The San Diego Seals struggled after back-to-back bye weeks as the team dropped the Friday night matchup against Vancouver at Pechanga Arena San Diego.
“Our success from early on came from outworking teams,” said general manager and head coach Patrick Merrill. “We were grinding out and playing 60-minute games. We just weren’t willing for some reason to pay the same price tonight, and they were. We weren’t mentally or emotionally connected to the flow of the game. We’re going to take a couple days to reflect and go back to the drawing board. We have a tough opponent at the top of the league next week. We’ve shown that we’re a good team, we just have to get back to that place.”
It took the San Diego Seals just nine seconds to open the scoring as defenseman Cam Holding scooped up the loose ball and buried it behind Vancouver’s Eric Penney. Forward Dan Dawson added another just over five minutes later, but San Diego failed to rally the rest of the game scoring just three goals in the final three quarters.
“That was ugly in every aspect of the game,” said Dawson. “We allowed them to control every facet of tonight’s game, and we’re at home. We have an unbelievable opportunity to see where we’re at as a team when we head to Toronto. It’s all about how we respond. It’s another opportunity to give our best effort.”
In a penalty-ridden game, the San Diego Seals were one penalty minute behind the NLL season record (37).
“We obviously came out strong but unfortunately the energy wasn’t there for the full 60 minutes,” said transition player Adrian Sorichetti. “[Vancouver] is a strong team, and we unfortunately didn’t show our best tonight. We have to be better because we’re heading to Toronto and facing a strong team up there. Vancouver is playing for the Western Conference title as much as we are, and we had a target on our back tonight.”
The San Diego Seals head to Toronto to play the Rock at Rogers Centre on Friday, Feb. 15. The team returns home on Saturday, Mar. 2 to play the Vancouver Warriors at 7:00 PM PST at Pechanga Arena.