Premier Lacrosse Referee Chews Out Head Coach During Heated Argument, Player Collapses After Brutal Kidney Shot
Sunday's PLL game between the Redwoods and Chaos was intense. Not only did an official get into it with a head coach, one of the league's top midfielders delivered a vicious kidney shot.
The score itself was one thing, with the Chaos mounting a huge second-half comeback to defeat the Redwoods by three on the back of a four-goal fourth quarter. The action surrounding the comeback was even more exciting.
Midway through the second quarter, the Redwoods were called for interference while pushing toward the net. Head coach Nat St. Laurent did not agree with the call and started chirping from the sideline.
Head referee Matt Palumb stepped up to announce the foul and turned on his microphone as St. Laurent continued to yell his disagreements. And then Palumb flipped a switch.
He wasn't having it. He was pissed.
PLL referee Matt Palumb right before he went off.(Image courtesy: ESPN)
Before finishing out the call, Palumb turned back toward the sideline and told St. Laurent to get off of the field and to stop screaming. The head coach did not adhere to the referee's suggestion and it only escalated from there.
Palumb, red-faced, told St. Laurent that he was "better than that" and that there was "another way" to talk to him. His message did not land.
St. Laurent kept shouting, which led Palumb to go over and cuss him out. Here is how it went down:
Things eventually deescalated and the two parties made amends as the game continued.
The chippy PLL bout continued on the field!
Kidney shots are illegal in boxing for good reason. They hurt. A lot.
On Sunday, Chaos longpole John Sexton delivered a stick check that caught Chaos faceoff man Nick Rowlett right in the kidney and dropped him right to the ground. Oof.
Rowlett even tried to recover and hold onto the loose ball but couldn't get back to his feet. Sexton got him good.
Fortunately, Rowlett was okay and returned to action after taking a moment to compose himself.