Fluky Goal Sends Toronto to MLL Title Game
by Matt DaSilva | Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff | Game Blog
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Brodie Merrill carries the ball in transition Saturday. Merrill and the Nationals advanced to Sunday's MLL championship game with a 14-13 win over the Lizards. © John Strohsacker/LaxPhotos.com |
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- No one really knows who
scored the most important goal in the Toronto Nationals’
young history as a Major League Lacrosse franchise.
MLL officials have it that Merrick Thomson last touched the ball
in the scrum for a rebound in front of the cage. The Toronto locker
room insists it was Geoff Snider. Reporters say Long Island hit it
into its own goal.
Replays proved inconclusive.
Either way, Lizards goalie Brian Dougherty admitted, he should
have had it.
A weak Joe Walters offering landed in front of Dougherty, and
neither he nor any of the three Lizard long poles crowding the
crease could corral it. Snider and Thomson snuck inside to pursue
the rebound, which someway, somehow found the back of the cage for
the game-winning goal, as the Nationals advanced to the MLL
championship game with a 14-13 victory over the Lizards.
Second-seeded Toronto (8-5) will face top-seeded Denver (10-3) for
the Steinfeld Cup at 1 p.m. Sunday (ESPN2).
Snider, who won 17 of 30 faceoffs and also scored a third-quarter
goal, was happy to claim credit for the game-winner.
“The ball came out in front of the crease. I just went after
the ground ball and literally swung my stick at a pile of sticks.
It either went off my stick and in, or somebody else grabbed it and
I hit it out of their stick and in,” he said. “It was
trash, probably the worst goal of all-time.”
To that end, Dougherty, who’s not used to being the goat in
postseason play, agreed.
“It was a weak shot that I should have caught,” he
said. “It somehow bounced off my stick and guys pounced at
it. It went right over my shoulder. One of our guys hit
it.”
Toronto trailed Long Island by three, 12-9, after the third
quarter, which included a 30-minute lightning delay. Walters, who
sparked the Nationals’ fourth-quarter rally with back-to-back
left-handed goals, said he had no doubt who capped it.
“It was Geoff Snider,” Walters said.
Toronto won despite a slew of penalties early on -- including five
in the first quarter that led to three Long Island power-play goals
-- and an off night from star John Grant Jr.
Grant, guarded closely by Lizards defenseman Brian Spallina, was
held without a point.
Thomson and Walters picked up the slack, however, as they have all
season. Thomson, who finished just behind Boston’s Paul Rabil
in the MLL MVP race, netted three goals and was credited for a
fourth after the game-changing scramble. Walters added a hat
trick.
The game was delayed due to lightning at the 5:29 mark of the
third quarter, just after a Stephen Berger goal put the Lizards up
11-8. Downpours continued when the game resumed 30 minutes later.
Thomson and Long Island’s Stephen Peyser exchanged goals to
make it 12-9.
Walters quickly made it a one-goal game with consecutive goals in
the first three minutes of the fourth quarter. Toronto then tied it
at 12, thanks to Brodie Merrill's seamless transition abilities.
Following a near-miss by Peyser, Merrill carried the ball to the
opposite end, drew a slide and found Jeff Zywicki naked on the
crease for a goal.
Shawn Williams gave Toronto its first lead since the first quarter
by finishing a feed from Delby Powless, putting the Nationals up
13-12 with 7:55 remaining.
Long Island answered with Matt Danowski, who got top side to score
on Nationals defenseman Joe Cinoski for his second goal of the
game, which tied it at 13 with 3:48 remaining.
It set up the free-for-all finish that no one could quite decipher
afterward. Merrill even thought Zywicki could have chipped in the
finisher.
“I think we’re good in unsettled situations and
we’ve got some great finishers around the net,” Merrill
said. “The rain and sloppiness of the game really worked in
our favor. It’s tough for them (the Lizards) to lose that
way. I feel for them. But it’s a break, and we’ll take
it.”
