Rule 4, Section 8 – “A goal is scored when a loose ball passes from the front, completely through the imaginary plane formed by the rear edges of the goal line, the goal posts and the crossbar of the goal, regardless of who supplied the impetus” (NFHS Boys Lacrosse Rulebook 2011).

This rule causes some consternation. Every so often, a ball will bounce off some player’s leg and roll towards the goal. It keeps rolling and comes to a stop with half of the ball over the goal line, and half the ball in front of the goal line. The closest attackman is yelling, “Goal,” but the referee is not signaling a score. Because, according to the above rule, the entire ball must cross the imaginary plane formed by the back of the goal posts.

To help illustrate this point, I put together the diagram below for Tadpole Lacrosse. The red line is the imaginary plane “formed by the rear edges of the goal line.” Notice where the ball is in the “Goal” diagram on the right versus the “No-Goal” diagram.

No Goal versus Goal

This is a difficult concept to understand, especially if you follow football. Because to score a touchdown in football, the offensive player just has to break the plane of the goal line with any part of the football. That is why you see so many running backs reaching forward when they are tackled at the one-yard line. If they can get the front of the pigskin to barely cross the line, they score a touchdown.

Reaching Ball Over Line

To recap, scoring a goal in lacrosse requires the entire ball to completely cross the very back of the goal line. Just touching the line does not score a goal according to the NFHS rulebook.

Featured Image Credit - www.blog.syracuse.com

Cheers,
Gordon