Indian Time - A Voice from the Eastern Door

It is tough to win a game when the lacrosse gods do their best to hand the match over to a team which is playing far beyond anyone’s expectations.

The Homer Trojans are as sharp a contrast against the Shamrocks as there can be.  The ‘rocks are fast, physical and have stickhandling skills which dazzle fans, frustrate goalies and leave their opponents stunned.  The team has an attack line which can thread the ball through tight defenses and score which off stance and flying in front of the net.  They have a defense which uses their sticks like spears as they push their opponents back while probing for the ball. They have a goaltender who fills the net and is light on his feet, using his shoulders to block shots and his stick to fire off sharp passes downfield.

On June 2 the Salmon River Shamrocks went to the stadium at Cicero North Syracuse to take on the Homer Trojans, central New York’s surprise entry into the state championship tournament.

The Homer Trojans don’t have any of Salmon’s style; their team is heavier and slower, they play a standard type of lacrosse with none of the trick shots.  Their game is “keep away” and it is one of the most frustrating parts of field lacrosse and may well be the reason that version of the game is holding the sport back.

Keep away is when a team secures control of the ball in the opponents end. Rather then try attacking the net, they simply pass it back and forth for minutes at a time. This is an affront to the Mohawk version which demands speed and exceptional stick handling along with body checking and the toughness of scrums in the corners. Decades ago college and professional basketball teams were marginal sports since there was no time clock and the games dragged on as players held the ball the way field players now do; not until the 24 second clock was introduced in 1954 by Danny Biasone, owner of the Syracuse Nationals, did the NBA explode in popularity.  The NCAA followed in 1973 with the 45 second rule reduced to 35 seconds in 1993.

Shot clocks revolutionized basketball as a whole and reduced the number of fouls in a game since players did not have to physically assault the ball handlers to get back into the game.

 It is obvious that filed lacrosse needs to do likewise.  It should come as no surprise that the Salmon River team, raised with the much more entertaining box style, would become frustrated as they tried to press Homer to be play the game with a little more speed.

Salmon plays with passion-they check hard, shoot hard and use their bodies in a way alien to Homer. It was obvious the referees had little patience for the Salmon way. Repeated penalties on highly questionable calls placed the ‘rocks in a defensive hole, particularly in the second half when Salmon was slapped with 10 consecutive penalties.

The face offs were another problem.  Of the two dozen contests in the center of the field Homer won most of them.  As anyone who watches field lacrosse knows winning faceoffs is the absolute key to winning the game. Syracuse University learned this harsh lesson during the past year and Salmon would also. Win the faceoff, control the ball, play keep away and win the game.

In such a contest the offense can do little.  Scorers like Dalston Day, Seth Oakes and Trenton Tarbell must rest on their sticks while the longstick guys try and pry the ball away from the Trojans.  The pressure grows as the game clock ticks down-so Salmon steps up with its checks and is given flag after flag which would not happen if there was a shot clock.

Homer is not a finesse team. They are methodical and without playmaking imagination or innovation. Yet they are steady and they win faceoffs. They somehow defeated defending state champion Cazenovia (a team Salmon lost to in overtime last year) and were the underdogs against Salmon River. But if they were without color they proved to be disciplined and consistent. Their defense was solid as well but the obvious key was to keep the ball from Oakes, Day and Tarbell. They did so and won by a score of 12-8.