Justin Ivey, Correspondent New England Black Wolves
Lacrosse is Awesome©
The New England Black Wolves (4-2) had a chance to respond to their first loss of the season with a home game against the Vancouver Warriors (3-4) on Saturday night in front of 4,801 fans. Unfortunately for those fans, the Black Wolves fell flat. “Not good. All over the floor. Dougie (Doug Jamieson) was good. That was the only good part of our game. Outworked, out fought, we were stale,” said Black Wolves coach Glenn Clark. The Black Wolves started the season 4-0, the best starting record in franchise history, but have now dropped two straight games at home. The Warriors struggled a bit at the beginning of the season, but now find themselves winners of two in a row. “We played Colorado (a 7-5 win) after Philly (an 18-10 loss)…it’s good to see us step up twice now and play four good quarters of lacrosse. We want to play tough, hard, in your face defense with good goal tending. That is our defense…we were able to shut them down today,” said Warriors coach Chris Gill. The defense shined on the road and the grit and determination of the Warriors led them to a big win. Final Score: Vancouver-10, New England-6.
Notably held off the score sheet was Black Wolves forward Callum Crawford, a catalyst for the early season high powered offense. The only Black Wolves player that found any real offensive success was Joe Resetarits (3G, 2A). He opened the game with a shot from the high middle 4:14 in, giving the Black Wolves their only lead of the game. It was all Vancouver from that point on. The Warriors put in three first quarter goals, two coming in transition. Sam Clare (1G, 4A) scored a diving goal on the break to get things started. Mitch Jones (3G, 2A) found an angle over a two-man pick, and then Clare assisted Keegan Ball (3G, 2A) on another odd man break. At the end of the first quarter, Vancouver led New England 3-1.
Bal scored his second of the game 2:22 into the second quarter taking his man around a screen and jumping through the crease. Resetarits answered with his second of the night just under four minutes later to get the Black Wolves back within two. That was all the offense in the second quarter, as the goalies dominated. Doug Jamieson, the lone bright spot for New England stopped multiple breakaways and made nine second quarter saves. His Vancouver counterpart, Eric Penney, saved 10 shots in the frame. Jones, when asked about his goaltender said, “You write up a game plan and when your goalie is making stops like that, it’s a lot easier to implement. He has done that two games in a row for us and he’s our guy.” At the half, Vancouver led New England 4-2.
The goalies again starred in the third quarter. Penney stopped all 14 shots he faced, and Jamieson stopped 11, but two goals stretched the Vancouver lead. Jones found an opening for his second of the night 8:52 in, and Bal completed his hat trick with 4:17 remaining. New England’s only power play opportunity came in the first half of the third quarter, but they could not execute, an offensive trend throughout the night. At the end of three quarters, Vancouver led New England 6-2.
The fourth quarter opened with two quick goals. Jones scored for his hat trick 1:08 in and on the next possession, Resetarits dunked the ball from behind the net for his hatty. Almost eight minutes passed before the next goal, when Riley Loewen (2G, 2A) stretched the lead to five goals with 5:43 remaining. In desperation to get the offense going, the Black Wolves elected to pull Jamieson in favor of an extra attacker when they could over the remainder of the game. Two empty net goals were scored by Vancouver sandwiched around a New England score from Joe Nardella (1G) right off the first faceoff. Nardella dominated the circle, going 18-20 on draws, but this outcome bolsters Clark’s belief that face offs aren’t as important to an offense as some believe. “It’s a nice luxury…but I have never seen face offs dictate a win. Joe is here because he has played well.” Nardella is in fact playing well as a force on the defensive end and a weapon in transition. His 11 loose balls led all players as he seemed to be around every time the ball hit the floor. New England scored twice more in the last two minutes, but it was too little, too late. Final Score: Vancouver-10, New England-6.