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Room to run

For more than half of Sunday's game, Lak Attack and his speedy mates could barely find room to move. But as play opened up, they discovered their legs, and the net, scoring eight straight goals to storm back from a 13-11 deficit to win, 20-15.

After jumping to a quick 1-0 lead with a goal off the opening faceoff, when the Living Legend won the draw with his patented forehand tip to a streaking Kid, who made no mistake stabbing a rising shot past a bewildered Smith, the speedsters suddenly found themselves with nowhere to run, shadowed at every step by bigger, stronger backcheckers. Frustrated by their inability to feed passes to an open teammate or to create open space on the court to set up for quality shots, they started to grip their sticks too tightly, looking for the perfect play. They seemed primed for an upset.

"Things weren't looking good for us," said Lak Attack of his team's early difficulties. "When you've got some speed and you've got some guys who are creative on offense, you've got to get that open court."

And against big, strong defenders like Unabomber and Cowboy Bill, they weren't going to get that room without a battle.

"I guess we knew we couldn't compete with their running game, so we just kept it simple," said Unabomber. "We just had to pick up our man, get back on defense."

Their offense also didn't win many style points.

"We knew we weren't going to score a lot of pretty goals," said Cowboy Bill. "We just had to do a lot of stuff, crashing the net, doing a lot of hard work."

For more than half the game, their gutsy effort paid off. Unabomber scored six times, many of them on rebounds as he battled in close to the crease.

But their physical style took its toll. Unabomber turned an ankle that slowed his ability to jump up into the fray. Cowboy Bill and Nibs tired, leaving their speedy opponents with more room to move, complete nifty passing plays, and regain their scoring touch.

"I figured we had more of an advantage in endurance than just speed," said Lak Attack.
"They'd start to get tired and we'd be able to take the opportunity to get ahead of them."

They did just that, with an eight goal run that swung the game's momentum their way to stay.

"We finally started to connect," said Lak Attack.

"I think we just ran out of steam," said Cowboy Bill. "They started to get lots of open shots and we just didnt have the energy to shut them down for the whole game."

Posted by jaysuburb at November 18, 2007 03:52 PM