Mammoth Moment
June 20, 2022 | By Christian Storms | observertoday.com
BUFFALO — On Saturday night at the KeyBank Center, Silver Creek High School graduate Zed Williams did something most people can only dream of.
He won the National Lacrosse League Champions Cup after the Colorado Mammoth defeated the Buffalo Bandits 10-8 in a winner-take-all Game 3.
Williams wasn’t a non-factor either.
In fact, without him the Mammoth wouldn’t have won their first championship since 2006. In the series, Williams scored 21 points. In the deciding game, he found the back of the net four times, including the go-ahead goal in the fourth quarter and the backbreaking 10th goal.
However, that’s not what made it special for Williams.
What made it special was the fact he was able to play in front of his family and his biggest supporters.
“It’s just unreal that my family got to be here,” Williams said after the game. “My kids, my wife, my mom, my brothers got to be here. It’s just something that you dream about, winning a championship in lacrosse at the championship level and having your family be here for it. I couldn’t have even thought of it being better.”
Unfortunately, not every one of Williams’ supporters could be there on Saturday night. His brother Morgan is currently in a fight of his own.
Currently battling Stage IV cancer, Morgan had to stay home to fight his fight, while Zed fought his in the box.
“I have no choice, but to fight,” Williams said. “We’re fighters, we grew up as fighters and we’re going to continue to fight anything we can. My brother is fighting his cancer and I’m going to fight on the floor.”
Plenty of the family strength comes from Williams’ dad, and while he passed away before seeing him win the Premier Lacrosse League and now the National Lacrosse League championships, Williams still feels his father is with him for all of his accomplishments.
“I’m a very emotional player,” Williams stated. “I really strongly believe my family is always with me. Even though my dad passed, I can feel he’s still with me. He’s still talking to me, just like when I was a kid.”
There is no doubt with Williams’ fight on the floor and Morgan’s courageous battle with cancer is making their father proud.
After the game, the Mammoth raised the Champions Cup as a team and then the families took to the field. The biggest group there to support any of the Mammoth players was, without a doubt, the Williams clan.
He was the only player in the series where every game was a home game and it showed with his offensive production. In most cases, that would net a player the Most Valuable Player award, but this series was not like most.
Williams is the kind of player who will give credit everywhere else before he gives any to himself and that’s exactly what he did when talking about Finals MVP Dillon Ward, Colorado’s goaltender.
“He’s so unbelievable,” Williams said. “He’s the best goalie in the world. I’m so happy that I finally got to play the game of lacrosse with him. He won us those games, he won us this game.”
Ward put up gaudy numbers in net, making 40 saves in each of the first two games of the series. Then, when it mattered most in Game 3, Ward made a mind-boggling 55 saves. Just when it looked like the Mammoth offense had stagnated and the Bandits had a chance to retake the lead, Ward closed the door.
“Those saves at the end, especially the last five minutes, were unbelievable,” added Williams. “You see him make saves like that all the time and it gets you going. So we say, ‘Let’s help our goalie out, let’s help our defense out, they’re playing unreal.’ You just feed off of that.”
Ward went above and beyond in his part, so Williams and the Mammoth forwards made sure to do theirs. Williams led Colorado with four goals and two assists, while Chris Wardle matched him in points with one goal and five assists.
“It’s just what you work for,” Williams said about playing in championship games. “All offseason, all year, you want to climb that mountain and, once you get to the finals, you’re finally there. You’ve got to keep trucking along once you’re there, and to accomplish that is just worth all that training and the stuff that you put into it.”
The only disappointment from Saturday’s game was inevitable. With both Silver Creek High School graduates and former teammates Williams and Frank Brown playing in the finals on different teams, someone had to feel the pain of defeat.
Unfortunately for Brown, the Bandits suffered their third championship loss since winning it all in 2008. In the defeat, Brown and the Bandits’ defense did their job, but the offense just ran into a hot goalie and timely scoring.
