On Saturday, the Philadelphia Barrage (9-3) will start down the road to a third Major League Lacrosse title when they square off with their opponents from last season's final, the Denver Outlaws (7-5) at 2 PM at Rochester's PAETEC Park. The Barrage and Outlaws met during the regular season as well, Denver winning by a 15-13 score at Invesco Field on July 21. A win will put the Barrage into their third finals appearance in four seasons against the winner of the other semi final game pitting the Rochester Rattlers (9-3) against the Los Angeles Riptide (9-3). Sunday's championship game will be at 1 PM and shown live on ESPN2.
Barrage Postseason History
The Barrage are 4-0 in two appearances in the MLL Championship weekend. In 2004 in Boston, they needed overtime in the semi finals against Rochester, winning 18-17 on a Keith Cromwell goal with 7:05 remaining in the extra period. The Barrage would win the title with a 13-11 victory over the host Boston Cannons in front of a league postseason record crowd of 8,279 at Nickerson Field. Greg Cattrano earned game MVP with a 19 save performance and Roy Colsey added four goals and an assist to the winning effort.
In 2006 in Los Angeles, the Barrage and Cannons would meet again, this time in the semi final matchup. After losing both regular season games with Boston, Philly would dominate this meeting by jumping out to a 7-1 lead en route to a 17-12 win. Another four goal game for Colsey and a five goal night for Matt Striebel keyed the Philly victory. The title game ended up a rout as the Barrage defeated the expansion Outlaws 23-12. A 10 point day for Colsey (six goals, including a pair of two pointers, and two assists) led to MVP honors. Brian Dougherty made 19 saves in backstopping the win.
Barrage Postseason Leaders
Goals - Roy Colsey [15], Matt Striebel [11], Mike Springer & B.J. Prager [7]
Assists - Ryan Boyle [8], Striebel [6], Colsey [4]
Points - Colsey [21], Striebel [18], Boyle [13], Springer [10]
Wins - Greg Cattrano and Brian Dougherty [2]
Faceoff Wins - Paul Cantabene [42], Doug Shanahan [29]
Saves - Dougherty [34], Cattrano [33]
Barrage Regular Season Leaders
Goals - Roy Colsey [27], Mike Springer and Ryan Boyle [26], Matt Striebel [25]
Assists - Boyle [31], Springer [20], Striebel [13]
Points - Boyle [58], Springer [47], Striebel [39], Colsey [36]
Saves - Brian Dougherty [182]
Faceoff Wins - Andy Corno [167]
Ground Balls - Corno [66], Matt Zash [55]
Quotes
On Making the Playoffs and finishing with the top seed.
Roy Colsey: "The number one thing is not a huge deal. four teams make it and it should be a great tournament. Four great teams coming in and obviously you gotta win two to walk away with it (the Steinfeld Cup). It feels good, it's nice for us to win the last two and kinda go in on a roll, it feels a lot like last year. We got Denver in the semifinals. They beast us in the lst game we played them and Rochester looks real good. It should be a real interesting weekend."
Seth Goldberg: "I'm just excited to be on this team. I'm excited where we're at right now. I think we're really peaking. Whoever we play, we're gonna have to take it one game at a time. We really gotta focus on that first game and that's all that matters. Doesn't matter who the opponent is, it matters how we play. We gotta keep it up, we've been looking good these past two games."
Kevin Cassese: "It's good to be in the mix. All you gotta do is earn a spot in the playoffs and we did that. You get in and anybody can win it so we're happy to be there and we'll give it a run."
On being in Rochester for the Championship Weekend.
Goldberg (was acquired on waivers from Rochester on June 6): "It'll be nice to be back upstate."
Cassese (was acquired in a trade with the Rattlers on June 29): "I was up there (Rochester) for four years. I enjoyed playing up there, I liked the fans up there. It'll be great to get back home."
Next
Either a trip to the title game or the opener of the 2008 season. Stay tuned.
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