Toronto Rock 9, Washington Stealth 14

Gord went to the Toronto Rock game last Friday at the Air Canada Centre (ACC) ... his company had a platinum box.

He enjoyed the game so much that he bought tickets that night for he and I for tonight's game (seats in the gold and red levels were half price if you bought them that night).

Tonight it was the Rock against the Washington Stealth. They play in the National Lacrosse League ... I bet you didn't even know there was a such league! There are three Canadian teams and six American teams.

Here are the Rock leaving their dressing room, getting ready to take the field before the game.

Our seats were in the gold section by the goalie ... we were five rows up from the field. They were excellent when the action was happening in our end but it was hard to see because of the glass protector when things were happening at the other end.

The Rock huddled just before the game started. Go, Rock, go!

The game is very active ... the players are running up and down the field, banging into each other, trying to get the ball and/or score.

Balls were flying into the stands all night. Not too long into the first quarter, one came Gord's way and he caught it.

These three women showed up about halfway into the first quarter. They were supposed to sit at the end of the row, so would have had to shuffle past about ten people along the row to get to their seats. Because they had a baby in a carrier, everyone shuffled left along the row to accommodate them so they could have the end seat by the stairs instead. The mom put the baby and carrier on the steps. Security came by and said she couldn't do that.

She sat with the baby and carrier on her lap for a while ... that must have been comfortable (not!)! More shuffling and they ended up moving to the first row, which had less seats, so the baby and carrier had his own seat.

Why would they bring a baby anyway??!!

During one of the breaks, here is Iggy and the Rock cheerleaders entertaining the crowd.

This guy and his daughter sat right in front of me. He spent about 85% of the time on his phone checking Twitter and writing emails. Dad, put the phone away for a couple hours and spend quality time with your daughter!!

A fella who was sitting next to Gord starting cheering for one of the Rock's players, Stephen Hoar. Yes, he was being loud and goofing around because of Hoar's name but he was having fun. The dad turned around and asked him a couple times if he was F-ing nine years old like his daughter. He was appalled because the guy was having fun with Hoar's name but had no qualms about swearing in front of his daughter. Um ... okay.

There was only one fight and they each got five minutes each in the penalty box for fighting.

After the second quarter, the Rock were losing 7 - 4. Oh oh!

During the intermission after the second quarter, they had kids teams playing lacrosse for ten minutes. What a thrill it must have been for them to play where the big guys play!

Here's the huddle at the beginning of the third quarter ... let's go, Rock!

There were more than 10,000 in attendance. The Rock attract quite a boisterous fun crowd. During the game, they keep playing tunes which keeps the crowd going.

Alas, the Rock lost 14 - 9.

After all the roughness, it was nice to see the teams shaking hands afterwards.

On our way out, we bought tickets for the next game, which is Friday night. Again, they were half price. This time, we got seats higher up and more in the middle. Should be fun!