Lacrosse Players Need To Stop Bullying Goalies Like This Before It's Too Late
There has never been a good time to be a lacrosse goalie. You have to be an absolute moron to get between those pipes. You wear minimal padding and have dudes rifling a rubber projectile at upwards of 100mph towards you for 60 straight minutes. All you have is a helmet, a stick, and a little layer of foam protecting your chest. Other than that, you're on your own. It's psychotic behavior.
But as the years have gone by, the life of a lacrosse goalie has gotten exponentially more devastating. It's one thing to watch a guy wind up 10 yards in front of you and rip a ball 95mph past your ear hole. But we're at a point in the sport now where guys are so skilled that goalies don't even get a chance to process the fact that the ball left their stick before it ends up in the back of the net.
Case in point, this Joey Spallina no-look behind-the-back goal from Syracuse vs Maryland over the weekend.
What are you even supposed to do in that situation? What can you even do in that situation? Guys are so skilled in today's game that the goalies are basically obsolete. Sure, they might be standing there in the net. But that hardly matters to kids like Joey Spallina. Even when the goalies get a chance to see the ball before it ends up in the back of the net, the downright silliness that proceeds the shot makes the whole play impossible to process before it's too late.
In no world should Chris Kavanagh be able to get that ball of the ground in that spot and deliver a perfect feed to Reilly Gray wide open on the doorstep like that. Fights through a check from the defender, completely turns his back to the guy he's throwing the ball to, and it's in a perfect spot for an easy pump & dump right on the crease. Your job as a goalie is to stop the ball. Guys like Chris Kavanagh are literally making your job impossible to do with borderline disrespectful plays like this.
If we don't act soon, I can't imagine a world where guys continue to voluntarily hop in the cage anymore. Why anybody would willingly subject themselves to this type of torture is beyond me. Fortunately there are still guys like Jared Paquette who put up enough highlights of their own to inspire more kids to take up the position.
But who knows how many more no-look behind-the-back goals we have left before we see the extinction of the lacrosse goalie. All I can tell you is that it's probably not a lot.