The Washington Stealth lost their second game in a row and dropped to 0-3 at Comcast Arena with a 15-14 loss to the Edmonton Rush on Saturday night in front of 4,088 fans.
For the second night in a row and third game this season, poor play with less than one minute left on the clock killed the Stealth. On Friday, it was giving up a late go-ahead goal to the Rush and failing to get a good look and losing the ball before surrendering an empty-netter. On Saturday it was a bit different. The Stealth trailed by five goals with about 9 1/2 minutes left in the game before deciding it was time to score.
Washington surged back, cutting it to 15-14 on a Rhys Duch goal with 32.1 second to go. Bob Snider won yet another draw (he was 27-of-33 on the night) and called timeout, giving the Stealth a great opportunity to tie the game with 27.6 second left.
With goaltender Tyler Richards off the floor for an extra attacker, the Stealth couldn’t connect on a cross-court pass and Edmonton picked up the ball and ran the floor with what looked to be the icing on the cake, but a Stealth player was able to strip the ball from the Rush and Luke Wiles recovered to hurry up the floor with 8 seconds left. Wiles was unaware of the time and couldn’t get a shot off and passed to Paul Rabil as the buzzer sounded.
Another game, another missed opportunity.
Washington lost late at home in Week 2 to Calgary after giving up a go-ahead goal with 1:35 left in the game and a missed opportunity on a set play led to an empty-netter for the Roughnecks.
The Stealth (3-5 overall) were 6-2 at this point last year and host Colorado (1-5) at Comcast Arena at 8 p.m. on Friday.
Here’s a little post-game reaction from the Stealth:
Head coach Chris Hall
On the failure to execute: “I think we harp it, we talk about it, we practice it, we drill it into them that one-goal games is the norm in this league and when it comes down to the special teams at the end of the game, those things have to be executed,” Stealth head coach Chris Hall said. “We failed again to execute it. We threw a bad pass and we can’t keep watching that happen with the players we’ve got. Either they’ve got to improve in a real hurry or we’ve got to get some people in here who are dedicated to paying attention and taking the time to understand what execution is all about.”
On Edmonton’s run of 7 straight goals: “We know that they’re a transition team and that’s the offense’s responsibility to go back hard and if they have to play some defense for a while then so be it … They transitioned the heck out of us in that (second) quarter and it was terrible. I think that’s a bit of laziness and a lack of lacrosse intelligence.”
Forward Lewis Ratcliff
On the game: “We just played a sloppy game. I don’t think we executed our game plan either night and it’s hard to come back in the fourth quarter by five. We were lucky to get a few goals at the end, but we can’t put ourselves in those positions. We’re a better team than that and we’ve got to play with a lead and put teams away when we have a chance.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.