 BALTIMORE BOX FINALS PICKLED PARROT Runs The UPSET TABLE November 2004 |
BALTIMORE BOX FINALS PICKLED PARROT Runs The UPSET TABLE November 2004 |
The "Old Men" Do It Again!
By Chris Latimer
The Baltimore Indoor Lacrosse League is probably the top amateur Box Lacrosse league in the US. It has served as an unofficial warm-up session for players in the the pro Box leagues - the National Lacrosse League and before that the Major Indoor Lacrosse League. Most of the ten teams in the league have either current or retired pro Box players on their roster, and the league has a rule that no team can have more than 4 active NLL pros on its roster. The BILL just concluded its season Saturday, November 20 at Du Burns Arena in Canton, MD with a series of four 45-minute games to crown the season champions. The champion was a surprise to everyone - especially those on the winning team.
The championship field consisted of 5 teams - DeWalt (players mostly from the American Lacrosse League championship team), Toyota and Scion (the United States Club Lacrosse Association's Toyota team divided in two to play in the BILL) , PJs Pub (a select team of retired NLL pros), and the Pickled Parrot (a mix of former pros and club players sponsored by the new owners of a friendly pub around the corner from the arena). On paper, any of the first 4 teams were expected to win, with the Pickled Parrot losing early in the process - not because of a lack of talent, but rather a lack of wheels - with the exception of 3 young players, everyone else on the team is over 35, and 10 of the players are over 45. But with age come brains, a lesson that many learned that afternoon.
Down by one, with 40 seconds left in regulation, they scored on a Keith Gonsouland feed to Scott Prestridge on the crease to force overtime. In OT, Nick Sfakianos scored on an outside shot that capped the remarkable comeback and run. This is basically the same team that stopped the undefeated and All-America studded E-Lacrosse Summer team in the Maryland Summer League finals a few years back. The core group will be traveling to Fort Lauderdale in January to defend its championship title in the Florida Lacrosse Classic - a Grand Masters tournament!
One of the Commissioners of the box league, Hunter Francis, also the Scion coach, was a bit more than impressed, "Those guys put on a coach's clinic Les Bartley would be proud of". The other League Commissioner, Billy Curtis, who's PJ's Pub team lost to Scion in the semi-finals, was injured in that game and spent the afternoon in a big bucket of ice. He did not get to see the next two games but could not believe the result when he heard. "They played an extra game in the morning, and should have lost by a lot both in the semi and the final. Unbelievable!" Curtis had just assumed that Scion would play Toyota in the final and that the two would play it close. But as they say, "You don't quit playing because you get old, you get old because you quit playing."
PJ's Jeff Wills High Bandwidth
ACTION VIDEOS
Scion's Roland Miller High Bandwidth
PJ's Tony Millon to Jeff Wills to Jeff Klodzen High Bandwidth
Scion's Kenny Carrington High Bandwidth
PJ's Tony Millon High Bandwidth
PJ's Jeff Wills to Jeff Klodzen High Bandwidth
PJ's Jeff Klodzen High Bandwidth
Scion's Jake Martin High Bandwidth
Scion's Yoshiro Hikichi High Bandwidth
Scion's Roland Miller hits the game winner! High Bandwidth
Pickled Parrot's Keith Gonsouland High Bandwidth
Team Toyota's Jesse D'Alonzo High Bandwidth
Team Toyota's Adam Miller High Bandwidth Only
Pickled Parrot's Mark Hoffman to Scott Kneebone High Bandwidth
Pickled Parrot's Mark Hoffman to Scott Prestridge High Bandwidth
Team Toyota's Bugsy Combs High Bandwidth
Pickled Parrot's Adam Miller High Bandwidth Only
Pickled Parrot's Mark Hahn High Bandwidth
Pickled Parrot's Nick Sfakianos High Bandwidth
Team Toyota's Hunter Lochte to Buggs Combs High Bandwidth
Pickled Parrot's Adam Miller High Bandwidth Only
Pickled Parrot's Nick Sfakianos High Bandwidth
All 6'4" 275 lbs of Roland Miller (Scion) High Bandwidth
Scion's Alex Kopecki High Bandwidth
Pickled Parrot's Mark Hahn High Bandwidth
Scion's Kenny Carrington on the Power Play High Bandwidth
Pickled Parrot's Mark Hoffman with the "gotcha" High Bandwidth
Pickled Parrot's Mark Hahn to Keith Gonsouland of the face off. High Bandwidth
Pickled Parrot's Keith Gonsouland High Bandwidth
Pickled Parrot's Keith Gonsouland to Scott Prestridge High Bandwidth
Pickled Parrot's Keith Gonsouland to Mark Hoffman to Scott Prestridge ties it with 40 seconds left. High Bandwidth
Pickled Parrot's Nick Sfakianos in OT! High Bandwidth
PHOTOS
