L.A. Smokes Dragons to Earn Playoff Berth

[Sonny]

CARSON, CALIFORNIA – Saturday, July 28, 2007 – Bud Light MVP/midfielder Sean Lindsay (Syracuse '04) had six points – including a team-high five goals – and attackman Spencer Ford (Towson '99) added one goal and five assists for the Los Angeles Riptide, who earned their team record sixth straight victory and a MLL playoff berth with their 20-11 win over the San Francisco Dragons before a crowd of 3,275 at The Home Depot Center on Saturday night.

With the win, the Riptide improved their record to 8-2 overall and 5-0 at The Home Depot Center this season. With the Riptide's sixth victory in six all-time meetings with the Dragons, Los Angeles was also able to secure a spot in the MLL playoffs for the first time in franchise history. The Riptide will be one of four teams invited to play for the league title on NB ZIP MLL Championship Weekend, set for August 25-26 in Rochester, NY.

"We knew there was a lot riding on this game and that we needed to take care of business," said Lindsay. "Luckily we played four hard quarters and everything fell into place. I think our confidence is up. Everybody knows their role on this team and everybody is pretty unselfish. If we keep playing like that, we're going to be tough to beat."

The Riptide held a one-goal lead over the Dragons after the first quarter thanks to attackman Chazz Woodson (Brown '05). Lindsay opened the scoring with his 16th goal of the season at 2:45 and Woodson gave the Riptide a 2-0 lead with his 17th goal (seventh as a member of the Riptide) at 7:08. The Dragons scored a pair of goals to tie the game, but Woodson scored again at 10:07 to give the Riptide the 3-2 lead after 15 minutes of play. All five of the goals scored in the quarter were unassisted. Meanwhile, Riptide goalie Mickey Jarboe (Navy '00) was also active in the quarter as he made five saves and had four ground balls.

The Riptide scored two goals in just 26 seconds to open a three-goal lead at 4:46 of the second quarter. Attackman/midfielder Wes Green (Adelphi '06) was credited with the first tally (his 13th of the season) and Ford made it 5-2 with his 10th goal of the season. The Dragons responded with two quick goals of their own, but the Riptide answered with Lindsay's second goal of the game (and 18th of the season) to take a 6-4 lead at 8:58 of the quarter. Ford had the assist on Lindsay's goal. Only one other goal was scored in the quarter and it went to Riptide midfielder Greg Downing (Fairfield '07) with an assist from attackman Michael Watson (Virginia '97). Downing scored the goal, his seventh of the season, with just seven seconds remaining in the segment to make it 7-4 Riptide lead at the half.

The Riptide took complete control of the game in the third quarter as they scored four of the five goals in the stanza to take a lead of 11-5. Lindsay added two more goals to his total, and midfielder Alex Buckley (Brown '07) and attackman Terry Riordan (Hopkins '95) also found the back of the net in the quarter. Buckley was credited with his first goal of the season and for Riordan, it was his 24th tally. Ford earned his second assist of the game on the Riordan goal.

The Riptide added four more goals in the first 6:25 of the fourth quarter to take a 10-goal lead. Midfielder Matt Casey (Ithaca '05) had two of the four tallies (his third and fourth goals of the season) and Watson (team-leading 26th goal) and Buckley (second goal of the game and the season) also scored. Ford earned an assist on two of the four goals to tie the league record for most assists in one season, and he broke the league record just 1:02 later with his 41st assist of the season. Ford assisted on a goal from attackman Brad Reppert (Towson '02; his first goal of the season) to give the Riptide a 16-8 lead. Midfielder Anthony Kelly (Ohio State '03; his first goal of the season), Lindsay and Woodson (19th goal and ninth with the Riptide) also had goals late in the quarter to round out the scoring. Lindsay's goal was scored from two-point range giving him five goals in the game and 20 goals on the season.

Jarboe posted his eighth victory of the season by allowing only six goals on 20 shots. The league leader in both goals-against-average (10.97) and save-percentage (.603) played nearly 52 minutes before he was replaced by goalie Matt Russell (Navy '06). Russell had two saves in his relief appearance.

Los Angeles is scheduled to return to action with a game against the Denver Outlaws at INVESCO Field at Mile High in Denver on Saturday, August 4 at 5:00 p.m. The Riptide are scheduled to host the Chicago Machine in their home finale on Saturday, August 11 at The Home Depot Center, with the game scheduled to begin at 4:00 p.m.

San Francisco (3-7) 2-2-1-6 / 11
Los Angeles (8-2) 3-4-4-9 / 20

One-Point Goals:
SF - Ryan Powell 3, Chris Rotelli 2, Tim Booth 2, Jake Byrne 1, Greg Gurenlian 1.
LA - Sean Lindsay 4, Chazz Woodson 3, Alex Buckley 2, Matt Casey 2, Michael Watson 1, Brad Reppert 1, Spencer Ford 1, Greg Downing 1, Terry Riordan 1, Wes Green 1, Anthony Kelly 1.

Two-Point Goals:
SF - Jake Byrne 1.
LA - Sean Lindsay 1.

Assists:
SF - Ryan Powell 2, Jarett Park 1, Chris Heier 1, Chris Rotelli 1.
LA - Spencer Ford 5, Greg Downing 3, Michael Watson 2, Greg Bice 1.

Saves:
SF - Matt Vallone 11 (55:02, 17 goals allowed), Matt Madalon 1 (4:58, 2 goals allowed).
LA - Mickey Jarboe 14 (51:54, 6 goals allowed), Matt Russell 2 (8:06, 4 goals allowed).

Attendance: 3,275