Ben Wayer, Asher Nolting lead Team Black to Street Lacrosse championship in Atlanta

Street Lacrosse hit Atlanta on Thursday evening as PLL and WLL pros joined teams from Morehouse College, Spelman College, Georgia Tech, Florida State and Atlanta to play five-on-five pickup lacrosse.

“Bringing the sport of lacrosse here is amazing,” Myles Jones said. “When I first moved to Atlanta, lacrosse was still pretty new. But there are so many talented kids who’ve come out of Atlanta now.”

Atlanta’s lacrosse boom continued in a new format. The day started with scrimmages between HBCUs Morehouse and Spelman before MCLA programs FSU and Georgia Tech went head-to-head.

The Spelman squad took the win 12-8 across 12 minutes. The Jaguars built an early lead and capitalized on the format by consistently scoring in transition on an empty net.

Georgia Tech and Florida State followed in a battle of two MCLA programs that are familiar with one another.

The two teams went back and forth in a high-scoring affair that included plenty of highlight goals. One was a Connor Fields-esque one-handed, on-the-run, between-the-legs goal that put FSU up 4-3.

Despite that, Georgia Tech built an 8-6 lead with around four minutes remaining. FSU fought back, picking off a pass on a Yellow Jacket clear and scoring in transition to tie the game at nine apiece with 2:45 left.

A few clutch saves in the final minutes from Georgia Tech kept the game tied, but FSU’s offensive pressure eventually became too much.

Florida State capitalized in transition with a sweet handle on an outlet pass and a crafty finish on the doorstep, going up 10-9 with 34 seconds left. That gave them the victory, securing revenge for FSU’s loss to Georgia Tech last spring.

Legendary long-stick midfielder Scott Ratliff led the Atlanta All-Stars into a matchup with the New York Atlas. Jones joined Connor Shellenberger, Michael Rexrode, Matt Traynor and Tyler Carpenter on the Atlas squad.

Jones was dominant, scoring the first four goals for New York with deep bombs and around-the-world finishes as he looked at home in Atlanta. Ratliff and his crew didn’t back down, however.

With the game tied at four in the last minute, lacrosse creator and Uganda Lacrosse star Yosef Ngowe stepped up with a one-handed rip to put Atlanta up 5-4 in the final minute.

A defensive stop later, Ratliff wound down the clock, eventually firing the ball into the empty net from past halfcourt as the clock expired. He then waved goodbye to a laughing Jones standing in front of him.

The energy from the first three games set the table for the games between the pros. PLL and WLL players were split across three squads: Team Shelly (led by Shellenberger), Team Black (led by Sydni Black) and Team Dobber (led by Brett Dobson).

Shellenberger’s squad included fellow Bulls Traynor, Rexrode and Jones alongside Emily Hawryschuk, Ally Kennedy and Taylor Moreno. Black’s group featured Abby Bosco, Lizzie Colson, Asher Nolting, Ethan Rall and Ben Wayer. Meanwhile, Carpenter, Andie Aldave, Justin Anderson, Rachel Clark and Delaney Sweitzer joined Dobson.

With cash on the line in each of the five round-robin, winner-stays games, followed by a championship match with $2,500 on the table, the energy was real on the court with tensions flaring even before the opening faceoff.

“These goalies won’t be able to see the ball, especially Dobson,” Wayer told sideline reporter extraordinaire RJ Kaminski.

Team Black – spearheaded by Wayer – were the early front-runners. They outlasted Team Shelly in Game 1, winning in overtime when Black saved a Shellenberger shot and Wayer carried upcourt to score the one-handed game-winner.

Bosco was a hound for Team Black defensively, racking up caused turnovers and creating transition for her teammates. That allowed Wayer, playing with a short stick for the first time in a long time, to get out and run in transition.

With Nolting playing tremendously in the three-by-three cage and facilitating the team’s settled offense alongside the streaky Black, there weren’t many weaknesses for Team Black.

“Asher is doing his thing feeding the ball, but he’s also playing in the goal which is pretty intimidating,” Jones commented from the sideline.

After ekeing past Team Shelly in Game 1, they stuck around courtesy of the winner-stays format, facing Team Dobber in Game 2. The Utah Archers keeper scored twice, but his team couldn’t find enough offense early and fell 5-3.

Truly finding its stride by then, Team Black blitzed Team Shelly in Game 3. Rall got in on the scoring action while Nolting found his groove offensively, catapulting Team Black to the 7-4 victory.

That all but sealed Team Black’s place in the championship, leaving two games for Team Dobber and Team Shelly to find some sort of juice.

Game 4 was when the two-time Championship MVP stepped up. Like he has before, Dobson found a way to do what his team needed.

Clark started hitting from the outside for Team Dobber, giving the squad life against the tiring Team Black. An Air Gait goal from Wayer caught the crowd’s attention. But Dobson responded in turn, ripping a goal from the righty wing after coming off a pick.

That gave Team Dobber a 6-5 lead with 6.3 seconds remaining, only for Nolting to rake the ball out of the net behind him and send a worm-burner careening towards the opposite cage.

Back in his natural element, Dobson put his body on the line as he sprinted back after scoring, swinging in front of the empty net at the last possible moment and absorbing Nolting’s last-second heave to seal the win for his squad.

“I think Dobson’s our glue guy right now,” Clark said, referencing an impassioned speech he gave before Game 4. “He’s putting the ball in the back of the net and is steady in cage.”

That set up a Game 5 battle between Team Shelly (0-2) and Team Dobber (1-1) for the second spot in the championship game and a shot at $2,500.

Carried by the momentum of their last-second escape moments before, Team Dobber rolled, mercy-ruling Team Shelly 7-2 as Dobson scored an Air Gait of his own.

The championship became a rubber match between Team Black – which had sat out for a game and caught its breath – and Team Dobber.

Anderson started the game with an absolute stuff of Wayer on the doorstep. Nolting answered the next time down, sticking a one-handed, bottom-of-the-stick rip into the low corner to take a 1-0 lead for Team Black.

Team Dobber responded quickly, tying the game at 1-1. Wayer then scampered up the court in transition to go up 2-1 before nabbing an offensive rebound and hitting an Air Gait to give Team Black a 3-1 lead.

Team Dobber struggled to beat Nolting in the cage, leading to a 4-1 lead for Team Black following a slick handle from Rall off a defensive rebound. He threw a box fake to Black in transition before scoring for himself.

Anderson scored back-to-back goals, followed by a Dobson doorstep finish in transition that tied the game at 4-4.

Nolting and Clark traded goals to move the score to 5-5. Wayer then made two consecutive signature plays, picking off a pass on the ride and scoring before yard-saleing Anderson on the following defensive possession.

Bosco put Team Black up 7-5, and despite another goal from Clark and one more good look in the final 15 seconds, Nolting wound out the clock with the ball behind his net before flinging it into the air as the buzzer sounded.

“It feels good to win,” he told RJ. “Ben Wayer was our MVP.”

“I don’t know who put the teams together, but this team was stacked,” Black commented. “[Wayer] was killing it, keeping us in the game, winning a couple of those games.”

As the team was presented with its $2,500 check, the celebrations began.

“Cash is king,” Rall said. “That’s a W, we brought it back.”

“This is electric,” Bosco chimed in. “We’re the champions!”

That game wrapped up a day of Street Lacrosse in Atlanta that brought in rave reviews from those in attendance, including the hip hop duo EarthGang.

“This needs to be available to all Atlanta public schools,” Olu said. “This is an amazing sport.”

“The vibe is electric, magnanimous,” WowGr8 added. “This is one of the moments before we see lacrosse on the NBA scale. Lacrosse is next!