Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 3/21/08
The first-place Philadelphia Wings open the second half of the 2008 regular season Saturday (7:30) with a National Lacrosse League (NLL) game against the New York Titans at Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton.
Saturday’s meeting will be the second of three games scheduled between the two teams. Philadelphia defeated New York by a score of 16-12 on February 29 at the Wachovia Center.
The Wings are coming off a big win over San Jose, one of the top squads in the West. The 16-13 victory over the Stealth put the Wings (7-1) one game ahead of the Minnesota Swarm at the top of the East Division.
“I thought we had a great defensive effort in first half against San Jose which kept us in it,” said Philadelphia coach Dave Huntley. “The Stealth is a real good team and we were fortunate to come up with the win. Hopefully we’ll be able to put together a full 60 minutes of lacrosse on Saturday against New York.
“We’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of us in the second half of the season.”
While Huntley sees room for improvement in his team, their play in the first half of the season have made them the team to beat in the NLL.
“They’re the toughest opponent in the league this year,” said New York coach Adam Mueller. “They’re scoring every which way you can. We need to tighten up more on defense and force them to take some tougher angle shots.
“They’ve beaten every team they’ve played this season and we’ve got an uphill battle against them.”
After the win over the Stealth on Friday night, Geoff Snider, Athan Iannucci, and Taylor Wray made the long flight to Edmonton early on Saturday morning to participate in Saturday’s All-Star Skills Competition and play in the All-Star Game on Sunday afternoon.
The three combined for five of the 17 goals scored by the East Division squad that defeated the West in overtime. Snider also took home MVP honors from the game.
“I was fortunate to coach Geoff on the Canadian Team in 2006 Field Championship,” said Huntley. “He’s as complete a lacrosse player is as playing the sport today and is definitely an asset to have in big games.”
