Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 2/17/20
From Press Release
The start of Sunday’s evening’s game most likely had many people around that National Lacrosse League doing a double take. Philadelphia was playing its second of back-to-backs, and New England was waiting for them at Mohegan Sun Arena after another week off.
The Philadelphia Wings came in looking for redemption after dropping an overtime thriller to New England back on January 18th. They were also coming in after beating Buffalo on Saturday night and spending the night at a hotel about half way to Mohegan Sun before traveling the rest of the way earlier in the day on Sunday. The Wings showed little signs of slowing down as they used six goals by Matt Rambo (La Salle grad, Springside CHA assistant) to defeat the Black Wolves, 14-11, and take sole possession of first place in the East Division.
The Black Wolves (4-3) looked completely out of rhythm early and clearly affected by another week off early in this season. New England played a league-low six games coming into Sunday and it was very evident on the offensive side with an unusually high number of dropped passes and missed connections.
The Wings (7-3) jumped out to a 5-0 lead just under three minutes into the second quarter before showing a little fatigue as the Black Wolves scored six of the next seven goals to tie the score at six.
Colton Watkinson provided the much needed spark for the Black Wolves as he overpowered a defender in transition and beat Zach Higgins up high to get the Pack on the board with a shorthanded goal early in the second quarter. The goal followed a shorthanded goal from the Wings’ Rambo who buried his first career shorty and then assisted on a power play goal from Josh Currier who followed Watkinson’s shorty with a goal on the man advantage. Rambo’s shorthanded goal was the first shorty given up by the Black Wolves all season.
New England then scored the next five goals and seven of the next eight to take an 8-7 lead with 10:41 left in the game. The goal by Joe Resetarits was his third of the game and marked his second hat trick in as many games. It was also the first lead of the game for the Black Wolves.
Rambo tied the game at eight before former Black Wolves’ star Kevin Crowley (Shipley assistant, Fusion Lacrosse co-founder) put the Wings on top. Resetarits quickly answered Crowley to tie the game at 9-9, but Brett Hickey and Rambo answered to put the Wings up for the remainder of the game.
The Wings were led by Rambo’s six goals and Hickey’s three goals and three assists. Crowley added a goal and five assists while Currier contributed a goal and four assists. Higgins’ 50 saves for the Wings was one shy of a career best for the veteran netminder.
Scoring 1 2 3 4 T
Philadelphia 4-2-1-7-14
New England 0-4-3-4-11
Team Stats SOG SOFF LB FO
Philadelphia 48 25 59 20-29
New England 61 15 77 9-29
Power Plays PP PIM
Philadelphia 2-3 10
New England 2-5 6
Scoring Summary
V – H # Q Team Time Scored By Assists PP SH
1 – 0 1 1 PHI 0:55 M.Rambo B.Hickey J.Currier
2 – 0 2 1 PHI 1:29 M.Rambo J.Currier B.Riorden
3 – 0 3 1 PHI 2:48 B.Hickey B.Riorden K.Buchanan
4 – 0 4 1 PHI 8:30 R.Wagner
5 – 0 5 2 PHI 2:58 M.Rambo B.Hickey K.Crowley x
5 – 1 6 2 NE 4:35 C.Watkinson A.Bomberry x
6 – 1 7 2 PHI 5:07 J.Currier K.Crowley M.Rambo x
6 – 2 8 2 NE 10:17 T.Malcom
6 – 3 9 2 NE 10:52 J.Resetarits A.Kew C.Crawford
6 – 4 10 2 NE 12:50 C.Crawford C.Watkinson J.Durston
6 – 5 11 3 NE 1:18 J.Durston C.Crawford S.Leblanc
6 – 6 12 3 NE 6:47 J.Resetarits S.Leblanc R.O’Connor x
7 – 6 13 3 PHI 10:27 B.Hickey B.Riorden K.Crowley
7 – 7 14 3 NE 14:12 C.Crawford N.Chaykowsky J.Nardella
7 – 8 15 4 NE 4:19 J.Resetarits R.O’Connor M.Mitchell
8 – 8 16 4 PHI 5:35 M.Rambo
9 – 8 17 4 PHI 7:10 K.Crowley J.Currier N.Finlay
9 – 9 18 4 NE 7:38 J.Resetarits C.Crawford S.Leblanc
10 – 9 19 4 PHI 7:49 B.Hickey K.Crowley
11 – 9 20 4 PHI 8:10 M.Rambo B.Hickey K.Matisz
11 – 10 21 4 NE 8:40 G.Downing
12 – 10 22 4 PHI 10:59 M.Rambo B.Riorden K.Crowley x
13 – 10 23 4 PHI 13:01 N.Finlay (en) I.Davis-Allen
14 – 10 24 4 PHI 13:12 K.Matisz (en) T.Baptiste
14 – 11 25 4 NE 14:45 C.Crawford S.Leblanc A.Kew
Philadelphia Roster
No. Name G A +/- PIM S SOFF LB T CT FO TOF
1 M.Rambo 6 1 0 0 10 4 3 2 0 –
2 E.Shewell 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 –
9 T.Baptiste 0 1 0 0 0 1 7 1 0 20-29
10 B.Riorden 0 4 0 0 4 1 3 3 0 –
11 B.Hickey 3 3 0 2 10 4 3 3 1 –
16 N.Finlay 1 1 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 –
18 S.Charbonneau 0 0 0 2 0 0 6 0 0 –
21 K.Crowley (A) 1 5 0 0 7 3 1 2 0 –
26 I.Davis-Allen 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 –
27 J.Currier 1 3 0 0 4 6 3 1 0 –
29 I.Llord (A) 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 –
33 A.Joaquim 0 0 0 0 2 0 6 1 1 –
41 A.Pace 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 0 –
46 K.Matisz (C) 1 1 0 2 2 2 7 4 0 –
55 L.Byrnes 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 2 0 –
72 K.Buchanan 0 1 0 0 6 4 2 1 0 –
94 R.Wagner 1 0 0 0 1 0 5 0 0 –
31 Z.Higgins 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 –
36 B.Miller 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 –
Totals: 14 21 10 48 25 59 21 2 20-29
Philadelphia Goalies
No Name MIN SOG SV Q1 SV Q2 SV Q3 SV Q4 SV GA
31 Z.Higgins (win) 60:00 61 11 13 16 10 50 11
