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Gotham Lacrosse League: The Finals!

The best pay-to-play summer lacrosse league in the world, the Gotham Lacrosse League, has come to a close.  The games started back in June and went strong almost all summer.  The action was up and down and there were both upsets and blowouts, although tighter games were the norm for much of the season.

Teamitup.com getting ready for the game to get going....

The Championship game was held on August 10th and even though the Southampton LC wasn’t playing (we got knocked out 2 weeks ago), I still made my way up to Columbia University’s Kraft Field (named after Bob Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots) to see who was going to come away with the annual Kyle Sweeney Trophy of Super Sweet Laxitude.

Last year’s champs, Teamitup.com, managed to make their way back into the finals to take on GoldProp, which is sponsored by Gold Properties, a real estate firm in the NYC area.  I got to the field, saw Greg Downing and Kyle Sweeney, both of the Boston Cannons, sitting on the far side of the field and got the camera ready to snap some quality shots of the game action. Overall, the play was great and sitting with Kyle, Greg and Pat (last name unknown) was a lot of fun and only added to the laxiness of the evening.

Devon Britts gets up close and personal with a zebra.

Both teams scored early as Devon Britts notched a goal for Teamitup and Brian Douglas got Gold Prop on the board.  With the game tied at 1, both teams settled in a bit and started to find their respective rhythms.  Gold Prop then made a run with 3 goals to go up 4-1 as Kevin Stockle, Jones Thorton and Matt Scanlon put away Gs. Stockle and Scanlon’s goals were assisted by Travis “Pickles” Nelson and Thorton, respectively.

Teamitup was far from done, and they rallied back to tie the game at 4 prior to halftime with goals from Charlie Perry, Harry Kutner and Kevin Hover.  All of them were unassisted.

Thank you iPhoto for "enhancing" this pic. Enhance. Enhance.

The 2nd half started a little slowly, but eventually GoldProp started to pull away.  They got another goal from Kevin Stockle and then he followed that up by assisting on another Matt Scanlon goal.  Anson Fraser got a great feed from Jones Thorton to push the gap to 3 goals at 7-4.

Cortland State star defender, Justin Schneidman is really tall. and good.

Teamitup showed no sign of quiting and kept pushing, but solid goaltending from Tim Gazini and good team D by GoldProp limited their chances.  Teamitup added 3 more goals in the 2nd half, with one coming from Kevin Hover and two coming from the aforementioned Charlie Perry to complete his hat trick.  During this run, Gold Prop snuck in two goals of their own by Pickles and Rob Gannon. Gannon’s goal was the icing on the cake and it was assisted by Pickles, who played well all night.

Teamitup on O. Note to self: Get a new camera!

Teamitup got solid goaltending from Brendan Baer and Marty Malinow, but it wasn’t enough and they fell to GoldProp by a final score of 9-7.  Kevin Stockle was named the game MVP although it could have gone to Pickles or the GP keeper, Tim Gazini.  Another summer is in the books and the overarching sentiment from all involved was that they couldn’t wait to do it all again next summer.

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About the Author: Connor is a life-long lacrosse player who doesn’t know when to give up on the game. He played and coached at Wesleyan University and now plays for the Southampton LC in NYC. Connor lives with his fiance in Brooklyn and thanks her for allowing him to keep the dream alive.

Contact him at connor@lacrosseallstars.com.