Week 7 action came to you from Gas South Arena in Duluth, Georgia. The Georgia Swarm hosted the undefeated and red-hot Albany FireWolves. In a game where Georgia really didn’t come close until the very end, and with a phenomenal performance from Doug Jamieson as well as nine different goal scorers, the FireWolves cruised to a 12-8 victory, making them 6-0 on the young season.
We prefaced that Georgia didn’t come close until the fourth quarter, and that partly was because of the few runs that Albany went on, one of which stretched through halftime into the third quarter. We’ll touch on that in a minute, but for now how about a three-goal run for the FireWolves in the first? Colton Watkinson got the party started, but was quickly answered by Jordan MacIntosh. Cue the run. Three straight from Albany were scored by Ethan Walker, Sam Firth, and Watkinson again. Brendan Bomberry stopped the bleeding with his first on the power play, and that’d be it in the first. 4-2 Albany after one.
The second was a continuation of “setting the tone” for the FireWolves. John Piatelli and Patrick Kaschalk rattled off two straight, but Bomberry had the answer once again with his second. It should be mentioned that Albany slowed the game down as the time gap between Piatelli’s and Kaschalk’s goals was 9:08. Travis Longboat scored twice for Albany and that closed out the second quarter, making it 8-3. That run had two more, four in total, and it spanned until the 11:21 mark in the third quarter.
“Everyone’s pulling the rope in the same direction,” said Watkinson at the break. “We just have to keep up this effort and I think we’ll have pretty good success.”
Success is exactly what Albany had as they continued to dominate and slow the pace of the game down in the third quarter. As you know, the first two goals of the quarter belonged to them, one from Walker, his second, and the other from the dynamic rookie Alex Simmons. Zach Miller tallied his first for the Swarm, but it seemed like this Albany lead was insurmountable. 10-4 FireWolves after three.
One name we hadn’t heard much from was Lyle Thompson. He did have an assist in the second quarter, but nothing in the goal column. He changed that in the fourth. Lyle rattled off two in a row to begin the quarter, and wait a second, it felt like the tide was changing. Marshall Powless answered 30 seconds after Lyle’s second to stop that momentum for the time being. Georgia answered that with two more, one from Lyle, his third, and the other from Andrew Kew. In between all that, Doug Jamieson was as stout as they come, and with a late goal from Jackson Nishimura, Albany had put this one to bed. Your final, 12-8 FireWolves.
Players of the game for Albany were Longboat (2+3), Walker (2+1) and Simmons (1+4). Jamieson was outstanding all game long, stopping 36 of 44 on the night. For Georgia, Thompson (3+1), Bomberry (2+1) and Kew (1+2) led the way. Kudos to Shayne Jackson is deserved as he reached 800 points in his fantastic career. The goaltending situation for the Swarm was a bit messy, as neither could really get settled. Brett Dobson started and was removed after making 21 saves on 31 shots in 35:29 of game play. His relief, Angus Goodleaf, stood tall, doing his best to keep his club in it. Goodleaf made 12 saves on 13 shots in 24:30 of game play.
“I think we just had to grind through it,” said Simmons after the game. “We knew they were going to give us their best. Dobber is a great goalie, and luckily we got him out of the game early. Without Dougie Jamieson, I don’t think we win this game.”
Simmons, on the topic of being 6-0, added, “It’s pretty fun. We have a big test next weekend with San Diego, we’re going to try to get seven in a row.”
Albany (6-0) looks to do exactly what Simmons said, get to seven. They have a huge matchup at home on Saturday against San Diego (3-2). Faceoff in that game is 7pm. Georgia (4-2) looks to put this one in the rear view and continue their hot play as of late. They have a tough task as well Saturday night as they welcome the league’s only other undefeated team, the Toronto Rock (4-0). Game time for that is 7pm. Keep your eye on these two matchups as they feature four of the top five teams in the NLL Standings. Things are heating up,
