It was hard not to see promise in the New York Riptide while looking at their offseason additions. The drafting of Jeff Teat with the top pick in last year’s draft and the addition of MVP candidate Callum Crawford gave the second-year squad the look of a team ready to make the jump.

The first quarter of the season has not gone to plan. The Riptide suffered two close defeats to open the year, one by a goal and the other by two, then dealt with Teat in the COVID-19 protocols and over a month of downtime after a game postponement. A loss to the expansion Panther City Lacrosse Club that pushed New York to 0-4 added to its dire position.

After all that, you bet it felt good for the Riptide to finally secure their first win of the season — and only the second in franchise history.

Jeff Teat had a goal and three assists during a 5-1 Riptide run stretching from the second to third quarters, helping New York take the lead for good in a 13-12 matinee victory against the Philadelphia Wings on Sunday.

Teat finished with one goal and six assists. Steven Orleman was just as solid in net, making 56 saves.

“Obviously, really proud of the effort,” Riptide head coach Dan Ladouceur said. “In our preparation for this week, we talked about playing for us. Double down on our effort and compete in making sure we paid attention to details. The guys stuck to what we wanted to do and executed.”

The Wings went on a 4-0 run to take an 8-6 advantage in the second before that game-changing New York run. Philadelphia cut the deficit to one goal on three occasions in the fourth quarter but was never able to equalize. By holding on, the Riptide made sure there will not be a winless team in the National Lacrosse League this winter.

“It felt like we’ve been close a couple times this year,” Teat said. “Coming into this weekend, we just had to focus on working hard and getting our energy up. It worked out well for us.”

WEEKEND TO FORGET FOR ROCHESTER

While New York leaves the weekend with positive spirits, the Rochester Knighthawks turn back to the drawing board following a pair of defeats.

Georgia, in need of a win after dropping three of its first four games, was the first to upend the K-Hawks on Friday night. Playing without defending MVP Shayne Jackson and six others, the Swarm got goals from 10 players in a 12-8 triumph. That included some of the group’s youth — with Ethan Walker scoring twice and Kason Tarbell and Bradley Voigt once each — while Lyle Thompson notched six points on one goal and five assists.

“This is a great team out here,” Walker said. “We just had to come out here and dig down deep and find a win.”

Rochester appeared in line for a bounce back performance a night later in Philadelphia when Holden Cattoni scored to put the Knighthawks up 7-4 in the second quarter. But then a wave of Wings goals arrived, with a nine-goal run flipping the script. Rochester finally stopped the bleeding before letting up another four straight to the Wings, who ran away with an 18-10 win.

Kevin Crowley put up nine points, seven on assists, while Matt Rambo and Cory Viteralli each had five points.

The victory, combined with Sunday’s upset loss to New York, puts the Wings at 4-3 exiting Week 8. Meanwhile, Rochester dropped to 2-3.

NOTEWORTHY

Rochester’s Shawn Evans became the fifth player in NLL history to record 800 career assists. Philadelphia’s Kiel Matisz reached 300 career assists and teammate John Ranagan reached 100 career games. … Buffalo at Halifax and Vancouver at Calgary were originally scheduled to be played this weekend but were postponed to later in the season.

POWER RANKINGS

1. Buffalo Bandits (1)
2. Halifax Thunderbirds (2)
3. San Diego Seals (3)
4. Colorado Mammoth (4)
5. Toronto Rock (5)
6. Vancouver Warriors (7)
7. Philadelphia Wings (6)
8. Albany FireWolves (8)
9. Georgia Swarm (10)
10. Rochester Knighthawks (9)
11. Calgary Roughnecks (11)
12. Saskatchewan Rush (12)
13. Panther City Lacrosse Club (13)
14. New York Riptide (14)

UP NEXT
ALL TIMES EASTERN

Saturday

Knighthawks at Rock, 7 p.m.
Wings at Swarm, 7 p.m.
Bandits at Riptide, 7:30 p.m.
Thunderbirds at FireWolves, 8 p.m.
Panther City at Rush, 8:30 p.m.
Warriors at Mammoth, 9 p.m.
Roughnecks at Seals, 10 p.m.