SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Seals of the NLL came out flat, most of the time that is a bad thing.  The Seals would recover and defeat Vancouver 15-10 in front of 4,217 at Pechanga Arena San Diego on Saturday afternoon (Feb. 22).  Perhaps, they were just luring Vancouver in for the kill shot.

That kill shot came in the third quarter when the Seals scored eight goals to turn a four-goal deficit at the end of the first quarter to a five-goal lead at the end of the third quarter.  In all, the Seals went on a 9-0 run over the course of 21 minutes and 38 seconds.

“We’ve been playing well the last four or five weeks,” Head Coach and General Manager Patrick Merrill said during his post-game interview.  “We could feel things turning in our direction.  Hopefully we can ride that momentum.”

Nick Damude would get the start, and win, but would be pulled at the eight-minute mark of the fist quarter after allowing four goals.  He would go back in at the start of the second quarter and stay for the remainder of the game.

Wes Berg got the Seals on the board at the 11:03 mark of the first quarter.  The goal was assisted by Austin Staats and Connor Fields.  That was the only goal of the opening period for the Seals.

Casey Jackson would get his first of five goals on the afternoon just 95 seconds into the second quarter.  He would add goals two and three in the second quarter as well.  He would add his fourth and fifth goals in the third quarter just 40 seconds apart from each other.

Reigning Rookie of the Year Austin Staats made his 2020 San Diego debut and showed the league that he’s back with two goals and four assists.  The lone power play goal of the game was hist first of the afternoon.

The Seals will be back in action Saturday at Calgary.  On March 7, the team will return to the friendly confines of Pechanga Arena San Diego for a matchup against Rochester for a 7:30 game.  The Seals will be celebrating Austin Staats’ “Wookie” of the Year award on Star Wars Night.

NOTES: The Seals have yet to score the first goal of the game in the 2019-20 season.  They did that eight times (5-3) in their inaugural season last year…Vancouver’s Bob Snyder (35) is done for the year with a torn ACL.  He suffered the injury shortly after the Warriors second goal… Bolsterli’s goal at 13:43 of the fourth quarter was his first career goal…The eight goals in the third quarter are a franchise record, one better than the seven-goal second period against Colorado in Las Vegas…Brody Merrill collected his eighth (of ten) loose ball in the third quarter gave him the NLL record for most loose balls in the history of the league.

1st Quarter Recap: Shots: VAN — 15, SD — 12.
VAN — 2:21 Loewen (12) 1-0 VAN
VAN — 3:40 Loewen (2nd, 13) (Bal) 2-0 VAN
VAN — 7:29 Schuss (12) (Jones) 3-0 VAN
VAN — 7:59 Jones (29) (Bal, McCready) 4-0 VAN
SD — 11:03 Berg (17) (Staats, Fields) 4-1 VAN
VAN — 14:57 Bal (EA, 14) (Schuss) 5-1

2nd Quarter Recap: Shots: VAN — (16/31), SD — (18/30).
SD — 1:35 Jackson (13) (Noble, Gobrecht) 5-2 VAN
VAN — 4:24 Jones (2nd, 30) (McBride, McCready) 6-2 VAN
VAN — 6:47 Schuss (2nd, 13) (Bal, Loewen) 7-2 VAN
SD — 7:10 Jackson (2nd, 14) (Staats, Holding) 7-3 VAN
SD — 11:49 Jackson (3rd, 15) (Noble) 7-4 VAN
SD — 13:36 Noble (13) (Gobrecht) 7-5 VAN

3rd Quarter Recap: Shorts: VAN — (8/39), SD — (17/47).
SD — 0:26 Jackson (4th, 16) (Fields) 7-6 VAN
SD — 1:06 Jackson (5th, 17) (Fields, Buchanan) 7-7 TIE
SD — 1:25 Buchanan (9) (Noble) 8-7 SD
SD — 4:11 Staats (4) (Noble) PP 9-7 SD
SD — 7:24 Staats (2nd, 5) (Jackson, Gobrecht) 10-7 SD
SD — 7:49 Fields (16) (Greer, Noble) 11-7 SD
SD — 13:11 Berg (2nd, 18) (Buchanan, Fields) 12-7 SD
VAN — 13:48 Lloyd (3) (Barker) 12-8 SD
SD — 14:24 Greer (18) (Noble) 13-8 SD

4th Quarter Recap: Shorts: VAN — (13/52), SD — (13/60).
SD — 6:11 Buchanan (2nd, 10) (Staats, Greer) 14-8 SD
VAN — 10:12 Loewen (3rd, 14) (Schuss, Bal) 14-9 SD
VAN — 12:00 McCready (12) (Barker, Lloyd) 14-10 SD
SD — 13:43 Bolsterli (1) (Merrill) EN 15-10 SD

Power Play: VAN — 0-1, SD 1-3.
San Diego Sports Domination Player of the Game: Casey Jackson (5g/1a).