Thursday, January 4, 1996

By Mayer Brandschain, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT

The Philadelphia Wings will begin their 10th season in the Major Indoor Lacrosse League with a game against the Buffalo Bandits at the Spectrum at 8 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 12.

The 10-game schedule will run through Saturday, March 23.

The Wings, coached by Tony Resch, defeated the Rochester Knighthawks, 15-14, in overtime in April to win the league championship for the second straight year and the fourth time in nine years.

The Wings have a roster of 23 players.

Thursday, January 11, 1996

by Marcus Hayes, Daily News Sports Writer

It's a pleasant problem, that of Philadelphia Wings coach Tony Resch.

After winning the last two Major Indoor Lacrosse League titles, how do you motivate your team for the 1996 season?

``That's probably going to be the biggest part of my job this season,'' Resch said.

The solution, for now, is simple. Play Buffalo.

The Wings open their season, and that of the Buffalo Bandits, when they entertain their rival tomorrow at 8 p.m. in the CoreStates Spectrum (ESPN2, 9:30, tape delay). Like the Knicks and the Bulls - or, more accurately, like ``The Simpsons' '' Itchy and Scratchy - the Wings and Bandits share an innate animosity.

Mention Buffalo, and the Wings get instant juice.

``Without a doubt,'' Wings captain Scott Gabrielson said.

It dates back to the 1992 season, when then-expansion Buffalo defeated the Wings in the title game. And then did it again in 1993.

``Since that time, there's been a pretty bitter taste in our mouths,'' Gabrielson said.

The Wings beat the Bandits in the '94 title game. The Bandits gave the Wings their only loss in eight games last season. Then the Wings ousted the Bandits from last year's playoffs before beating the expansion Rochester Knighthawks for the title.

The 'Hawks, with star attacker (and former Wing) Paul Gait, again loom as the MILL's top contender. But the Wings' relations with the Hawks are positively peachy when compared with the physical Bandits. Witness the fallout from last year's playoff game.

Bruising Bandits attacker Darris Kilgour grabbed a Wings player's facemask, was ejected from the game and accumulated a remarkable 22 penalty minutes. As a result, the MILL suspended him from tomorrow's game.

Kilgour's absence, said Gabrielson, is significant and disappointing.

Kilgour shreds the Wings, accounting for nine goals and four assists in five games. The Bandits will miss his scoring punch and his aggressive style, resulting, said Gabrielson, in fewer penalty minutes for both sides.

But the Wings will miss him.

``He's a player we like to go for,'' Gabrielson said with a chuckle. ``We don't care for the guy very much.''

The Wings have other Bandits to focus on, including forward Jim Veltman (six goals, 22 assists vs. the Wings) and attacker John Taveres (13 goals, 17 assists).

The Wings will have to adjust to a few alterations from last year's title-winning team.

Forward Gary Martin, a rock since 1988, retired and became Resch's special coaching assistant. Forward John McEvoy, a Wing for five years, is taking the year off to coach and teach in England.

Forward Chris Bates moved to North Carolina to attend graduate school and play for the expansion Charlotte Cobras.

Resch will look to Gabrielson, an eight-year pro, and fiery forward Chris Flynn, the team's associate captain, to fill leadership voids.

And he will continue to count on the league's best player, Gary Gait, and best goalie, Dallas Eliuk.

Much was made of attacker Gary Gait's conditioning program last season. Gait, the twin brother of Paul Gait, cruised through the season toned and trim with a league-high 30 goals. He also dealt 18 assists and won the league's Most Valuable Player trophy.

Nearly as much was made of Eliuk's performance last season. Eliuk went 6-0-0 in the regular season after missing the season opener in Buffalo with a strained groin muscle.

Factor in the return of the Wings' No. 2 scorer in 1995, Tom Marechek (17 goals, 18 assists), as well as their No. 3 scorer, Kevin Finneran, (6, 21), and the Wings appear ready for '96. With Buffalo as the first test, the Wings' readiness will be evident early.

Said Resch: ``It's definitely a way to measure yourself very quickly.'

Thursday, February 22, 1996

by Tom Mahon, Daily News Sports Writer

Dallas Eliuk and Marty O'Neill have a lot in common.

Both are goalies in the Major Indoor Lacrosse League - Eliuk for the Philadelphia Wings, O'Neill for the Boston Blazers.

Both are boyhood friends, who grew up near each other in Canada - Eliuk in Vancouver, O'Neill in Victoria.

Heck, O'Neill was even the best man at Eliuk's wedding.

On Saturday night, the two will be at opposite ends of the spectrum, the CoreStates Spectrum, as Eliuk's Wings host O'Neill's Blazers in a game that might have an effect on playoff seedings.

Philadelphia and Boston are each 4-2 and tied for second place behind unbeaten Buffalo. The top four teams make the playoffs and if the Wings and Blazers finish with the same record after the 10-game season, Saturday's game will act as a tie-breaker to determine the higher seed.

Eliuk isn't too concerned about any of that right now. He just wants to win.

The Wings are coming off an 18-15 road loss to the Rochester Knighthawks that ended a four-game winning streak. Gary Gait, the team's leading scorer with 25 goals and 13 assists, had six goals in that game, but the team played subpar, according to Eliuk.

``We weren't prepared to play last weekend,'' said Eliuk, a freelance artist who draws everything, including caricatures at children's birthday's parties. ``The team was flat. It was a good wake-up call for when we play Boston. They're a fast team. They've got the top defense in the league and they're able to keep shooters at bay.''

Saturday's game marks the first time in four seasons the Blazers have played in Philadelphia. It is rumored some of Wings players were miffed at not getting a chance to play in Boston's new FleetCenter. But Eliuk, a six-year veteran on the team, pointed out that playing at the Spectrum provides the Wings with a huge edge.

``Home-field advantage does make a difference,'' said Eliuk, who is a sizzling 16-1 at home over the past four seasons. ``I'd like to say you tune the crowd out, but when you're playing in front of 15,000 screaming fans, it pumps you up. I've traveled all over, but Philadelphia has the best fans in the league.''

WING DINGS

Blazers forward Brian White is the son of former Boston Celtics star Jo Jo White. Brian also plays football for the CFL's Baltimore Stallions . . . Wings fan John Sapello is operating a web site on the Internet that can be accessed at http://www.servtech.com/public/hob900/mill. Sapello, a 23-year old insurance claims examiner from Minotola, N.J. compiles Wings stats, rosters, standings, players' quotes etc. . . . At halftime, some lucky fan with the ugliest blazer (poking fun at Boston's nickname) can win a $250 gift certificate to a Center City jewelry store.

Saturday, February 24, 1996

By Bob Ford, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Brian White was on his way to try out for the high school baseball team when he heard his buddies from the football squad calling his name.

They were running around with sticks in their hands, bashing into each other and generally having a great time. So White never made it to the baseball field. He took a detour into lacrosse, and has never regretted the decision.

``Picking up the ball and running with it, hitting people, it's a lot better than standing around at shortstop,'' he said.

White, 22, comes into the Spectrum tonight with the Boston Blazers for a Major Indoor Lacrosse League game against the Philadelphia Wings.

A 6-foot-1, 210-pounder, White stayed with the contact sports he prefers through a collegiate career at Dartmouth, where he played three years of varsity lacrosse and was a first team all-Ivy League defensive back on the football team.

Last fall, White played with the New England Patriots of the NFL and the Baltimore Stallions of the Canadian Football League before joining the Blazers for the indoor lacrosse season. Tonight's game is his second on the active roster as he makes the adjustment not only from football, but from the very different outdoor version of lacrosse.

``I use my speed a lot in the outdoor game,'' White said. ``There's not so much opportunity to do that indoors. You have to learn to work off picks, and you have to be physical. That's no problem for me. I tend to be a little bit overaggressive, but it's all clean, of course.''

White gets his competitive spirit, if not his taste for contact, quite naturally. He is the son of former Boston Celtics guard Jo Jo White, who played 12 years in the NBA and won two championships.

Brian White played basketball growing up, too, but only as a competitive bridge between the fall and spring seasons. He may have benefited by growing up with a well-known father, but it didn't affect his choice of sports.

``Sometimes the comparisons are hard on you, but my parents never pressured me,'' White said. ``Sometimes it's an advantage. You might get a second look because of it. But I think seeing how competitive my father was also helped me push harder with my own performance.''

``He's developed his own achievements,'' said Jo Jo White. ``He's one of those kids who puts his head, heart and soul into everything. And for whatever reason, he migrated to the sports with a lot of physical contact.''

Making it in professional football is the short-term goal for Brian White, who is working as a sales representative for a telecommunications company in Boston. He is expecting to play overseas in the World League this spring, with the hope of being invited to another NFL camp in the summer.

``He showed he could play last year. Now, it's just a matter of improving his skills,'' said Tyler Goldman, who works with sports attorney Leigh Steinberg, White's agent. ``He's great in a combine-type workout, because he can run a 4.4 40-yard dash, has a vertical leap of 40 inches, and he's 210 pounds. He's got the raw tools. He just needs playing time.''

For lacrosse, White trimmed down to 195 pounds, but he'll keep the added bulk this winter, to stay ready for football and to help administer the requisite crunches of the indoor game. The Blazers are 4-2 in their 10-game season, as are the Wings, and both teams are jockeying for playoff position.

``I've used this year as a learning experience both for football and lacrosse,'' White said. ``I've kept my eyes and ears open. I'm going to have some options in football, and playing lacrosse is something I've always really enjoyed. It's a thrill to be able to do that on a professional level, too.''

His fallback position isn't bad, either. He plans to take his political science degree from Dartmouth and apply for admission to Harvard Law School. But that is at least a few body checks and hard tackles down the line.

``My legs will tell me when it's time for that,'' White said. ``Right now, I'm young and I'm going to see what happens.''

Monday, February 26, 1996

Gary Gait had four goals and two assists, leading the Philadelphia Wings to a 12-10 win over the visiting Boston Blazers in an Major Indoor Lacrosse League game at the CoreStates Spectrum Saturday night.

The Wings (5-2), now in sole possession of second place, also got three goals from Kevin Finneran and two each from Gabby Roe, Tom Burt, Brian Voelker and Tom Marechek.

Thursday, March 7, 1996

For the Philadelphia Wings, there truly is no place like home.

And that's bad news for the expansion Charlotte Cobras, who come into the CoreStates Spectrum Saturday (8 p.m.) looking for their first win of the season.

The Wings have lost just one home game over the past four seasons - to Buffalo on Jan. 12. During that span, Wings goalie Dallas Eliuk is 17-1.

The Cobras, at least, will know what to expect. They lost to the Wings, 14-8, last week at the Independence Arena in Charlotte.

The Cobras (0-8) include former Wings players Dwight Maetche and Chris Bates.

Philadelphia (6-2) is led by Gary Gait (34 goals, 18 assists), Tom Marechek (22, 21) and Kevin Finneran (18, 15).

Before the game, Eliuk and Wings teammates Finneran, John Nostrant and Scott Gabrielson will conduct a lacrosse clinic for youngsters from 3 to 5 p.m. The clinic is free with paid admission to the game.

Tuesday, March 12, 1996

By Ron Reid

The Philadelphia Wings usually get as much media attention as a Perkasie fish fry. TV ignores them. Local newspapers devote more space to bowling. They are never a topic of conversation on talk radio, and their own FM broadcasts fade from the airwaves a block or two north of Oregon Avenue.

For those reasons, the Major Indoor Lacrosse League games the Wings play at the Spectrum are somewhat akin to the films of Laurel and Hardy: Nobody loves them but the public.

And does the public ever. A home game invariably draws more than 16,000 ``Wing Nuts,'' raucously loud fans who engage in boisterous, politically incorrect cheering with an epidemic of earthy enthusiasm.

Fan fervor was returned in kind Saturday night, when the Wings improved their record to 7-2 by rebounding from a 4-2 first-quarter deficit to crush the winless Charlotte Cobras, 26-11.

Of the 16,244 who packed the Spectrum for the last home game of the pre-playoff season, many incurred sore palms and aching shoulders from high-fiving one another after each of the Wings' record 26 goals. They also went bonkers over Gary Gait and Scott Gabrielson, who scored five goals each, and goalie Andy Piazza.

The Wing Nuts' frenzied workout started during player introductions. As the name of each Cobra was announced, they loudly chimed in with a one-word expression for ``makes a negative vacuum with his mouth.''

It is a young crowd that roots for the Wings, one made up in large measure of people who can't buy tickets to Flyers games. Youngsters and people of college age pack the place, and it is a family night out for a lot of folks.

For those unfamiliar with the game, indoor lacrosse is best described as hockey in Fila sneakers, played with a ball instead of a puck and with a stick that has a small basket, as opposed to a flat blade, at the distal end. Like basketball, the game has a shot clock - in this case, a 30-second clock.

Indoor lacrosse obviously is not as fast as hockey, but the game afoot produces more goals (28 is the average for a Wings game) and numerous occasions of clever passing, of skillful stick-handling, and of attackers using deft moves to befuddle goalies.

But indoor lacrosse really draws because it offers what fans of the '90s cherish - an excellent variety of violence: smash-mouth collisions, punching, forearm checks, body blows, rib shots, and not a few fistfights that end up with the participants on the floor. Players even bash one another with their sticks, small baskets at the distal ends be damned.

For those of you between chess matches who care to get in on the next occasion of the Wing Nuts' outrageous revelry, an MILL playoff game is scheduled for April 6 - and this Buck's for you:

GETTING THERE. The Broad Street subway line - with a round-trip fare of $2.30 to Pattison Avenue, the last stop - remains the easiest, least expensive way of getting to any event at the Spectrum, unless you are taking a carload of family members. If you drive, allow twice as much time for entering and exiting the parking lots as you would for a Sixers game. We've got a near-sellout here, remember?

TICKETS. Despite the biting cold, people were hustling tickets - and maybe even scalping a few - at various spots around the Spectrum 45 minutes before Saturday's game started. Wings tickets are not exactly cheap, ranging between $23 and $13, but they are reasonable.

If you pay for your ticket with a credit card, you will have to sign the receipt through an arthritis-inducing, 2-by-4-inch slot at the bottom of the ticket window, making your signature look like something that belongs at the bottom of a prescription.

FOOD AND DRINK. The Spectrum's overpriced concession-stand items are the same for every event held there, so take out a second mortgage if you plan on some serious noshing, especially if you have your kids at the game. Order four hot dogs, two beers, two soft drinks, two cups of french fries, and a pretzel and you've spent more than $35.

SOUVENIRS. They include the usual $38 and $25 sweatshirts, $18 and $15 T-shirts, and various overpriced caps and pennants. The concessionaires were competing Saturday night with folks from MBNA Marketing Systems who were handing out short, plastic souvenir lacrosse sticks to people signing up for MILL MasterCards - charging an 18.65 percent rate, which may go higher, on all purchases. Talk about getting the stick.

WORTH REMEMBERING. The Wings' final goal, scored by Brian Voelker off a sensational floor-length pass from Piazza, and an earlier one by Gait, who darted to his right and whipped the ball into the net by deftly executing a shot from behind his back.

WORTH FORGETTING. Some of the more insulting verbal gibes were loud enough for children to hear.

BANG FOR THE BUCK. Plenty. The game delivered four quarters' worth of athleticism, competition, thrills and various other sports delights, proving that indoor lacrosse demands much of its players and is hardly a studio sport. The crowd generated a lot of laughter, and the overhead TV gondola was a big help, showing replays of every goal, a mug shot of the scorer, and a stat or two.

Saturday, April 13, 1996

By Karen Troxel Borrelli, FOR THE INQUIRER

Philadelphia Wings coach Tony Resch knows one thing about championship games: You have to take advantage of your opportunities if you want to win.

The Wings didn't do that last night. Partly it was their fault, and partly it was the excellent play by Buffalo goalie Pat O'Toole.

As a result, the Wings' quest for a third straight Major Indoor Lacrosse League title ended in futility. They lost to the Bandits, 15-10.

O'Toole stopped 40 of 50 shots, earning him the MVP award in front of 16,230 fans at Buffalo's Memorial Auditorium.

The Bandits ``like to pack it in, and that gives you low-percentage shots,'' Resch said. ``Then when Pat has the kind of game he did, it makes it even harder.''

The missed opportunity that best summed up Philadelphia's frustration opened the second half. After Buffalo's Darris Kilgour was given a game ejection, the Wings - down by 8-3 - began the half with a five-minute power play. At the end of the power play, they had managed only one goal.

``Especially in playoff games, you need to cash in on those opportunities,'' said Resch. ``You have to make big plays in the big games. Tonight, they made more big plays than we did.''

Surprisingly, the big plays didn't come from Buffalo's big names. In fact, John Tavares, Buffalo's leading scorer, was held to only one goal. Jason Luke and Troy Cordingly led the Bandits with three goals each.

For the Wings, Gary Gait had three goals - two in the fourth quarter - while Kevin Finneran added two. Dallas Eliuk made 44 saves on 59 shots.

``Sometimes I think the John Tavareses and the Gary Gaits cancel each other out,'' Resch said. ``That's when the unsung guys, the unknown guys, have to step up. They did.''

It was the fifth straight trip to the championship game for the Wings. The two teams have met for the title four previous times, and Buffalo now holds a 3-2 edge.