NC Fusion Men's League Recap: Week 4

Before we get into it — and I'm only saying this once — word around the cooler is that the PLL has been sniffing around this league. As in, the Premier Lacrosse League. As in, a G-League situation. I'm not confirming anything, I don't have a source I'm willing to put on record, and I'm not gonna be the guy who blows this up before it's official. What I will say is that if you've been sleeping on Sunday nights in Greensboro, you might want to wake up. That's all I'm saying. Rumor.

Game One: Storm 17, Nighthawks 18 (OT)

You Gotta Be Kidding Me With This Finish

Alright, I'm gonna be honest with you — I've been watching lacrosse since before half these guys were born and I have never, never, seen a team get chirped for stalling with a four-goal lead in a men's league Sunday night game then lose. Four goals. You were up four. My kid's U11 team can kill more time than that and they play for a Capri Suns and Nutri-Grain bars.

Now let's talk about the elephant in the room — or rather, the elephant in the cage. Griff Glover has been playing in the shadow of the so-called "KeeperOfTheGatez" all season and people are starting to talk. And I mean talk. Watching him go coast-to-coast out of the cage through six defenders plus a sub to get a shot off at the doorstep — that's not a men's league play. That's not even a good college play. That's a guy who might be the most explosive goalie in this league and people are finally starting to figure it out. Must run in the family. The stat line debate is fun, but if you've got eyes, you know what you saw.

Now the Nighthawks — let's give them their flowers because this was a performance. You want to talk about a Jordan-Pippen situation? Duncan "D-Murda" Glover and Ern ran this game like they'd been playing together since Duncan was 11.

D-Murda is the closer — we'll get to that — but Ern was everywhere all night. Every time the Storm tried to get something going, Ern was there. The kind of player you don't notice until you watch the film and realize he was in every single sequence. That's a lacrosse IQ play. That's Scottie Pippen. You don't win without him.

Then there's the MVP race nobody wants to have an honest conversation about. Duncan "D-Murda" Glover — good player, big-game player, clearly has it — put up 11 goals on Bert Innella earlier this season in week two. Eleven. That's not a game, that's a statement. And now Bert's campaigning for MVP on the back of his save numbers. I'm not saying Bert doesn't have a case. I'm saying D-Murda scored eleven times on the man and the audacity of that MVP push is genuinely impressive. It's a good race. I enjoy it. But let's not pretend week two didn't happen.

Aimery Workman — let's not skip over this because it deserves more than a sentence. The Storm is down in the fourth, clock running out, season narrative shifting by the second. And Workman just goes. Out of nowhere, ball in traffic, bodies everywhere, and he tickles the twine. That's the kind of goal you see once in a season if you're lucky. I've been saying it for years — when the game's on the line you find out who your players are. Workman showed you who he is. Beautiful goal. Put it on the Louvre (that’s the French museum, you uncultured lax bros).

"What are the rules for overtime in men's league?" Honestly, at this point I'm not even sure the guys running it know, but word came down from the Brass: No more Russian Roulette we're doing a Braveheart. First goal wins.

Now I want you to stop and appreciate what happened in OT. Earlier in the game D-Murda takes a hack — a hack, just eats it — and scores. Last game he flexed after snapping a stick, this week turns to the defender and goes "Keep swinging." Fast forward to Braveheart time guess who scores. Game over.

And yes — Bert "KeeperOfTheGatez" Innella had the audacity to text in his stat line before this recap was even written, lobbying for MVP over D-Murda from his couch on the other side of town. We'll get to Bert. There's a whole section for Bert. Patience.

Storm drops to 2-2, back-to-back losses. Nighthawks were 0-2 and are now 2-2. I said from day one those guys just needed to settle in. Nobody wanted to hear it.

Game Two: Titans 33, Grinders 16

Thirty-Three Goals. I've Seen Enough.

Thirty-three goals. Thirty-three. You know what I was doing when I was these guys' age? Playing for Garden City. We didn't score 33 goals in a week. And yes, I know the level is different, I'm not comparing apples to apples here, I'm just saying — when you're putting up 33 in a men's league game, you either have something special going or the other team's goalie is having a rough night. Tonight it was both.

Let's go down some of the roster here:

Bryce Craig showed up and turned up — the kind of performance that makes you wonder where that's been hiding. When a guy decides to go, you just get out of the way and let it happen. That was Bryce tonight.

The Pfeiffer boys were doing what they always do — dual-threat, two-way, making life miserable in both directions. You want to know why the Titans are 4-0? It's because they've got guys who can hurt you when they have the ball and take it away when they don't. I've been preaching that at the youth level for years. Nobody builds two-way players anymore. The Pfeiffer boys didn't get that memo.

AJ laid somebody out. Clean, hard, the way the game's supposed to be played. And the guy who took it? Took it like a man. Didn't flop, didn't jaw about it, just got up. I respect that more than I can tell you. Both those guys get a nod.

Matt "Doctor" Manning scored — his fourth straight game with a goal. Four consecutive games. That is a streak. That is a man who shows up every single week and puts the ball in the net. Quiet, consistent, inevitable. That's the Doctor's operating table and everyone else is just laying on it.

Ryan "Behind the Scenes" Gehsmann — look, I don't think this guy gets enough credit and I've been saying it since the season started. Getting to the crease at will, every game, like clockwork. You can't stop what you can't see and nobody sees Gehsmann coming until he's already there. Behind the scenes indeed.

And Andrew McLaughlin on defense — I'll say it plainly: first-team all-defense. Two years running. I'm not handing out first-team all-defense to men's league guys lightly. I played at a level where that meant something and I know it when I see it. Andrew knows it when I see it too, I assume, because he keeps doing it.

Now. The Grinders kept it close in the first half — goal for goal, competitive lacrosse, credit where it's due. Then Ty “No Right” Rippen — smart player, good player, been working Bert's psyche from the jump — and then a shot rang off Bert's dome like a church bell, the defending Verizon Wireless MVP erupted, and whatever was left of that game went with it. The Kraken was awaken.

For the record, Bert texted in — again, unprompted — to dispute the characterization of the second half. 24 saves, 4 assists against the Storm. 46 saves, 7 assists over his last two games. Lobbying for MVP, challenging the play-by-play, AND filming his own goalie sessions to audit the stat sheet afterward. Bert. The man is 4-0 and still pressed. That's a winner's mentality and I won't take it from him. But I will point out that you took a shot directly off your helmet in a 17-goal blowout win and started hollering about your assist numbers before the final whistle. The tape doesn't lie. But the heart? Undeniable.

Grinders ran out of gas late — short roster, shorter legs. It happens. The Greensboro College alum on that team — I don't know if they started celebrating their alma mater’s victory earlier in the day but the second half didn't look like the beginning.

Titans are 4-0, sitting on 96 goals, two games clear of everyone, and four away from a hundred on the season. I'm not saying they're the best men's league team I've ever seen. I'm just saying I haven't seen better. I'm just saying what I see.

Grinders are 0-4 with the second-most goals in the league. Somebody get them a schedule analyst, a defensive coordinator, and a Gatorade. In that order.

📸 To see all the photos from the game check out Marty’s album here

Housekeeping

- Last two games of the season — 3/22 & 3/29 — are TBD on time and location. We will have games. Show up.

- Grant Ament — former Penn State, current PLL, the real deal — is coming to Charlotte and Greensboro with Chris Sabia on 3/13–3/14 for a youth clinic. If your kid is serious about this game, you get them there. No excuses. More details coming soon.

🍻 Ice up gentlemen, see you next week.