Secore Scores Player-of-the-week Honor
He shoots. He Se-cores!
Edmonton Rush forward Andy Secore, on the strength of an eight-point performance against Toronto Mar. 28, was named National Lacrosse League Offensive Player of the Week for the games played on the weekend of March 27-29 (Week #13 of the regular season).
Secore, a 5-11, 195-pound product of Hamilton, Ont., tallied a game-high five goals and added three assists in the 16-12 Rush win over the Rock.
"It's nice to be named player of the week, however, that performance really comes from the whole team," said Secore. "That was really a team effort."
In the victory, Edmonton scored a franchise-best 16 goals-for, with seven different players notching a goal and 11 players in total recording at least a point.
"The game plan was move the ball and move our feet," he added. "I thought the offense moved the ball real well and it showed on the scoreboard."
Edmonton, in need of an offensive breakout against Toronto, saw Secore step forward and the revitalization of Jimmy Quinlan's scoring punch, among others, giving the Rush hope down the stretch and a boost to the league's lowest-scoring team.
"We did have a lot of production last week from Dan Teat, Jimmy Quinlan and Mike Hominuck," said Secore, who's previous game-high was six points this season. "It worked well with Jimmy."
Secore, known as both a disher and swisher on the carpet, is pleased his game appears to be returning to the all-star campaign he enjoyed last year in Minnesota. Coming off a 28-goal and 76-point campaign with the Swarm in 2008, the high-scoring forward had off-season surgery, hampering both his conditioning and his touch with the Rush earlier this year.
"I struggled off the start," he said. "I don't think I was in the best of shape coming off the knee surgery."
Yet, Secore - second on the Rush with 47 points in 12 games so far - has seen his game turned up a notch of late and hopes he can Se-core more as Edmonton (4-8) contends for a playoff spot in the West Division with four games remaining.
With two pivital games this weekend - the Rush host Portland Lumberjax this Friday night at Rexall Place (7 p.m. start) - then travel to Minnesota for a Saturday night contest against the Swarm.
"We got things rolling now and all it takes for a team to peak at the proper time in this league," Secore said.
"Obviously, we have two huge games this weekend. Both games are like playoffs, so we have to sweep the weekend.
"We have to play one game at a time. We'll look at Friday night in Edmonton first and then we have a tough game to play in Minnesota Saturday," he added. "We're going to really have to battle in their arena, but I think it can be done with the way we played last game.
"It's desperate. We can't afford a loss right now."
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Secore Scores Player-of-the-week Honor
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