After a 14-13 Georgia Swarm victory in Duluth on Friday night, the FireWolves and Swarm faced off again the next night in Albany. This time, the FireWolves came out on top 13-11 to split the weekend’s home-and-home series.
The Swarm’s Jeff Henrick opened up the game’s scoring with a ripping shot coming off transition, his first in the NLL. Shayne Jackson then fired one at nearly the same place as Henrick to put the Swarm up 2-0. Albany then rattled off an impressive five straight goals in less than five minutes to finish off the first quarter of the game.
In the second quarter, the FireWolves and Swarm traded goals back and forth throughout the period. Reilly O’Connor completed his hat trick just 18 seconds into the quarter after recording two goals in the first. The first half ended with the FireWolves holding a four-goal lead heading into the second half with a score of 8-4.
Ryan Benesch squeezed through the Swarm defense and snuck a goal past Mike Poulin to grab the first goal of the second half. The Swarm then rattled off four straight out to close the lead to just one. Joe Resetarits then score to push the FireWolves lead back to two.
A second FireWolves player got their hat trick less than six minutes into the fourth quarter when Resetarits got his second straight goal. The Swarm’s Jordan MacIntosh and Lyle Thompson scored two straight to put the game back to one goal. The FireWolves then closed out the game with Tony Malcom and Jacob Ruest scoring. Thompson scored the game’s last goal to keep the game to two goals.
During the weekend series, Thompson once again showed why he is one of the greatest lacrosse players of all time. Scoring 13 points (6G/7A) between the two games. In Saturday’s game, he scored in three out of the four quarters on his way to getting a hat trick and five points total in the game (4G/1A).
The FireWolves player of the weekend was Joe Resetarits who recorded eight points (3G/5A) in the game, on top of 11 points on Friday. Resetarits has continued to be a focal point of the FireWolves recent surge in the past couple of games. Reilly O’Connor also had a really good game for Albany scoring seven points (3G/4A).
The FireWolves next head to Rochester to face off against the Knighthawks for the second time this season. The Swarm will head back home to host the New York Riptide.
