The fans in attendance at Gas South Arena on Friday night may have had a bit of déjà vu. Scratch that, lacrosse fans across the world may have seen this movie before. The hometown Georgia Swarm were set to take on the visiting Colorado Mammoth. If memory serves us correctly, these two faced off on December 29th at the Loud House, and it was a tightly contested game. Friday night’s tilt was almost a mirror image. Georgia took the game in December 13-12, with the deciding goal being scored with under a minute to play in the fourth quarter. Oddly specific to happen again, no?
Aside from the venue change and the winner of the game, this one was about the same. Colorado got some revenge from the game back in December, sneaking out of Georgia with a 13-12 win. Even scarier? Ryan Lee buried the go-ahead goal with under a minute to play. File it under reasons we all love lacrosse. Let’s get to it.
Connor Kelly opened the scoring for the Mammoth but was quickly answered by two-straight from Georgia, one from Miles Thompson, who has been on a heater lately, and the other from Bryan Cole. The Mammoth have shown they are returning to championship form, and their offense has arguably led that conversation. Three-straight goals catapulted them back into the lead. The scorers of those three were Zed Williams, Connor Robinson, and Will Malcom. 4-2 Mammoth after one.
What was just said about Colorado, can be said about Georgia. Their resiliency has been a focal point all year, and the beginning of the second quarter was evidence of that. In response to Colorado’s three-goal run to close the first, the Swarm opened the second with four of their own. Those four were scored by Shayne Jackson, Seth Oakes, Cole, and Miles Thompson on the power play. Robinson tallied his second to close out the frame, and suddenly it was 6-5 Swarm going into the break.
“Just to be able to play this game, it’s everything to me”, said Miles at halftime. “I didn’t realize until I was out of the game, to see how much it meant to me. We’re up right now, we just need to keep buying into our system and things will start rolling our way.”
The goaltender matchup in this game was one to watch as well. On one side, you have Dillon Ward, who is a journeyman of the game and someone who is a brick wall year in and year out. He stopped 25 of 31 in the first half. On the other side, Brett Dobson is already a household name, and will continue to build his legacy as years pass. Dobber made 27 saves on 32 shots.
The back-and-forth continued as the third quarter progressed. Each side buried three goals, Colorado being the team to draw first blood in the quarter. Two-straight goals, both from Eli McLaughlin, swung the momentum back into Colorado’s favor. This was just one of those games, however, as the Swarm began to swarm again. In response to those two goals from Liger, Georgia rattled off three-straight to swing the momentum right back. Goals were scored by Cole. Brendan Bomberry, and Toron Eccleston, who has been shot out of a cannon the last few weeks and is definitely a name to watch moving forward. Malcom notched his second on the power play to close out the quarter and trim the deficit back to one. 9-8 Georgia after three.
This may sound like a broken record at this point, but the fourth quarter was even more tit-for-tat than the rest. Eccleston opened the scoring with his second, but Colorado answered back with two-straight, one from Williams on the power play and the other from Ryan Lee, which most importantly tied the game up. Mama, there goes that man again, as Eccleston had the answer in the form of his hat trick, but less than two minutes later, Kelly tied it right back up. We’ll give you one guess what happens next. If you guessed that Eccleston buried his fourth to put Georgia back ahead, you’d be right. Unfortunately, that’d be it for the Georgia scoring the rest of the way. Williams got his hat trick at the 4:06 mark of the fourth and we were tied once again. After some back-and-forth, Colorado set up shop in the Georgia zone with under a minute to play. Lee received a pass, drove in and fired a cheeky little bouncer that beat Dobson, which ultimately was the winner. Your final from Duluth, 13-12 Mammoth. Let’s all catch our breath.
Players of the game for Colorado were Williams (3+2), Lee (2+6), and Malcom (2+4). Ward was extremely stingy down the stretch, stopping 39 of 51 in total. For Georgia, Eccleston (4+3), Cole (3+1), and Miles Thompson (2+3) led the way. Dobson would love to have that last one back but still had a solid game. He stopped 32 of 45.
“They got us last time”, said Lee after the game. “It’s like a chip on our shoulder, we knew we had another shot, not many teams in this league you get to play twice. It’s nice to come in here and get the win for us.”
Colorado (6-4) continues to climb the standings. They have a much-needed bye week coming up before returning to their home floor to take on Las Vegas. That game is Friday February 21st at 9pm. Georgia (5-4) still sits in the top eight but will look to get back into the win column in their next contest, which is also in two weeks. They hit the road for that game against Toronto, which is Saturday February 22nd at 7pm.
