6/5/23
After a long hiatus I’m once again back, and for good reason. The PLL season began this past weekend, and it was honestly electric. This is coming from a guy that in the passed has bashed professional lacrosse because I’ve always wanted it to be better and on the level of the other major sports. The new shot clock rule made the speed of play even faster. That’s right, the fastest sport on 2 feet just got even faster with a 32 second shot clock after the face-off and a 52 second shot clock with change of possession. The over hit in 3 of the 4 games and it made for some high scoring, high paced games. The kicker is the last play of the last game yesterday in the Chrome vs Whipsnakes game though, where Paul Carcaterra blatantly bashed Division 3 Men’s Lacrosse.
The game was tied 11-11 with 10.6 seconds left when Cross Ferrara got the ball on the left wing below goal line extended. As Cross got the ball off the endline, Paul Carcaterra complained that the Chrome should call a timeout because he shouldn’t be getting the ball. Seconds later, Cross went to the rack and scored the game-winning goal with 4.7 seconds to give the Chrome the win 12-11.
Online, a lot of people bashed Carc for complaining that Cross had the game on his stick. Cross is a 4th round pick in this year’s PLL draft from the University of Salisbury, a Division 3 school and reigning national Champs. Cross was the star of their offense for 6 years there, finishing his career as the best offensive player to ever come out of the program.
One can look at what the situation and what Carc said in 2 different ways. This is the PLL. With the game on the line, it probably would be smart to call a timeout, like co-commentator Quint Kessenich suggested, and scheme a play to win the game. At the very least, it could be a smart thing to let proven veterans on the team like Colin Heacock, Jesse King, or Logan Wisnauskas get the ball and just let them cook.
I, along with many others in the lacrosse world, would like to take the more aggressive route. Carc didn’t want Cross Ferrara to decide the game because he comes from a D3 level. Cross is by far the best product ever to come from the D3 level, and Carc didn’t want him to decide the game because he thinks he is inferior to the rest of the players on the field. He wants the game to grow but he still judges players from the D3 level. Division 3 is the largest division in college lacrosse. It is the widest geographically diverse division in the country, and quite frankly, the grittiest one from the perspective of how much teams travel and for how much programs travel. Me, coming from this level, can attest that the travel isn’t easy. At times, we would have to travel thousands of miles just to play regular season games and even for the NCAA tournament with travel days lasting as long as 14-15 hours. For Carc to come at not only Cross but the backing of all D3 players like this isn’t just an insult to the players in the division but also an insult to the game and how much it has grown over the past 20 or so years.
Carc needs to come out with some sort of apology before the next week’s games or else he is going to have more haters coming for him. Lacrosse on TV is consistently bashed because people cannot stand what both Paul Carcaterra and Quint Kessenich say on the air. I, for one, liked Carc over Quint, but now, I can’t stand Carc because he doesn’t appreciate what I, or anyone else from the D3 level do to play the game we all love.
Sports n Stuff 