In their third meeting of the season, the Georgia Swarm and Albany FireWolves faced off in a high-powered offensive game. Both Albany and Georgia are mid-pack and a victory would get them right back in the hunt for a playoff spot in the NLL’s East Division. After an explosive fourth quarter, the Swarm took down the FireWolves 15-12.
Just a minute into the game, Georgia’s Jeff Henrick scored on a whipping shot to open the game’s scoring. Joe Resetarits answered four minutes later to tie the game up for Albany. Albany went on a 3-1 run from that point to end the first quarter 4-2.
Albany’s Colton Watkinson got on a breakaway and dangled an effortless goal past Mike Poulin to open the second quarter’s scoring. Georgia’s Shayne Jackson answered on a down-low goal that snuck past Doug Jamieson. Albany answered again with a 3-1 run to end the second quarter up 8-4.
The third quarter was a tight defensive battle for most of the quarter. There wasn’t a goal until the eighth minute of the quarter when Jackson Nishimura scored shorthanded on a crease dive.
And that’s when Lyle Thompson woke up. Less than a minute later, Thompson scored on the powerplay to close the Albany lead back to five. Thompson then scored two more straight goals to give him a hat trick in less than three minutes of play. The hat trick closed the FireWolves lead back to two goals heading into the final quarter.
Down by two goals, the Swarm needed a surge to take the win. Just 17 second seconds in the quarter, Andrew Kew scored to give Albany a three-goal lead. But then the Swarm got the surge they needed, kicked off by Thompson less than a minute later. Georgia went on an 8-2 run to end the game and take the victory 15-12 on the road.
When the Swarm needed him the most, Thompson took over the game and showed why he’s the best lacrosse player on the planet. He finished with had nine points (5G/4A) which helped him keep his goal lead over Joe Resetarits (39 vs 36), though Resetarits leads in overall points by two (82 vs 80).
Resetarits helped keep Albany in the game which has been the same thing he’s done all season. He had six points (3G/3A) on the game, and continued to rack up his 2022 hat trick collection.
The FireWolves will look to get back in the playoff hunt when they travel to New York to take on the Riptide on March 26th. The Swarm will look to keep their momentum going when they travel up to Ontario to take on the Rock the same evening.
