Slow Start Sets Back Phantom Over League Leaders
On the dawn of the Super Bowl in sunny and warm Glendale, Arizona, the Victoria Field Lacrosse League was still "business as usual" in the beautiful but chilly city of Victoria, BC; temperature a comfortable 3 degrees <lol>
The VFLL welcomed a familiar face in officiating to the synthetic turf field, the elder of the two Cooks to officiate, Mr. Rob Cook and the Knights felt they should welcome him to his first game of the season with pleasantries and a gift. Offered by elder statesman, James Morgan; the Knights respectful and polite welcome and comments were received, but then was quickly replied with the pleasant response of "thank you, but gifts, money and well-wishes won't get you any further ahead. I've got my eye on you Morgan!" And sure enough, that caused a bit of a panic in the elder Morgan as his nerves twitched early in the game causing him to be always on edge when he carried the ball or was checking his man. But seriously folks...
Tonight's key to the game was ball possession. The Knights carried the ball well as they looked for good opportunities to to bury the rock within the cylinder. They found the net 7 times in the first quarter and they could have had more if not for the stellar play of the Phantom T.J. Prokop in the pipes. At the other end, the Knights' league leading goalie Will Chiasson was absolutely phenomenal stopping a number of point-blank opportunities by the Phantom - especially a left handed attack (who shall remain nameless - Dale Sutton).
The Phantom play continued to improve as their defense kept their opponents to one goal in the 2nd, 2 goals in the third and 3 in the fourth... the familiar 1st quarter being the achilles heal of the Phantom. The Phantoms' Karl Hare broke the goose egg potting their lone goal of the game with 5 minutes left in the match.
A huge shout-out to all of the spectators (wives, significant others, children and also the JDF U11 team) that came to watch their Coach Jeremy Speed this night.
HeadCase Sportz Players of the Game:
Knights: Nick Preston
Phantom: Karl Hare
*The VFLL now takes a 2 week break, giving players, officials, executive and spectators time to enjoy the Super Bowl tomorrow, the BCLA Youth Field Provincials next weekend (February 18-20) before taking to the field again on Sunday February 26th at 5:30pm. Enjoy the mini-break everyone!