Shawn Palmer, Correspondent Toronto Rock
Lacrosse is Awesome©
Featured Image Photo Credit: Toronto Rock
The San Diego Seals (5-4) visited the Toronto Rock (7-1) for the first time ever on Friday night February 15, 2019 in a clash of the two first place teams in the NLL. In a tight game that came right down to the wire, Toronto who never trailed prevailed 12 – 11 in front of 8,167 fans at the Scotiabank Arena.
The first quarter started slow for both offenses as it seemed like each team was feeling each other out and the goalies were turning away any scoring chances that did happen. The first goal was finally scored at the 4:35 mark of the opening quarter as the Rock on their first power play, had some good ball movement and Johnny Powless (2G, 1A) open in the middle, received a pass from Tom Schreiber (1G, 4A) beating Frank Scigliano (47 saves) to give the Rock a 1–0 lead. The Seals tied it up three minutes later as Casey Jackson (4G, 1A) made a nice swim move to get around Latrell Harris (3 LB) to the inside beating Nick Rose (45 saves) between the legs with a bounce shot. On Toronto’s second power play of the quarter, the offense moved the ball around the outside for the first 25 seconds of the possession and Dan Craig (3G, 1A) who was behind the net took a pass from Adam Jones (3A) and dove in front through the crease to beat Scigliano to restore the one goal lead. Less than a minute later the San Diego tied the game at two, as Turner Evans (2G, 1A) shot from the outside down low to the far side. With two minutes left in the first, Craig picked up a rebound in front of the crease and in one motion jumped and beat Scigliano with a shot over his shoulder to give the Rock a 3–2 lead. In the last minute of the frame Toronto doubled their lead as Dan Lintner (2G, 1A) cut through the middle, received a great feed from Kieran McArdle (1A) and jumped through the crease to beat Scigliano over his shoulder for a short-handed goal. The first quarter ended with the Rock leading the Seals 4–2. The shots on goal were San Diego 18 and Toronto 14.
The Rock started the second quarter down two men and San Diego took advantage of the power play as Garrett Billings (1G, 4A) scored on a shot from outside that hit Challen Rogers (1G, 1A) stick in front and beat Rose to cut the lead to 4–3. The Rock killed off the remainder of the man advantage and once they were back to full strength, Brandon Slade (1G) came down the floor on transition, received a pass from Lintner and squeezed a shot between the legs of Scigliano that made it just over the goal line to get back the two goal lead for the Rock. Just over four minutes in, Austin Staats (1G, 3A) faked a shot and fed a cutting Jackson who beat Rose low through the legs to get back within one at 5–4. After five minutes of back and forth lacrosse, the Rock finally broke through with Craig taking a hard over hand shot from the outside to beat Scigliano over the shoulder for his hat trick goal to make it 6–4 in favor of the Rock. Powless scored his second goal of the game when he got his own rebound and deposited the ball over Scigliano’s shoulder increasing the lead to three. Brandon Clelland (1G) received a pass from Drew Belgrave (1A) and sped in on a breakaway and had his stick checked by Brad Kri (5LB) as he let the shot go which changed the direction of the shot and it beat Rose to the stick side cutting the lead to 7–5 for the Rock. The quarter ended with Damon Edwards (1G, 1A) on transition getting the pass from Rogers beating forward Billings to the inside and scoring on Scigliano low with a bounce shot. The shots on goal were San Diego 34 – Toronto 31. The Rock won the faceoff battle 10–5 in the first half. At the end of the second, Toronto held the lead 8—5 over San Diego.
Heading into the third, the Rock continued their prowess on the power play as they notched their third of the night with Rob Hellyer (1G, 1A) moving in from the top to beat Scigliano over the shoulder increasing their lead 9–5. The Seals would go on their first run of the night as Jackson picked up a rebound and made a nice crease dive beating Rose far side. Originally this was called in the crease but Seals Head Coach Patrick Merrill threw the challenge flag and after review, the call was reversed and Sa Diego had cut the lead to 9–6. Scigliano kept the Seals in the game with some timely saves and the offense continued to press Toronto. Kyle Buchanan (1G, 3A) would take a low shot from the outside around the defender to beat Rose glove side bringing the Seals to within two, 9–7 halfway through the frame. Evans would score his second of the night as he took a side arm shot that beat Rose far side giving the Seals two goals in 16 seconds, cutting the lead to one at 9-8. Toronto stopped the run when Rogers scored a short-handed goal in transition as he received a pass from Billy Hostrawser (1A) and jumped over the crease to beat Scigliano stick side increasing the lead to two. One minute later the Rock would score their fourth power play goal as Schreiber shot a laser from the top beating Scigliano top corner to increase the Toronto lead to three at 11–8. Connor Kearnan (1G) cut the Rock lead to two with a side arm shot beating Rose bottom corner; and 24 seconds later Staats would score his first of the game by beating his defender low as he dove across the crease to beat Rose far side. Shots on goal were tied at 43. Going into the final quarter the score was 11–10 still in favor of the Rock.
With a one goal game in the fourth quarter the fans were on the edge of their seats as the teams went back and forth exchanging chances that were being turned away by both goalies. Four minutes into the frame the Lintner would score his second of the game, a goal that was Sports Centre worthy, on a delayed penalty. He picked up a rebound behind the net and dove forward depositing the ball in the empty net over the cross bar behind a surprised Scigliano. The Seals received the next two power plays and on the first, the Rock defenders helped goaltender Nick Rose by soaking three shots on one offensive possession as they killed off the first penalty. With four seconds left in the second, Jackson would score his fourth of the game shooting low short side to beat Rose. With five minutes left, it was back to a one goal game at 12 -11. As the Rock were in the offensive zone Jones cut towards the net and dove at the goal making contact with Scigliano causing him to be pushed into the net as his gloves went through the air. For his efforts Jones was assessed a five minute major with just over two minutes left in the game. Everyone in the arena knew that it was going to be difficult to keep the Seals off of the board for the rest of the game but the Rock defenders were determined to keep the Seals to the outside and even blocked another shot in the last minute. San Diego turned over the ball on the power play and Toronto was able to kill off over 30 seconds by getting their own rebound of a shot. Toronto was called for trapping the ball in the Seals end of the floor giving up the ball with less than 10 seconds left. San Diego pulled Scigliano to go six on four and they moved up the floor moving the ball around trying to get an open shot, but unfortunately for the Seals with less than a second left, the low shot was stopped by Rose sending the Rock fans home happy. The ending shots on goal were Toronto 59–San Diego 56.Final score: Toronto 12–San Diego 11.
After the game, Rock head coach Matt Sawyer said “It was a good win for us; we were clearly rusty having 14 days off and that was evident. San Diego really tested us and they’re a good team”.
Three Stars of the Game:
1st Star – Dan Craig (3G, 1A)
2nd Star – Casey Jackson (4G, 1A)
3rd Star – Tom Schreiber (1G, 4A)
NEXT UP:
The Rock move to 7-1 on the season and play their next game on Sunday February 24th in New England against the Black Wolves (4-3) at 1:30pm. San Diego (5-4) will play their next game at home on March 2nd against the Vancouver Warriors (3-6) at 10pm.
Shawn Palmer, Correspondent Toronto Rock
Lacrosse is Awesome©