Finally, the stars have aligned. In this Week 13 matchup, we were set to see two rookie phenoms and two number one picks go head-to-head. On one side for the hometown Albany FireWolves, you had Dyson Williams who came into this game leading all rookies in assists. On the other for the visiting Philadelphia Wings, you had Brennan O’Neill, who became the first American player to be chosen first overall in both indoor and outdoor lacrosse. Oh, and he came in leading all rookies in goals and points. Talk about one of the many reasons why we love this sport.
Now to the teams. Philadelphia came in right on the line of the top eight and obviously looked to climb up the standings. Albany on the other hand, was towards the bottom just a year removed from being in the NLL Finals and looked to claw their way back up. Using the monster games from Tye Kurtz and Doug Jamieson, the FireWolves put it on Philadelphia, winning 11-6. Round one (of hopefully a million more) to Dyson Williams and company. Let’s do it.
Philadelphia jumped out to an early lead as Phil Caputo buried his first as he received a pass right on the doorstep of the crease. That lead was short lived, as Albany proceeded to go on a three-goal run to close out the quarter. Goal scorers were John Piatelli and Kurtz twice. 3-1 FireWolves after one.
The two teams traded goals to begin the second quarter, as Patrick Kaschalk kicked it off for Albany and Holden Cattoni responded on the power play for the Wings. Once again, that would be the lone goal for Philadelphia and Albany responded with three more, almost a mirror image of what ensued in the first quarter. The goal scorers this time around were Kurtz, Piatelli, and Ethan Walker. This one was turning into a bit of a runaway for Albany because of their stout defense, timely runs, and Jamieson being a brick wall. 7-2 FireWolves at the break.
“It’s awesome, we just want to play fast and play our game”, said Kurtz at the break. “We were getting a little stagnant before, but we’re trying to feed the ball up and speed our feeds up.”
Both goaltenders faced quite a flurry of shots in the first half. Jamieson, like we said, had a monster game in general, but in the first half he stopped 25 of 27. At the other end, Nick Damude had his shining moments, stopping 25 of 32.
The two rookie studs we mentioned at the beginning finally made their presence felt here in the third quarter. As far as the teams were concerned, each side scored three goals in every other fashion, so Philadelphia was still chasing five when the third was over. Blaze Riorden kicked it off with his first but was answered by Kurtz’s fourth. O’Neill answered right back with a laser from distance, but who else, but Williams had the answer with a slick face dodge and a cheeky bouncer. If these two are going to play “anything you can do, I can do better”, where do we sign up to watch that? Better yet, let’s have these two teams play each other every week. Anyway, back to the action. Mitch Jones and Travis Longboat traded goals to close out the frame. 10-5 FireWolves after three. Longboat’s goal chased Damude from the game and brought in Deacan Knott.
The fourth quarter wasn’t boring by any stretch, as the pace continued to be furious. The scoring decreased significantly, as there was only one goal per side. Math tells us that only one goal wouldn’t be enough for Philadelphia to mount a comeback. Jamieson was a brick wall, and the Albany defense continued to be suffocating. The goals were scored by Joe Resetarits and Alex Simmons, and they were both on the power play. Your final from the capital region, 11-6 FireWolves.
Players of the game for Albany were Kurtz (4+2), Piatelli (2+3), and Simmons (1+4). Jamieson showed why he is a former Goaltender of the Year with a killer performance. Dougie stopped 46 of 52. For Philadelphia, Resetarits (1+3), Cattoni (1+2), and Jones (1+2) led the way. Damude stopped 32 of 42 in 38:44 of game play. Knott was sensational in relief, stopping 19 of 20 the rest of the way.
“I definitely felt more comfortable with the defense tonight”, said Jamieson. “I think it threw them off too, seeing a completely different defense. We were doing some soul searching there for a couple of weeks, that game means a lot. It could be a turning point in our season.”
Albany (3-8) snapped a three-game losing streak with this win and they look to build off it. Their next opportunity is on the road when they take on Rochester (5-7). That game is this Friday at 7pm. Philadelphia (5-6) looks to have a short memory because with that loss, they dropped beneath the top eight line. They have a bye week before a rematch with Albany on Saturday March 8th at 7pm.
