Mitch Jones was like a kid in a candy shop at the Philadelphia Wings’ Saturday afternoon family-friendly lacrosse game. He dodged, he passed, he scored – and he did it a lot. His 14 points were a large reason Philadelphia ended up with the 19-12 victory over the New York Riptide.
The game, at times, was not so “family-friendly” as three fights broke out throughout the game.
Mitch Jones must have been channeling his inner Athan Iannucci, Gait brothers, or Tom Marechek because he was playing old school lacrosse with six goals and eight assists. Arguably, he could have had more, but instead passed the ball, selflessly, to his teammates to even out the scoring.
“It’s a fun win. It is fun to come to this arena with a great crowd. And, obviously balls are dropping tonight, and we got a big win. My teammates and my coaches have all welcomed me so nicely, the fans, the city—everyone in the city has been excellent,” Jones said after the game, reflecting on his ability to impact the team.
When asked about the “kid day” and how he played to the crowd, Jones said,
“We have to finish the game up. And even though the game is kind of over and there is chippy stuff going on, you can interact with the fans a little bit. And that being said, it is a bunch of kids, so it is even more fun. I remember being a kid and you’re watching games and yelling and screaming. If you get some interaction back from the players, it is a good thing. And it is a fun thing. It is fun for me.” Joe Resetarits, whose four goals and five assists caused him to jump ahead on the stats board, also talked about Jones’ impact.
“He was the missing piece that was putting us over the edge. You see the difference he’s made since he’s been here,” Resetarits said. “You see the momentum that we’re getting since he’s been in the lineup. From him scoring goals to the passing, everything he does, the leadership, he’s the quarterback of the offense. You can tell we are a totally different team than we were a couple weeks ago. The fact that he can come in right away like this and be dominating like this shows you the kind of player he is. I’m glad, thrilled, he’s here, and it’s just going to keep getting better for us.”Resetarits was quick to sing Jones’ praises but humble talking about his own. His fourth goal was his 600th career point. He didn’t even realize the milestone was approaching.
“To be honest with you, someone just told me yesterday, so it’s cool, I guess. It was cool to get it in such a great offensive game. If the time to do it is tonight, then I’m happy it was during a win.”Also happy was head coach Paul Day, who said that “the guys handled themselves pretty well.”
This included Eric Shewell and others who found themselves involved in altercations. Day felt the game was pretty clean (minus the fighting) and was happy with the results.One huge improvement for Philadelphia was that they led the goal scoring in every quarter. They have struggled with the third quarter, but today’s quarter three was their strongest yet.Seven different Wings’ players scored goals. And the defense was quick to control Jeff Teat who was held to a single goal and eight assists. Day reflected on the fact that Teat is one of the best passers in the league, so even when he isn’t scoring goals, he’s getting the passes off to others who can score.The Wings will have to recover quickly as they next face the Toronto Rock on Monday night in Philadelphia. The Riptide next face Philadelphia again on the 11th in New York.
