Last week, it was Greg Gurenlian who celebrated winning the FOAthlete of the Year Award and the MLL/USL Sportsmanship Player of the Year Award. Now, Drew Adams gets his chance as it was announced that he won the 2015 Maverik Goalie of the Year.
Adams received a total of 62 votes to win the award, ten ahead of second-place Tyler Fiorito from the Chesapeake Bayhawks. This isn’t the first time that Adams achieved this award. He was recognized as the Goalie of the Year in 2011 and 2012. Although he was excited to be rewarded for his play, Adams was quick to spread credit amongst his teammates in an interview via majorleaguelacrosse.com.
“I think its a testament to the team. My play was just a result of some of the great guys in front of me. Our defense did a great job this year and our offense was super productive. Everyone made my job a lot easier by doing theirs.”
Adams played a key part in getting the Lizards home-field advantage in the playoffs. Adams played in all 14 games this season, and in those games, set career-best numbers in games won (10), total saves (210), and save percentage (56%). This season also saw Adams helping the Lizards to lowest goals-against in the MLL with 167.
Of course, Adams contributions to the Lizards didn’t stop at the end of the season. In the MLL Semi-finals game against the Boston Cannons, the game was sent into overtime after the Cannons came back to tie the game at 15. The Cannons went on a fast break and fired the ball from a far range; it seemed Adams might miss the ball and Boston would go on to the MLL Championship. However, Adams made a spectacular save, and cleared the ball up to JoJo Marasco, who then gave to Paul Rabil, then to Matt Gibson who shot the ball into an empty net to send the Lizards to their first MLL Championship game since 2010.
Head Coach Spallina had praise for his goaltenders play in a interview for nylizards.com.
“Drew has been on top of his game all year. He has had such an ability to make a big stop in a clutch moment and it has helped spearhead so many victories. This award is attributed to his hard work.”
