HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — Connor Farrell gave new dad Jordan MacIntosh a milk rattle for a gift following the birth of his daughter Vivian.
And on Friday night at Hofstra’s Shuart Stadium, “the milk man” delivered in a big way down the stretch to lead Chrome LC to a 17-14 win over Waterdogs LC.
Farrell, the Long Island native who played in front of a host of friends and family, won seven big faceoffs in the fourth quarter, including one he won clean and took to the cage with 6:40 left in regulation.
The goal came six seconds after Ryan Brown gave the Waterdogs their largest lead of the game at 14-11.
“I was actually aiming top left, and it went bottom left,” said Farrell, who also won 18 of 30 faceoffs and scooped up 14 ground balls. “So, I guess if I don’t know where the ball is going, the goalie doesn’t know where the ball is going.”
The rally Farrell helped ignite was set ablaze by Justin Anderson, who scored five goals, including back-to-back tallies in a 33-second span to tie the score at 14. And then rookie Brendan Nichtern, a native of nearby Massapequa, curled from behind the cage to score what proved to be the winner, his fourth goal of the evening.
The ninth overall selection in the PLL Draft added two assists in his first game back at Shuart Stadium since helping lead Massapequa to a Nassau County title.
“He’s really talented, he sees the game, his IQ’s great, he’s great in the huddles,” Chrome coach Tim Soudan said of Nichtern. “But what we saw tonight and what we saw flashes of in the games before is that when it’s time to take the game over, he’s able to do it.”
Logan Wisnauskas helped put the game on ice, first setting up Mike Manley for a pole goal and scoring his fourth goal of the game 35 seconds later, as the Chrome closed out the game on a 6-0 run.
The Chrome, which went 2-7 a year ago, are now 3-0 for the first time in franchise history.
“We obviously have a lot of new faces on the roster this year, and it’s been so impressive to see how quickly guys have gotten up to speed of the pro game and are doing what we expected them to do when we brought them here,” Jordan MacIntosh said. “Seeing Connor Farrell elevate his game, seeing Justin Anderson and his development from his first year to his second to be that true offensive threat every time he’s on the field, and then what our young guys are doing down on attack with Nich and Wiz, I think we have a lot of game breakers, a lot of guys in college were the go-to guy who are starting to get their feet under them and starting to get their feet under them.”
The injury-riddled Waterdogs, meanwhile, are now 0-3. They took their first lead of the game at 11-10 on a goal by Ryan Conrad with 52 seconds left in the third quarter and had their largest advantage at 14-11 with 6:46 remaining as Brown’s fifth goal capped an 8-1 run.
It was just another case of not being able to close out a game.
“We just have to taste it,” Waterdogs coach Andy Copelan said. “I think once you get a couple of [wins], all of a sudden, momentum’s a funny thing. You get that behind you, and I think you can surprise some people.”
WHIPS IMPROVE TO 3-0
The Whipsnakes became the second team to improve to 3-0 on the season, riding the two-point goal to beat the Atlas 12-9 in the nightcap.
Jack Concannon was the hero early for the Atlas, with the former Hofstra goalie making eight of his 17 saves in the first quarter. On a Jeff Teat goal with 9:39 left in the second quarter, the Atlas led 4-2.
“Concannon played unbelievably,” Matt Rambo said. “We were changing the plane in the second half. We shot high I think every shot in the first half, so just changing it up and making him move a little bit more.”
But they’d go cold offensively and went 17 minutes without another goal. By the time Dan Bucaro attacked the crease with 3:29 left in the third quarter, the Atlas (2-1) trailed 8-5.
Chris Gray followed by weaving through traffic to pull the Atlas to within two less than a minute later. But Mike Chanenchuk was the rally killer with a two-point goal — the Whips’ third of the game — to extend their lead to 10-6 with 10 seconds left in the third quarter.
Gray, who tacked on a late two-point goal of his own, and Teat were limited to a combined three goals by the Whips defense.
“I think we did a really good job of getting out and not giving them room to dodge and room to run,” Whips coach Jim Stagnitta said. “Both Gray and Teat and [Bryan] Costabile are really good at finding people right after they make their initial dodges, and by us being able to win or stay equal in a lot of those matchups, we didn’t allow those guys off ball to be open for them to find them.”
Teat put the Atlas struggles on his shoulders.
“I’ll take that one,” he said. “I was a passenger today. I played selfish; I wasn’t very aggressive.”