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 The
Senior Rams went into their first playoff game last
night with the concept of a win devoid from their imaginations.
Starting out with a short bench of eleven players and
two goalies against a team with a full bench and a President's
Cup victory under their belt was slightly less than
inspirational. The goal was to play their hardest and
maintain dignity while attempting to avoid a possible
blowout. At the end of the second period, the attitude
on the bench had drastically changed and become one
of aspiration and belief that they could and will win
this game!
The first period started off as expected, with hard
hitting and forceful drives to the net from the Outlaws.
The Rams defense was effective and the Outlaws remained
scoreless until 4 minutes into the first period. Surprisingly
though, the Rams answered right back to the Outlaws
goal and put one in as well. Soon afterwards, Outlaws
began to pull away by a few goals, discouraging the
Rams whom by this time began harboring ideas of the
impending blowout.
 There
would be no blowout today. Much to their amazement,
the Rams pulled together and won the second period.
A first for the Sr. Rams, who have never won a period
against the hard working and talented Outlaws team.
Much of the Rams success in the second period can be
attributed to the amazing goal tending by Chris Standing
and the tenacious and hard hitting Outlaw defense, who
were deceived into thinking the throat, knees, hips
and ankles are reasonable areas to hit if you cannot
stop a player any other way. Needless to say, they were
alarmed to discover that those areas of the body are
subject to penalization and the Rams were able to capitalize
on the Outlaw penalties.
 The
third period was quite difficult, as the minor injuries
and limited number of players on the bench began to
take their toll. The Rams followed the same path as
the other two periods and attempted to slow the game
down as they were playing a team with double their numbers.
They were effective for the majority of the period,
remaining within 3 goals of the previous President Cup
champions. The Outlaws were able to add one more point
on the scoreboard. The full pressure they applied to
the tiring Rams players was adequate to exclude them
from any further consideration of a win, ending the
game with a score of 10-6 in favor of the Outlaws.
As a Ram player, I was quite proud of my team. We played
without taking any penalties and despite our short bench
managed to play hard and clean. However, the most shocking
event I have ever witnessed in lacrosse was soon to
come. When it came time to shake hands and congratulate
the other team on a game well played, I was unable,
as they had already proceeded to the dressing rooms.
I've played many sports for many years and this was
a first for me. I was told later that all hand shaking
would be reserved for the end of the series. I reserve
an opinion on this, althought I was told otherwise.
You can draw your own conclusions.
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