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NYC Box Lacrosse League: Week 3, and MORE!

The ULax Box Lacrosse League in New York City has completed its third week.  After six days of freezing temperatures, Saturday saw a beautiful sunny day come out of nowhere and the temperatures reached the low 40s.  This was the third consecutive weekend of excellent weather, which is a good thing, because the games are played outdoors on a roller hockey rink located on 96th Street and 1st Ave.

ulax box lacrosse league nyc connor wilson
Set the pick, roll to the inside, catch, score.

The league has seen some really competitive games and some blowouts.  The LaxAllStars.com team is 3-0 right now, but we’ve had good games with Brooklyn and Dirt McGirt.  Our second round matchups (and the playoffs) should make for great games. However, when one team is light on numbers and another team has all their stars show up, it can a little ugly.  Brooklyn recently took down Those Bad Johnnies 24-2 behind a ton of goals and assists from the likes of Jim Kappler, Kevin Owens, Chris Massey and Chris Moser.  Having Vinnie Ricasio, also know as The Art of Lax, in net doesn’t hurt.

ulax box lacrosse league nyc connor wilson
The Art of Lax with the save and outlet.

Each week the play has evolved to a more and more traditional type of box lacrosse.  Some teams have been trying out the Offense-Defense platoon system and the two-man games are showing up more and more.  The concepts of backside defensive walls and constantly pushing and crosschecking are becoming more natural.  The pace of the games has also picked up a bit as there are less dropped passes and more quick passing plays.  Overall, we’re making strides.

ulax box lacrosse league nyc connor wilson
Always Be Cross-checking. Always. I might make that into a T-shirt.

Two of my Canadian, box-loving, twitter friends, Hillie33 and KHawkFanVoice are helping us out with legit leg pads for our goalies.  Right now they’re using hockey shin pads, which leave the tops of the feet and ankles mainly exposed.  Real box goalie pads are much better than that and I would expect to see even more saves once our goalies get used to them.  All of the keepers have adapted pretty nicely to the hockey goalie stance and there were even some free hand saves last weekend. Major props to these guys (Mike Goldman, Vinnie Ricasio, Whit Harrison and Neema Kassai) for stepping in to net and trying something new.  It’s been fun watching you guys!

ulax box lacrosse league nyc connor wilson
It's like Boise State turf box lacrosse on concrete. Yup.

For brief game recaps, photos, statistics, rosters and more, head on over the the ULax NYC Box Lacrosse League website and check it out.

We also got some more box lacrosse helmet pictures from the LAS faithful.  Ok, this reader is a legit lax blogger himself, but he was as excited as I was to see the new Cascade Sports M11 Hockey Helmet and felt the urge to get in on the action. And now you get the see another sweet box lid.  Sounds pretty awesome to me.  Read Kyle Devitte‘s stuff, wherever he writes it.  You’ll either laugh, agree or be furious.  Well worth it all the way around.

Cascade Sports M11 Hockey Helmet Box Lacrosse
Front view. So awesome.
Cascade Sports M11 Hockey Helmet Box Lacrosse
Side view. Red on Navy. Beautiful.
Cascade Sports M11 Hockey Helmet Box Lacrosse
Top view? Sure. Still looks excellent. Next up? Inside the helmet pics!

Now let’s things to the Pro level…

Here’s video from the first week of the Washington Stealth‘s training camp – solid training footage along with some general info from coaches.

[fvplayer src=”https://youtube.com/watch?v=AcWh1-bCzBo?fs=1″ splash=”https://i.ytimg.com/vi/AcWh1-bCzBo/hqdefault.jpg” caption=”Washington Stealth 2011 Training Camp Week #1 Recap”]