November 24, 2010

PLL: Thriller in Poznan, victory for the Hussars!

The fans who gathered at the MOS Stadium in Poznan couldn’t complain about a lack of emotions. After a dramatic game the Poznan Hussars won against the Kosynierzy Wroclaw!!!

So far both the Poznan and Wroclaw players won all their league games in the Polish Lacrosse League. The two oldest and strongest lacrosse teams in Poland wanted to defeat the other team to get a step closer to the official title of Champion of Poland.

Starting at 1pm, the traditional line-up of ten players of both teams met at the centre of the field. After the referee’s talk, Jedrzej Baginski from Poznan and Tomasz Kedzia from Wroclaw shook hands wishing each other good luck.

First whistle: start of the “Holy war”. Kosynierzy Wroclaw won the first face-off. The Hussars formed a defensive formation in front of their goal. The ball circles the goal several times but after Wroclaw’s mistake it lands in Jerry Winiarek’s goalie stick. A quick transition and the ball is on the visitor’s half of the field. Some of Poznan’s players started to stretch out the defense. Krystian Komar was waiting for that moment! After a one-man play he scores and gives the lead to the Hussars! It’s 1:0 for the hosts!

After a few minutes we witnessed a similar play and once again it’s player number 6 on his back and it’s 2:0 for Poznan! A very good defensive game helped to neutralize the guests’ offensive plays. End of quarter!

In the second half of the game the Kosynierzy started to attack Poznan’s goal more often but their efforts weren’t a threat to the goalie in the white jersey. The Hussars responded with a counter strike. Szymon Kowalewski passed the ball to Jedrzej Baginski which ran in between two of Wroclaw’s players and scored! Poznan 3 – 0 Wroclaw!

The battle on the field was really fierce! Every ground ball was a great opportunity to play a deadly fast-break. The players from Wroclaw tried many times to beat Poznan’s goalie but thanks to his great reflexes they didn’t succeed.

When everyone was sure that the score wouldn’t change till half-time, Jedrzej Baginski scored! It was a good shot and he didn’t give Mateusz Rydzak a chance, the goalie from Wroclaw. The fourth goal was awarded with applause from the gathered fans and players of the Ravens Lodz, a new Polish lacrosse club.

From the start of the second half the Kosynierzy started to attack. During a man down situation after a technical foul for the Poznan team, Jacek Litmanowski scored for Wroclaw; their first goal! after this goal the Hussars started to lose concentration, which only gave the Scythes confidence and strength.

The following minutes were full of penalties for both clubs. Grzogorz Irla from Poznan was sent off for unsportsmanlike conduct and Kamil Lamorski for unnecessary roughness. Wroclaw scored while playing in a two-man up advantage. Tomasz Kedzia lost his defender and shot straight in the upper left corner of Poznan’s goal. During the third quarter another goal was scored by Wroclaw, to be more specific by Janek Rydzak.

The last quarter started with a goal causing a tie. Jacek Litmanowski scored his second goal. The final result was still unsettled. After a shot by Pawel Hamrol the ball left the field and the closest player was Norbert Kinecki, also from Poznan, so the home team was starting from behind the goal. Norbert decided to dodge his defender. Running shoulder to shoulder he jumped from behind the goal and scored while still airborne! 5:4 for the Hussars! We have the lead!

Unfortunately few minutes after Janek Rydzak scored his second goal in this game. We had a tie again, 5:5.

30 seconds left to the end of the fourth quarter… Jedrzej Baginski passes to Pawel Hamrol who tricked his defender, caught the pass running from behind the goal and shot… The ball landed in the net! 6:5 for the Hussars!

Blazej Rokicki, the Kosynierzy’s coach requested a stick check on Pawel Hamrol. Several seconds of checking the stick’s legality and the result… legal! 25 seconds left to the end of the game. Wroclaw didn’t manage to score after the face-off. The referee’s last whistle and the Poznan Hussars became the leader of the autumn round of the Polish Lacrosse League! The Hussars remain unbeatable!

We would like to thank the gathered fans for cheering us on through the whole game, the Ravens Lodz players, Marta Dziekanska for taking photos and Visual Heads for managing the multimedia. We thank the referees and the Kosynierzy Wroclaw for a passionate game.

Here you can find the gallery from this game!

Goal Scorers:

Hussars: