The first half opened with a scoreless first quarter before scoring three goals in a rusty season-opening half. With the second half came aggressive and intense play for the San Diego Seals, but the Vancouver Warriors ran a late surge after capitalizing on two power-play goals to win 8-7 over San Diego to open National Lacrosse League (NLL) play.
Dane Dobbie opened up the San Diego scoring with his first goal in a Seals jersey, tying up the game at one apiece just over a minute in the second quarter. Rookie forward Tre Leclaire followed up Dobbie with a goal of his own, the first of his career in his first career game. The 23-year-old Leclaire scored his second goal 10 minutes later to put the Seals up by one once again.
San Diego goaltender Frank Scigliano gave up a Vancouver score one minute into the game, but did not give up another goal until less than five minutes remaining in the second quarter. The Warriors tied the game at three apiece with 0.4 seconds remaining in the opening half, and both teams entered their locker rooms for halftime the same way they were when the game began.
The team entered the second half with a more aggressive mindset, head coach Patrick Merrill said, after Vancouver’s very aggressive first half against the Seals. And it worked, at first.
Third-year Seal Wesley Berg broke the tie two minutes into the final half, and a minute later, forward Casey Jackson scored his first goal of the season. Another minute later, returning forward Zack Greer put the Seals up by three after he had left with 15 seconds left in the second quarter (he seemed alright when he scored his first goal of the season as part of three goals in under three minutes for San Diego).
However, the Seals would only score one more goal from Mac O’Keefe, who scored his first career goal in his first career game. Scigliano gave up five goals in the final 22 minutes of the game, with two power-play goals thanks to two illegal substitutions made by San Diego.
The Seals drop the first game of the 2021-22 season and will look for their first victory on the road when they travel to Denver, Colo. to face the Colorado Mammoth on Saturday, Dec. 11 at 5:30 p.m. PT at Ball Arena.