By Anthony Caruso
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 2/9/14
Brett Manney, a Philadelphia Wings defender and assistant captain, believes his team is better team than its record indicates.
The Wings fell to 3-5 Saturday night after dropping a tough 8-6 decision to undefeated Edmonton at the Wells Fargo Center.
The Wings played a much sounder game Saturday after bowing to the Toronto Rock, 20-10, on the road Friday night.
“I think early on, it (a lull) was the second quarter, but there was no rhyme or reason to that,” said Manney, the Holy Ghost Prep and University of Delaware graduate who coaches club for NXT. “I think (our problem) is (having) consistency, and sometimes our offense is on. But then we’re trading goals, which you can’t do in this league.
“We need to go on those runs of goals and really put teams away. We need to play a full four quarters, as cliché as that sounds. I feel like we’ve only played 3 quarters of the games (that we lost).
“As a result, that’s why we’ve lost as many games, even some close ones. If we played a full game, I believe those results would have been in our side. I believe if we were consistent, our record could be 5-3 or 6-2.”
The Wings honored one of their greatest players before the game. There was a 10-minute ceremony to honor Jake Bergey and put his No. 66 jersey in the rafters.
“With all due respect, we want to win every game,” said Wings head coach Blane Harrison. “We especially want to win on back-to-back weekends. It’s been a terrible grind, and we’re in survival mode with guys out.”
The Wings were without Jordan Hall this weekend. Without Hall, Harrison requested that other players step up.
Kevin Crowley (Fusion Lacrosse coach) stepped up and had a five goal weekend, including leading the team with two goals against the Rush. Crowley also had an assist and 4 loose balls against Edmonton.
“We think Kevin can give us a little more,” said Harrison. “He’s the No. 1 guy on the right side, and if we had a pretty balanced attack, then all the pressure wouldn’t be on him. But since we were missing some guys, he had to step up.”
The Wings would count on four other players with one goal each. Those goal scorers included Tracey Kelusky, Pat Saunders, Kyle Sweeney (Springfield-Delco), and Ryan Ward.
The Rush had three players with two goals each. Curtis Knight, Riley Loewen, and Robert Church each scored two goals for Edmonton.
Jeremy Thompson and Chris Corbeil scored one goal each.
The only solace that the Wings could get from losing to the No. 1 team in the National Lacrosse League is that they held them to two goals in the second half. These two goals came in the fourth quarter, and the Wings outscored the Rush 4-2 in the second half.
“We are playing not the easiest schedule in the world,” said Manney about holding the Rush to two goals in the second half. “But that’s what you sign up for, and we know that when they put out the schedule.
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We’re all men and we have to man up and do your job. After last night, we wanted to finish with a good weekend, especially in the second half. We hope to build off of the last 30 minutes, as we go in a tough Buffalo barn next week.”
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