Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 1/9/21
From Press Release
Blaze Riorden scored 15 seconds into overtime Saturday afternoon to lift the host Philadelphia Wings to a 12-11 conquest of the Georgia Swarm at the Wells Fargo Center.
Georgia (1-2) and Philadelphia (3-1) turned a defensive battle into a back-and-forth offensive slugfest. The game was tied on seven different occasions and was forced into overtime by the Swarm’s Brendan Bomberry with less than a second left in regulation.
The fourth frame saw the most goals scored throughout the game as both teams clinched five goals each. Philadelphia would make a move and the Swarm would then mimic it. Thompson’s three goals and Jordan Hall’s one tied the game at 10 apiece with four minutes remaining until McIntosh registered his fourth goal for the Wings to give them an 11-10 lead with two minutes left on the clock.
With seconds to spare, Ethan Walker passed the ball off to Hall who saw Bomberry open on the left side. With .06 seconds left Bomberry found the back of the net and sent the game into overtime.
The Wings’ Trevor Baptiste (20 of 27) won the overtime faceoff which allowed Philadelphia to gain possession, call a timeout, then set up a play that resulted in Riorden’s game-clincher just seconds into the extra period.
For the second game in a row, Lyle Thompson scored five goals for Georgia. The forward found the net once in the first half, added another in the third, then scored three highlight-reel goals in the final period to keep the Swarm in the game. Thompson finished the day with 199 career goals.
There was a pattern throughout the game: whatever move the Wings would make, the Swarm would repeat it. Philadelphia scored two goals in the first quarter and blanked Georgia, while the Swarm shutout the Wings 2-0 in the second. In the second half, the teams traded goals and followed the same scoring patterns throughout the entire game until Riorden (3G, 1A) sunk the golden goal in overtime.
In the last three meetings between the Swarm and Wings the final score has read 12-11 (Jan. 31, 2020: GA 12, PHI 11; March 8, 2020: PHI 12, GA 11; Jan. 8, 2022: PHI 12, GA 11).
Matt Rambo (La Salle, Springside Chestnut Hill Academy assistant coach) had three goals and three assists for the Wings. Ben McIntosh (Drexel) scored four goals and Kevin Crowley (Fusion Lacrosse Co-Founder) had a goal and four assists.
Before the beginning of the Saturday’s game, the Swarm and Wings warmed up in Every Child Matters t-shirts to raise awareness towards residential school atrocities and honor the victims. The t-shirts are for sale on NLLShop.com and the proceeds benefit the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund in Canada and The National Native American Board School Healing Coalition in the United States.
Wings 12, Swarm 11
Georgia Swarm 0 2 4 5 0 -11
Philadelphia Wings 2 0 4 5 1 -12
TEAM STATS
SOG FO PP PIM
Georgia Swarm 61 7-27 0-2 4
Philadelphia Wings 51 20-27 0-1 6
PLAYER STATS
Wings
Player G A PTS PIM SOG LB BLK TO CTO FO
M. Rambo 3 3 6 0 6 4 0 0 2 0-0
E. Shewell 0 2 2 0 0 3 0 0 0 0-0
A. Crepinsek 0 1 1 2 0 1 2 0 1 0-0
T. Baptiste 0 1 1 0 0 17 0 0 2 20-27
B. Riorden 3 1 4 0 7 4 0 3 0 0-0
B. Hickey 0 2 2 0 5 0 0 4 0 0-0
K. Marr 0 1 1 2 2 0 0 0 0 0-0
C. Small 0 1 1 0 5 4 0 1 1 0-0
K. Crowley 1 4 5 0 10 4 0 2 0 0-0
I. Davis-Allen 0 2 2 2 0 5 1 0 1 0-0
A. Joaquim 0 2 2 0 0 7 0 1 0 0-0
J. Suboch 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 0-0
A. Pace 0 0 0 0 0 8 0 1 1 0-0
J. Ranagan 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0-0
K. Matisz 1 2 3 0 3 11 2 0 0 0-0
B. Gibson-McDonald 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0-0
B. McIntosh 4 0 4 0 12 10 0 1 0 0-0
GOALIE DEC GA SAVES MIN
E. Penney W 11 50 60:15