The New York Riptide soundly defeated the Philadelphia Wings 16-9 in a game where the Wings were swept away from the beginning.
Jeff Teat came in like a tidal wave and ended the game cresting to 5 goals and 4 assists including his 100th career goal. As Wings general manager and head coach Paul Day acknowledged, it is hard to stop one of the best players in the world.
The star of the day for Philadelphia was Taggart Clark, who recorded his first career hat trick. Also for Philadelphia, Blaze Riorden and Holden Cattoni returned from injury. Riorden contributed one goal and assist, while Cattoni added in two goals and one assist. Also contributing to Philadelphia’s offense was Mitch Jones with five points.
Taggart Clark was quiet during the post-game press conference.
“It was nice to get a hat trick,” he said. “But I didn’t necessarily wake up this morning saying I wanted to get a hat trick. I wanted to get a win in front of the home crowd. It is nice, but it is bittersweet.”
Riorden probably felt some of that emotion as well, saying he had mixed emotions.
“Obviously it’s tough. We played in front of our fans and we put up an effort like that. But a big part of me was missing when I was out of the lineup. And I’m going to come back and put the work in, and hopefully get to winning again. Lacrosse is a game of momentum. It is also a game of possession and we weren’t winning a lot of faceoffs. And they’re shooting the ball and getting the rebound, and we’re shooting the ball 10 seconds into the shot clock. One team is running the race uphill, and the other is running downhill, and eventually it catches up after 60 minutes. It is our job to help Zach Higgins and the defense out by controlling the possessions. And as a veteran group, that’s on us.”
Paul Day, who was quite composed, focused on that veteran group and the job that wasn’t getting done and mentioned the need to be more patient. Like hockey, he noted, “you cannot score all your goals right away. There was a ton of time left and we were down by four or five… If they’re turning the ball quick in the 30, no one else gets a touch. For us, offensively, the ball just went top left to top right, top left to top right. And for us to be successful, it has to touch the corners, even if it goes behind the net. Guys are trying to do it themselves… We need eight guys – eight different guys scoring.”
The Wings have a short week as they are back in Philly to take on Saskatchewan next Saturday.
