After battling back from a five-goal deficit to pull even, the Vancouver Stealth could not complete the comeback, falling 14-11 to the Colorado Mammoth.
“We had some real good scoring opportunities early and we didn’t score,” said Stealth coach Dan Perreault.
“You can’t get down that much, We came close, but we can’t put ourselves in that position.”
“The key moments were earlier in the game when we had great chances and we didn’t score.”
The Stealth were hosting the Colorado Mammoth at the Langley Events Centre on Saturday night in the start of a National Lacrosse League home-and-home series between the two West Division rivals. They meet again on Sunday at Denver’s Pepsi Center.
The Mammoth improved to 6-5 while the Stealth fell to 4-6.
The game began slowly with both teams tied at two after one quarter and at four early in the second. But the Mammoth scored twice before the half and then broke the game open with three goals to open the third.
The Stealth closed the quarter on a 5-1 run and then tied things early in the fourth.
“The way we played to battle back is how we have to play the whole game if we think we are going to win,” said the Stealth’s Rhys Duch.
Duch led the team with three goals and five points. He also passed Gary Rosyaki’s franchise record of 250 goals. Duch now has 251. He set the franchise points record earlier this season.
“It is cool. I will put the ball up on display in the man cave when I finally get a house,” Duch said.
“Other than that, it is certainly shadowed by the loss, for sure.”
The Stealth offence seemed to be just off on their passes, as well as firing several shots of target.
“We were so stagnant last week, I think we were trying to do a little too much,” Duch said about the team’s out-of-sync offence in the first part of the game.
“(But) you can’t blame your sticks. I think it was maybe wanting to do too much.”
The loss was the team’s second straight defeat.
The Mammoth were led by Adam Jones (two goals, six assists), John Grant Jr. (one goal, five assists) and Joey Cupido (three goals). They also got another big game from rookie Jeremy Noble, who was the first star with four goals and two assists.
He joined the Mammoth in a trade earlier this month from Rochester and has 13 points in two games.
Noble was the second overall pick in the NLL draft prior to the season and was chosen by Rochester after the Stealth traded that pick as part of a package to land Johnny Powless and Joel McCready.
Powless (one goal, two assists), Tyler Digby (two goals, one assist) and Justin Salt (one goal, two assists) all had three-point games. Corey Small (one goal, one assist), Chris O’Dougherty and Tyler Hass had a goal apiece.
The Mammoth outshot Vancouver 56-50.
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Saturday night’s game was also B.C. Lacrosse Association and $9,920 was raised for the Lacrosse on the Move Fund.
The fund helps support travel costs for minor lacrosse teams from around the province.
The money was raised through fans bidding on the game-worn special edition Stealth jerseys. The jerseys incorporated the flag of British Columbia.
