MLL top goal-scorer Merrick Thomson Scores Five Goals in New Jersey's MLL Victory

Courtesy: Inside Lacrosse

Nine games into the season, make-it, take-it runs were something the Pride were used to seeing stretch close games out of reach in favor of their opponents, and never the other way around. Saturday night against Washington, they saw what they were missing as they used several face-off-powered bursts to blow open a tight game late in the second quarter, breezing to a 25-20 victory.

Rookie face-off specialist Danny Brennan saw action for the Pride for just the second time all-season and his impact was apparent. While his numbers won’t place him in the running for Defensive Player of the Week, it was a drastic increase from the sub-forty face-off percentage the Pride entered with which placed them on course for the all-time worst percentage in MLL history. The offensive bursts were a welcome change.

“It’s nice,” Jacobs said of the streaks. “Our offense has always been pretty good at getting goals when they get the ball, it’s just a matter of getting the ball and getting good possessions.

“Danny did a good job today.”

The Peyser brothers led the way for the Pride offensively. Older brother Greg had a solid game for the Pride, while Stephen scored four goals and handed out an assist to earn Bud Light MVP Honors.

“It’s really fun to hug your brother on a day where you both do well and see a smile on his face just like the one I’m probably showing him,” Stephen Peyser said.

With siblings, of course, there also comes that extra juice to match what the other is providing on the field.

“Yeah, I’m sure he has the same sentiment,” Stephen Peyser said. “We’re brothers, so we like to compete with each other - we’ve been doing it since we were little - so it’s just fun to get out there and ball with each other.”

The competition worked out for the best for the Pride, though the results don’t surprise Jacobs.

“They’re tough kids,” Jacobs said. “They play hard defensively and hard offensively. When we traded to get them we did it because we knew they were tough two-way players.”

Scott Urick also provided strong offense for the Pride, showing that he’s still “The Shot” with multiple precision strikes en-route to a three goal night.

“Scotty never went away,” Jacobs said. “It’s just a matter of getting him the ball. When we have the ball and we’re on offense, Scotty is going to get the ball and he’s going to score goals.”

MLL top goal-scorer Merrick Thomson bolstered his numbers with five goals, including some deep strikes, as opposed to his textbook crease runs.

“He’s becoming more and more of a complete attackman,” Jacobs said. “Early in the year he was labeled a ‘Canadian attackman’ who could only play off the ball and be an inside finisher, but now he’s completing his game and it’s making us a more dangerous attack.”

Washington attackman Buggs Combs was spectacular offensively in the losing effort, scoring eight goals, a Bayhawks franchise record.

“I don’t mind if one guy scores a lot of goals if the rest of the team defense is okay,” Jacobs said, ‘but we weren’t doing a good job team-wise of rotating to him, so it wasn’t that one person was guarding him and doing a bad job.

“We may have to re-evaluate our looks, because it’s one of those things where early in the year our defense was doing a great job and later in the year it’s been not so good.”

The Pride penalty kill was strong all game, but no stretch was more important than an early illegal stick violation on Chris Unterstein. With the game tied 2-2, the Pride killed the entirety of the 3:00 non-releasable penalty, ending a chance for the Bayhawks to put some space between them without so much as a scoring threat.

“It was huge for us,” Jacobs said, “that’s one of those situations where you can give up one, two or three depending on how you face-off. But we did a good job of scouting and finding their passing lanes and our guys got in them, then when our offense had the ball we used the full shot clock.”

The teams traded scores early, with neither squad able to take a decisive lead. Tim Treubig got things started for the Pride at 2:36, but Combs answered in the fourth minute to make the score 1-1. After Jordan Levine re-established the Pride lead, but Combs again knotted things up. After the successful illegal stick penalty kill and Cinosky goal, it was Kyle Dixon’s turn to again even things up, making the score 3-3.

Matt Ward gave the Bayhawks their first goal of the game at 12:48 of the first, but the Pride used a newfound advantage at face-off to tie it on a Scott Urick goal just :11 later, and take the lead back :16 after that on Merrick Thomson’s first of the game. A Stephen Peyser goal with just seven seconds remaining gave the Pride a 6-4 lead after one.

Jamison Mullen and Combs quickly tied things up again for the Bayhawks, but the Pride responded with a pair of goals of their own by Urick and Peyser to re-establish a two-goal lead before Combs’ fourth of the day cut the lead to 8-7.

After Cinosky stripped Dixon and earned a slashing penalty, Thomson used the man-up to tally his second of the day. The Pride won the resulting draw, and Urick scooped up the rebound of a Stephen Peyser shot to make the score 10-7.

Washington answered with some make-it, take-it of their own however with a pair of quick goals by Brendan Healey and Combs to narrow the margin to 10-9. Stephen Peyser continued the run of important draws however, scoring another make-it, take-it for the Pride.

While the run ended there, the scoring tear did not, as following a lone non-scoring possession of the ensuing draw by the Pride, the Bayhawks again chipped away at the lead with a Mark Richards goal. The Pride, sparked their half-ending run with, fittingly enough, a Thomson goal followed immediately with a won draw and score by Stephen Peyser. Matt Danowski added his first of the game behind his back, and Greg Peyser fired a laser in the fifteenth minute to put the Pride ahead 15-10 at the break.

Combs again tallied for Washington, but the Pride used their 6-goal run to put the game out of reach at 21-11. The Bayhawks threatened late in the third with a 5 goal run of their own, before another behind-the-back score from Danowski opened the fourth quarter scoring, and gave the Pride a 22-16 lead.