Even though his team was on the losing end of the Major League Lacrosse championship game a year ago, Rochester goalkeeper John Galloway will never forget the atmosphere that permeated the stadium at Kennesaw State that night.
“It was amazing from the first whistle to the end of the game,” Galloway said. “You could tell they were passionate about the sport and that’s what’s great about the sport right now.”
The reception for last year’s MLL championship game was so overwhelmingly positive that the league is coming back for an encore. The Rochester Rattlers, who lost to Denver in the title game last year, will meet the New York Lizards on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Kennesaw State’s Fifth Third Bank Stadium.
The title game’s reception also set in motion the plans for an Atlanta-based team that is expected to join the MLL in 2016.
Kennesaw State will likely be the host site for a new team. MLL commissioner David Gross has said repeatedly that Fifth Third Bank Stadium is a model facility for lacrosse. He said a year ago that the MLL would like to have a team in the Atlanta market by 2016. The new team will apparently be an expansion franchise rather than a relocated team.
Atlanta fans have shown their support for the sport. Last year Kennesaw State drew 4,000 spectators to a regular-season game between Rochester and Boston and then packed 8,100 into the stadium for the Steinfeld Cup championship game.
The Southeast has become fertile ground for the growth of lacrosse. The sport has been embraced by the Georgia High School Association, where it was first sanctioned in 2005. This year there will be more than 100 schools fielding teams, primarily in the metro Atlanta area.
Earlier this spring the indoor National Lacrosse League moved the Minnesota Swarm to the Atlanta area. The Gwinnett Swarm will play their games at the Gwinnett Arena in January.
The Lizards (10-4) are led by attacker Rob Pannell, who has 38 goals and 30 assists for a league-leading 68 points. Midfielder Paul Rabil has 29 goals, three of them two-pointers — goals from 16 yards or further count for two — and 20 assists for 52 points. New York was the league’s best defensive team, allowing 167 goals behind goalkeeper of the year Drew Adams, who allowed 11.74 goals per game, and defensive player of the year Joe Fletcher, a second-year pro considered a lock-down defender.
The Rattlers (8-6) are paced by MLL offensive player of the year attacker Jordan Wolf, who has 37 goals and 24 assists for 61 points, third-best in the league. Midfielder Jordan Macintosh added 24 goals, one a two-pointer, and 11 assists for 36 points, while midfielder Dave Lawson had 25 goals and 10 assists for 35 points. In the cage, Galloway allowed an average of 13.39 goals per game and stopped 51.8 percent of shots on goal.
