Oregon Sports News Senior Contributor Brad Stein and MLU Commissioner Jeff Snader on the call.
Written by William Curb, PortlandStags.com
After dominating the regular season, the Portland Stags were eliminated from the playoffs by a single point deficit.
A record crowd attended the Western Conference Finals at Lincoln High School in downtown Portland.
The Rainmakers took off early in the game with their biggest lead, 4-1. The Stags were able to recover in the first quarter, only trailing by two at 3-5 at the beginning of the second.
For the entire season the Stags were able to rely on their defensive line to convert turnovers, yet at the end of the first half they found that they were only able to score a single break point. The league breakpoint scoring leader, Peter Woodside (2 blocks), ended the game without a single goal.
“It was hard to watch,” said Stags assistant coach John Thornton. “To see timing go so well for so long and then for that to go the opposite way is just…it’s just hard.”
The Stags found themselves consistently floundering on offense with a stagnant stack that always seemed to be waiting for a cut. Even when the Stags were able to move the disc to the red zone they found themselves often unable to find an opening to get the disc in for a goal.
Coming into the second half the Stags were only down by a single point at 9-10 and were looking for a break to tie the game up. Seattle came out with a slow offense that moved the disc up the field with little resistance and put themselves up by two. The teams traded points and at 11-12 the Stags took a timeout in between points to take a midfield pull. The tactic helped draw a travel on a bailout huck and a backhand from Timmy Perston (7 goals, 1 assist) tied the game up at 12-12.
Things finally appeared to be going Portland’s way when they were able to create a few turns, but after a long point the Rainmakers took the lead again. The Rainmakers took control of the game again and finished the third quarter up 13-14.
Again in the fourth quarter it finally looked like the Stags were going to grab the lead as they scored the first point of the quarter off of a tipped disc from a floaty huck. The rest of the quarter would not go the Stags’ way as the Rainmakers were able to slow the game down to score the next two points over the course of almost the entire quarter.
Down by two at 14-16, the Stags only had 2:19 left in the game to get back in it and hopefully send it to overtime. The Rainmakers looked to block the deep shots and while the Stags were able to get the goal, it took another minute off the clock. The Stags called another timeout for a midfield pull looking to trap the Rainmakers in their own end zone. It was a strong defensive effort on Portland’s part, but it ended up only allowing Seattle to wind down the clock and score with 23 seconds left on the clock.
The Stags weren’t done yet and looked for a quick goal. Cody Bjorklund (1 goal, 3 assists) found Steve Kenton (1 goal, 5 assists) in the end zone, but with only two seconds on the clock and down by one the Stags were out of time. The final pull went up and the Stags’ season ended with a disappointing finish. In what would be a repeat of the 2014 Western Conference Finals the Stags found themselves behind a point as the clock ticked the final seconds away.
“It is devastating to be in the same position when this was what motivated us,” said Thornton. “All of us respond really well to adversity. From day one we all knew what we had to and that’s what makes this really hard.”
Thank you to all the fans that came out to support the Stags this season. While it was a disappointing end, it has been a great season. Antlers up Stags fans, see you in 2016.
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