Overview:
Daniel May is a Toronto native and current lacrosse player at Jacksonville University. May’s Grinders is a weekly series which highlights the contributions of players around the league, particularly those that don’t appear on the box score. Check back here every week for another edition of May’s Grinders!
It was a busy week of action in the NLL with nine games overall and three teams playing twice. Let’s get into some of the guys who helped their teams secure wins this weekend.
Riley Loewen, Vancouver Warriors
The Vancouver Warriors ended a four-game losing streak to come away with their first win in six weeks. How? They scored more goals than the other team.
In all seriousness, the Warriors finally put together a complete game where they were firing on all cylinders.
Aden Walsh stood on his head, stealing many great chances, especially late in the game when Buffalo was on their heels. The defence stood tall, specifically the penalty kill unit who held the Buffalo to two goals on seven chances. And lastly, the offence woke up, scoring 13 goals which was their highest goal total in nearly three months.
Riley Loewen stood out on the offensive side of the floor for many reasons besides his hattrick. Most importantly, he worked from the inside out. He continuously cut through the middle, lived inside setting multiple picks in possessions without ever touching the ball, and he found defenders backs to create great scoring opportunities.
On this play, Loewen comes in with the second pick to free up Adam Charalambides to step down from top center which lead to the goal.
His first goal of the game came off of a beautiful pick-and-roll, set up by his willingness to get inside Buffalo’s defence. After cutting through the middle as he came on from the bench, Loewen made his way out to set a pick on Charlambides defender near the high righty boards. He found the defender’s back and rolled to the middle while finishing low-to-high while the defender was checking down on his hands.
Taylor Jensen, Rochester Knighthawks
Right off the first whistle during their Sunday night win over Panther City, Taylor Jensen was making plays on the ground. On the starting faceoff he picked up a loose ball from an errant pass, ran through pressure, and fed Thomas McConvey coming off the bench who bolted by his defender and scored.
That was just the beginning of what was yet to come. By the end of the night, Jensen amassed 11 loose balls coming up via the ball team and cutting off Panther City possessions with defensive zone loose balls.
His second assist of the game came off a defensive zone loose ball that he then chucked a all the way down the floor to McConvey for his fourth of the game.
The speed with which he picks up loose balls and outlets them jumps off the screen and those little plays added up allowing Rochester to maintain their lead throughout the whole game. Most importantly, he never backed down from opposing shooters and blocked three shots on the night.
Jensen really doesn’t do anything fancy; he simply goes out on the floor and puts his nose in the turf. Time and time again, making simple plays ad nauseum. He’s a true grinder.
Bryan Cole, Georgia Swarm
Bryan Cole’s career with the Georgia Swarm has been interesting to watch. In the early part of his NLL career, coming off a stellar career at Maryland, he started coming out the D-door. He was, and still is, a stellar defender and his efforts help the Swarm hoist the NLL cup in 2017.
As it goes with any championship team, changes are inevitable. Key offensive names left, and spots opened up on that side of the floor for Cole to step back into his role as an offensive weapon.
Fast forward to today and Cole is combining his talents on both the defensive and offensive ends of the floor to make him one of the most dangerous two-way weapons in the league. Friday night’s 12-11 win over the Halifax Thunderbirds was another example of that.
He’s on the man-up, on the ball team, played stout defence (including a caused turnover), made plays in the clear, and did a great job setting picks and getting his teammates open. While on the man-up, he had a sneaky cut inside which drew the bottom defender and opened up the backdoor feed to Shayne Jackson.
Most importantly, his ability to play on both ends of the floor allows him to prevent transition and get offensive players stuck on defence, which happened numerous times all night.
That not only helped the Swarm take advantage of out of position offensive players, but it also tires them out which helped contribute to Halifax being held to one of their lower goal totals of the season.
Cole really does it all and it showed Friday night.