Grow the Game®

pro lacrosse sean sconone mll
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on reddit
Share on whatsapp

Winners and Losers: Pro Lacrosse – MLL Week 8, PLL All-Star Game

From SportsCenter Top 10 Plays to experimental rules, it was another wild weekend of pro lacrosse. We had an exciting and entertaining PLL All-Star Game, one MLL team finally got a win and teams like the New York Lizards are starting to gain some momentum going into the MLL’s All-Star break. Let’s see who had winning performances and who had came up short in this week’s pro lacrosse edition of Winners and Losers. 

Pro Lacrosse Winners 

Dallas Rattlers 

The Rattlers won! After weeks of coming so close to getting their first win of the season, Dallas traveled to Denver and stunned the first-place Outlaws. Everything seemed to come together for the Rattlers as they got great performances by goalie Sean Sconone — who made an incredible 20 saves against one of the best offenses in the league — Zack Greer, Bryce Wasserman Brian Kormondy, and the entire defense. The defense also held the always dangerous Zach Currier to 0 points. Congratulations to the Dallas Rattlers and I’m so happy that I can finally put them in the winners section instead of the losers. 

Paul Rabil’s Around The World Assist

Forget the trick shots and any other play from the All-Star game and skills competition. Paul Rabil’s on the run around the world pass was the most impressive play of the whole event. The degree of difficulty is insane and if anyone could pull it off it would be Rabil. This pass reminded me of a pass he threw in the first US vs Canada game in the 2014 World Games where he dodged down the alley and made a perfect backhanded flip pass with the flick of his wrists to another player who scored. People forget how good Rabil’s stick skills are. The pass was good enough to be No. 2 on Sportscenter’s Top 10 Plays, but obviously every lacrosse fan knows it should have been #1.

PLL All-Star Weekend

What a great weekend for the PLL and for the sport of lacrosse. From the red carpet, to crazy goals and the skills competitions it was fun to watch some of the best players in the world really having a good time and interacting with the big Los Angeles crowd that came out to watch. The All-Star game was broadcast on NBC Sports and, thanks to a close exciting game, we can only hope that some new lacrosse fans were made this past weekend. Team Baptiste aka Team Speed pulled out the win 17-16. 

Watch the PLL All-Star Vlog here.

Honorable Mentions

Zed Williams

Lacrosse found its way on to Sportscenter’s Top 10 Plays twice this past weekend with Zed Williams of the Boston Cannons scoring a between the legs shot against the Atlanta Blaze. 

Blaze Riordan

Apparently a lot of lacrosse fans didn’t know that Blaze cannot only make incredible saves, but he can also shoot with the best of them. If anyone knows how to score on a goalie, it’s a goalie. Blaze is a very good box forward for the NLL’s Philadelphia Wings, and was able to showcase his short stick skills during the All-Star game as he scored two goals. 

Pro Lacrosse Losers

Experimental All-Star Game Rules

These made the list because while they may be entertaining in an All-Star game, these types of rule changes would take away two important parts of an actual lacrosse game.

The two rules in question were the goalies clearing the ball after goals that was played during the second quarter, and the hockey-style ball-drop faceoffs during the third quarter.

.Having goalies start the clear right away after goals like basketball basically eliminates all celebrations. Goal celebrations help bring teams together and for the All-Star game they got rid of chances for fun celebrations. Having the hockey style faceoff is actually way less interesting than regular lacrosse faceoffs. Trevor Baptiste was still winning the faceoffs because he has fast hands and reactions. The PLL faceoff rules have made faceoffs faster and long lock ups happen maybe once every game now. Changing things up for the All-Star game was a cool idea, but I don’t think either one will be adopted permanently. Plus, we missed out on Blaze Riordan getting to celebrate his goals during the second quarter.

Who were your winners and losers of the PLL All-Star Game and MLL Week 8?