By Tim Panaccio, Inquirer Staff Writer
Pardon Bill Dirrigl if he sometimes feels like a pinata.
How else can the Philadelphia Wings forward feel when opponents are constantly whacking their sticks at him after face-offs they’ve lost?
“Getting hit on those face-offs is part of the game,” said Dirrigl. ”It’s close quarters down there, with everyone whacking at the ball. Things won’t change until the refs start calling it.”
Dirrigl wouldn’t mind if the three referees – no linesmen – started calling some slashing penalties at the Spectrum tonight at 8, when the Wings (6-1) host the New York Saints (3-4) in their season finale.
If the Wings win, they will clinch first place and host the Major Indoor Lacrosse League championship game on April 7 or 8 against New York, New England (6-2), Baltimore (3-4) or Pittsburgh (3-5).
A semifinal playoff game between the second- and third-place finishers is scheduled for April 2.
All that changes, however, if the Wings lose. Then New England (6-2) would finish first, based on a 14-11 tie-breaker victory over the Wings on March 16.
The Wings would play a semifinal playoff game on April 7 or 8 against New York, and the championship game would move to April 13 in New England.
Dirrigl, who leads the MILL in face-offs, has won 68 percent this season. ”He’s the best box-lacrosse face-off man I’ve ever seen,” said Wings coach Dave Evans. “Bill is so good at pulling the ball back after the face- off, but then someone chops down on his shoulder to pry the ball loose.”
Evans, who refereed box lacrosse in Canada for nearly 20 years, says officials are too liberal in deciding whether the slash is intended to strip the ball or to intimidate the player.
“You’ve got field referees in this league who have never done box lacrosse before,” said Evans. “The impression they are given by the players, even the owners, is that in box lacrosse, anything goes. So they don’t call anything.”
Dirrigl was slashed a half-dozen times during a 10-9 win over Baltimore on March 11. Afterward, his shoulder required butterfly stitches to close an open wound.
Dirrigl, who reinjured the shoulder last week against New England, won 167 of 250 face-offs last season (67 percent) to lead the MILL.
“When you take my two seasons here and my college years at Syracuse, I guess I’ve taken close to 3,000 face-offs,” said Dirrigl, who does not practice his craft.
“When you’ve taken that many, it becomes natural. There’s no secret to winning them except to make a career of it.”
(Philadelphia Inquirer, March 24, 1990)