SEALS DROP BACK-AND-FORTH AFFAIR

The San Diego Seals dropped the season opener on Friday night, 8-7, to the Vancouver Warriors in a gritty nail-biter that came down to the final minute of the game.

“We’ll take a lot of learnings from this game,” said General Manager and Head Coach Patrick Merrill. “This was a very typical NLL game, where anything can happen. You’re given an inch, you take a mile, and that’s how it was for both teams.”

San Diego’s offense was slow to start until newcomer Dane Dobbie buried the first goal of the season, and his first goal in San Diego, in the second quarter. Rookie forward Tre Leclaire netted his first career goal shortly after and finished with two goals and three points on the night. Rookie Mac O’Keefe sniped an underhand shot past Buque for his first NLL goal. Forwards Casey Jackson, Zack Greer and Wesley Berg each added goals on the night.

“I felt like we weren’t on the same page a lot of the night,” said Merrill. “We need to start clicking more, creating that chemistry and put some runs together. It was nice to see Tre and Mac get their first goals, they played well tonight.”

Goaltender Frank Scigliano stopped 30 shots keeping it a close affair all night. The Seals defense held the Warriors to five goals through three quarters until Vancouver came back to take the one-goal lead in the final frame.

“We have to give them credit,” continued Merrill. “They came out in the fourth quarter aggressive and played well. Credit to Frankie [Scigliano], he stood on his head all night and kept us in the game. We have to play a full 60-minutes and we didn’t do that tonight.”

The Seals will hit the road to face the Colorado Mammoth on Saturday, December 11. For breaking news and updates, follow @SealsLax on social media.