It was Stick Up for a Cure night at Pechanga Arena in San Diego, as the Seals played host to Panther City Lacrosse Club. In partnership with Rady Children’s Hospital, San Diego wore some custom uniforms with a nice blue tint on the back and an inscription of who they were sticking up for. The blue broke up the extreme amount of purple between both sides. The Seals have already solidified their spot in this year’s playoffs, while PCLC is right on the line between making and missing. This being a must win for PCLC, would be an understatement.
PCLC stuck with San Diego for three and three quarters of four quarters (say that five times fast). A monster last stretch in the fourth for San Diego was the decider, as they held PCLC scoreless in the final 7:28 and went on a five-goal run en route to their 14-10 win.
The first quarter was as even as it gets. PCLC scored the first two goals of the quarter, one from Callum Crawford and the other from Ty Thompson. San Diego matched it with two of their own, one from Austin Staats and the other from Patrick Shoemay. Short and sweet. 2-2 after one.
The first four goals of the second quarter were “every other” with Staats and Wesley Berg scoring for the Seals and Phil Caputo and Crawford for PCLC. Graydon Bradley and Staats rattled off two straight, and Caputo closed out the quarter to get us to halftime. 6-5 Seals at the break.
The goaltender matchup was a bit interesting in the first half. On one side, the combination of Nick Damude and Cam MacLeod seemed a bit unsettled. That combo stopped 20 of 26. On the other, Christopher Origlieri was as stout as could be, stopping 15 of 20.
“I think we’re just sticking up for each other,” said Staats before the third. “We had some bad calls, some goals taken away, but we’re not pointing the finger at no one, we’re being a team.”
The game really settled down in the third with only three total goals scored, the third of which was at the 11:10 mark of the quarter. Both defenses and goaltenders found their groove the rest of the way. San Diego’s lone goal was by Berg and Ryan Sheridan and Crawford lit the lamp for PCLC. 7-7 after three.
Hopefully you settled in after the third quarter, because the fourth was a madhouse. We went from three total goals in the third, to 10 in the fourth, which inevitably ended with five-straight from the Seals. Trevor Baptiste got the party started, but was answered by Brandon Goodwin. Chris Wardle got his first as a Seal, but was answered by two straight from PCLC, one from Jason Knox and the other from Will Malcom. Malcom’s goal was it for PCLC. San Diego completely shut the game down the remaining eight-ish minutes. Scorers in that five-goal run were Staats, Berg, Dane Dobbie, Tre Leclaire and Baptiste. Talk about spreading the wealth. That gave us our final, 14-10 Seals.
Players of the game for PCLC were Crawford (3+3), Caputo (2+1), and Malcom (1+4). Damude settled in a bit in the second half, ultimately faltering late. He made 40 saves on 54 shots in 56:49 of game time. For San Diego, Staats (4+1), Berg (3+4), and Baptiste (2+1 and 25 of 27 f/os) led the way. Staats became the franchise leader in goals in a season, and still has a few more games to go. Origlieri was outstanding, once again, down the stretch. He made 35 saves on 45 shots.
“I think we just stayed at it as a whole team,” said Baptiste. “It feels great, especially at home. San Diego, it’s my first year here and feeling all the love, it feels great.”
San Diego (12-4) clinched a home playoff game with this win, but presumably have their eyes set on the overall number one seed. They look to stride towards that in their next contest this Saturday night at 9 p.m. when they travel to Saskatchewan (7-9). PCLC (8-8) is still in the top eight, and climbed up to seventh with a win over Philly on Sunday, but right in that danger territory.
