Rib-rattling music, cheers and jeers of purple-and-gold-painted attendees and flashing stadium lights lured cars into Pechanga Arena on Sunday. It wasn’t for a concert, nor was it for the occasional ice hockey match. Instead, the San Diego Seals – San Diego’s very own professional lacrosse team – hosted the Rochester Nighthawks for the Seals’ home opener.
The San Diego Seals (1-1) took a beating, falling 15-7 to the Rochester Nighthawks (1-0) in their home opener despite coming off a season-opening win back in Ottawa.
“We pride ourselves on being a hard-working, kind of physical team and I think it was clear they worked us here tonight,” Seals’ head coach Patrick Merrill said. “But it’s an early test, we gotta figure some things out about ourselves.”
Nighthawks’ forward Thomas McConvey launched the first goal of the match into the net just 27 seconds into the first quarter. The Seals only answered the rest of the quarter with No. 51 Pat Kavanaugh’s first goal of the season, but a second strike from McConvey and one for Rochester forward Ryan Lanchbury left the Seals behind, 3-1.
The second quarter was hardly an improvement, with Rochester hammering in five more goals to San Diego’s three, extending the lead to 8-4.
Swapping keeper Christopher Origlieri for Cameron Dunkerly partway through the second quarter at least brought some excitement. With the final five seconds ticking down on the board, Dunkerly saved a Nighthawks shot and cleared it straight into the opposite goal at the final buzzer for a ‘goalie goal.’ If only goalie goals counted.
“I can’t hang that loss on either one of the goalies tonight,” Merrill said. “We didn’t play well enough and didn’t execute well enough in front of them.”
The Nighthawks continued to dominate the rest of the game to take them to a 15-7 victory, thanks to efforts from McConvey (four goals, five assists), Lanchbury (two goals, seven assists), Connor Fields (four goals, two assists), Ryan Smith (three goals, four assists) and Jacob Piseno (one goal).
The Seals also had noteworthy performances from Kavanaugh (two goals, four assists), Wesley Berg (one goal, one assist), Connor Robinson (one goal, one assist), Tre Leclaire (one goal, two assists) and Dylan Watson (two goals, one assist).
The Seals’ keepers earned 33 total saves, 22 for Origlieri and 11 for Dunkerly.
“We were excited to come play in front of this fan base,” Merrill said. “But we didn’t give them much to cheer about, right from the opening whistle.”
Regardless of what they had to cheer for, the fans who turned up clad in purple and gold showed why Pechanga Arena is often referred to as the Electric Factory.
The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is a minor but growing league, with NLL regular-season attendance surpassing 1 million for the second straight year last season (and only the fourth time in league history, according to the NLL). An announced 7,900 fans were present at the Electric Factory for Sunday’s match, and what the team lacks in numbers, they make up for in passion and production.
“Shame! Shame! Shame!” The local crowd chanted up until the last minutes of the fourth quarter, where a brawl earned Rochester’s McConvey and San Diego’s Graydon Bradley time in the penalty box: both for a dead-ball foul, plus roughing for McConvey. The crowd also let the referee know how they felt about the penalty on Bradley (spoiler alert: it was a lot of booing).
“It means the world to us, it’s why we do it at the end of the day,” Merrill said of the Seals’ supportive crowd. “Getting to wear this jersey and play in front of these fans is an extreme privilege.”
Cheerleaders in purple flapper shorts, performances after every quarter, a DJ accompanied by a steam machine who pumped out music for the entirety of the match and a deafening train horn to celebrate each Seal’s goal kept the atmosphere high even as they crawled to a loss. Ever-dedicated fans filed out of the stadium with just as much pep in their step as they came in with.
“We have a couple weeks off for the holidays to do that and regroup for January 3rd, but it doesn’t get any easier from here,” Merrill said. “But I can assure you, the fans are going to see a different team on January 3rd.”
The Seals’ next match is back at Pechanga Arena on Jan. 3, where San Diego will face off against the Calgary Roughnecks.
