The Best Lacrosse Game of 2016

At least so far. It helps that it's the only one so far. For lacrosse fans, the NLL season means its finally time for box lacrosse. A game where we come off the field, into the arenas, where we have a smaller confine, faster pace, and yet, a more padded netkeeper. Now, aside from my eccentric taste in sports, most people would probably say a guy from Mississippi and even now living in Texas doesn't seem to be the type to follow lacrosse. And you're right, I'm fairly alone in that, though there are plenty of players and some fans scattered throughout both areas. My interest started along with when I'd watch whatever came on ESPN2 at 2am. Which once a week would be an MLL game. I loved the pace, and the challenge to the players. I stayed a bit away from the NLL at first, but after missing the 2014 MLL season, I caught the 2015 NLL season instead. And I was hooked. In fact, I found myself kind of bored with field lacrosse after that. It wasn't the same. Boxla was my favorite now.

So I was definitely eager to tune in on New Year's Day to the first game of the 2016 NLL opener between the Colorado Mammoth and the Georgia Swarm. Both the Mammoth and the Swarm I had not been terribly impressed with before in the few games I saw them in, but aside from it just being the opener I've always really liked the Mammoths' logo and with the very interested move into Georgia from Minnesota for the Swarm, I thought this could produce an interesting result.

I came in right after the first goal of the 3rd quarter. Yeah, a bit late to the game, but I was putting my kids to bed, and family always comes first spartsfans. So at the time the Swarm were down by 2 to the Mammoth. It was hard to tell how this had happened, the Mammoth looked very sloppy in their passing, in a few instances the ball finding no one and richocheting around the edges of the arena. Whereas the Swarm looked very tight in their approach and not making lose shots on net that had no chance in the first place. One player stood out to me in particular with the Georgia Swarm, and that's Onandagan Lyle Thompson, who scored 3 goals in the second half of the game.

The Swarm used their efficiency to  maintain a back and forth with the Mammoth, getting to within one goal, then a tie, the lead, a tie, and so on. It made for a far more entertaining game than I ever expected. The game literally came down to the last seconds, which is what you always hope for in a great game. John Grant, Jr scored Colorado's last goal, putting them in a winning position with 45 seconds left to go. The Swarm made every attempt to not only reclaim possession and get on the offense, but to try and find some way to score and tie everything up. However, the opening wasn't there. In the end, a ball that would never find the net was saved by netkeeper Alex Buque to end the game. Regardless, both teams looked much better than I expected, and it should fair for a good season.

This game was hosted on Fox Sports Go, which I was apprehensive about, since Fox Sports has a tendency to get broadcast rights and then do nothing with them or bury them on some exclusive channel. However, like with the Women's World Cup, I was rather impressed, and I didn't even have to log in to anything on my Amazon Fire stick to be able to watch the game on their app. It was nice to see the players faces as I often find myself pulling up a radio broadcast or perhaps something on my phone. Hopefully we see a consistent product in broadcasting from both them and those running the WatchESPN side of the broadcasts, which will handle a weekly Saturday broadcast each week. 

In the meantime, rejoice boxla fans, the NLL is back! And if you're not a fan? Come join us! You might be surprised at how much fun you're having.