There were seven games in the National Lacrosse League this past weekend, and fans were treated to some great lacrosse with several games coming down to the wire. Let’s see who had a winning weekend and who ended up in the losers column on this week’s Winners and Losers: NLL Week 6.
Winners and Losers
Winners
Jordan Durston
Durston is known for scoring goals in flashy and dramatic fashion, but his best one yet came on Saturday against Philadelphia. Durston drove to the middle of the floor through three defenders by cradling with one hand. He then threw a behind the back shot to the far corner past the Philly goalie. Bandits announcer John Gurtler described it as ‘Durty’ and it definitely was, as Durston’s effort landed at No. 3 on SportsCenter’s Top 10. It’s always great to see lacrosse getting national exposure.
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Tyler Digby
Georgia and New England were tied at 12-12 late in the fourth quarter, until Tyler Digby found the back of the net on a power play, scoring the game winning goal. The towering Digby used his size to post up on the crease and fire a side arm shot to give the Black Wolves their third straight win. Digby finished the night with five points and sealed himself a spot in the Winners column on this weeks Winners and Losers.
Frank Scigliano
San Diego had a memorable weekend, winning two games back-to-back. That was thanks to the tremendous play of goaltender Frank Scigliano.
Scigliano was a brick wall in net and came up huge for the Seals, especially at the end of their game against Vancouver. Getting wins in the NLL often comes down to having a solid goalie, which can be a struggle for younger or newer teams. San Diego seems to have found their man in Scigliano as he is currently the league leader in saves.
Honorable Mentions
Garrett Billings
Garrett Billings is back and he has let everyone know it early on this season. Billings had three 100 point seasons from 2012-2014 and was the best player in the league until he suffered a knee injury. It looks like the San Diego sun has rejuvenated Billings as he already has 20 points this season and scored 11 of those this past weekend. Billings also scored his 600th point against Vancouver and looks like he will be adding on to that number all season.
Kyle Killen
Killen played in his first NLL game against Calgary and made his presence known by scoring two huge goals for the Mammoth in their first win of the season.
Check out this week’s Lacrosse Classified podcast with Barstool Jordie and the Vancouver Warriors’ Mitch Jones. Jake Elliott and Evan Schemenauer host. Click here to listen.
Losers
Teams That Played Back-to-Back Games (Not Including San Diego)
Three teams played back-to-back games this past weekend and two out of three of them lost both games. San Diego was the exception, winning at home and on the road in Vancouver. Both Georgia and Calgary played two away games and lost both of them. With all of the traveling players do in this league and the rough games that they play, playing back-to-back would be tough on any team. It just happened to be the Swarm and the Roughnecks. Georgia came into the weekend undefeated and Calgary sat at 3-2, but now they hold a record of 4-2 and 3-4, respectively.
Matt Beers
Beers actually played a great game scooping up seven loosies and causing three turnovers, but I’m focusing more on the fight he had with Brodie Merrill. Beers had to answer the bell after he hit rookie Austin Staats high on a previous play. This was a battle of each team’s captain. It was a decent fight, but I think Merrill got the best of Beers in this one.
