondent New England Black Wolves
Lacrosse is Awesome©