FORT WORTH, TX (March 3, 2024) – The Panther City Lacrosse Club (5-6) lost Sunday afternoon to the Rochester Knighthawks (4-6), 19-15 in a high scoring affair that saw both teams have players record a sock trick.
Rochester jumped out to a four-goal lead 13 minutes into the opening quarter and never looked back and never lost the lead. In the first half, Rochester scored 10 goals and PCLC was only able to record six goals.
The bright spot for Panther City was Will Malcom who recorded 11 points (7G/4A), of which the seven goals are a new career high for Malcom and was his first career sock trick in the NLL. After tonight’s performance, Malcom now has 65 points on the season with 24 goals and 41 assists. He leads the team in assists and is second on the team in goals behind Callum Crawford’s 31. Jonathan Donville recorded seven points this afternoon with three goals and four assists. Crawford led Panther City with five assists.
Second-year defender Ronin Pusch was inserted into the lineup and led the team with 10 loose balls and also recorded one caused turnover. Goalie Cam MacLeod came in for relief of Nick Damude and played over 42 minutes, stopping 36 of the 47 shots he faced.
Panther City will head to Philadelphia next weekend for another Sunday matchup as they square off against the Philadelphia Wings on Sunday, March 10 at 2 p.m. CT.
HEAD COACH TRACEY KELUSKY QUOTES
On struggles with loose balls and shots on goal…
“I thought they [Rochester] came out very hot. We were flat. We knew the importance of the first five minutes and it didn’t go our way. What I just said to the guys in the locker room was it wasn’t a lack of effort. We are certainly tired but then what do we have to put the most emphasis on? That is doing these little things very well and a lot of it is just basic lacrosse. It stems back to fundamental lacrosse picking up loosies with two hands, being in a good position, reacting in real time. These are all little things that we were very poor on. We didn’t execute. It was almost nonexistent most of the game. At critical times in the game when we were getting back into the flow we just had mental breakdowns.”
On what they can do to limit penalties…
“Some of the penalties we got were so far away from the play. I know guys care. Emotion is good and passion is good, but where are we directing it? There were bad penalties behind the play that have zero relevance to what’s going on. To me it was uncharacteristic but also seemingly not uncharacteristic because it’s the same guys doing it. I have to take accountability for that and be harder on those guys that are getting them. As of right now, it doesn’t seem to be stopping because it is repeat offenders, which is unfortunate.”
On some positives he saw…
“Our emotion was really good on the bench. One of the things we talked about was that communication sometimes has to be the number one thing that pushes you to get better. You got to communicate and guys were active on the bench and communicating. We have a locker room in there where guys care about one another. We just got to find a way to direct it a little bit better. We need to put a higher emphasis on those little things and make sure that is the thing that is pushing us. There are so many positives tonight. I love our locker room. I know that in there those guys feel like they let themselves down, but they let their teammates down. That’s what I have always loved about this group. They’re more of a resilient group, but they care about each other. They are prideful and want to earn each other’s respect, which is ultimately why we play sports and something that I’m proud of with our guys always. We’ll rebound and nothing changes. Friday night you go to overtime against one of the best teams in the league and a stinker tonight but we’ll rebound.
On Will Malcom’s night…
“That was the message after San Diego. If you’re the guy, then go be the guy. He put that weight on his shoulders today. He went out and showed it. He was not only shooting the ball real well but he was grinding in there picking up loose balls, went back and played awesome defensive. He really leads by example, which is what we want him to do. We’re happy with the job from him tonight. That was the challenge set forth after the game on Friday – go be the guy. He did that tonight which I loved his response.”
