This hidden-ball-trick goal was one of the few bright spots in the Bandits’ season-opening 13-8 loss to Philadelphia, but it shined enough to feature on Deadspin. As an aside, the National Lacrosse League almost never receives exposure on major sports media sites like Gawker, so Tavares’ goal to trim Philadelphia’s lead to four late in the first half was pretty special.

Expecting the restart to come from the left side, Philadelphia’s defenders lazily gaze at Buffalo’s Luke Wiles, anticipating that he’ll start a rush toward goal. Little do the Wings know that Wiles had flipped the ball to Tavares, who trotted nonchalantly to the far side with his head down—ball comfortably cradled in stick.

Wiles cascaded down on the Wings’ defense, pretending the ball was in his stick, drawing the attention of every Philly defender and goalie Brandon Miller. Like he was wearing an invisibility cloak, Tavares coasted down the right side and flipped the ball into the gaping net for one of the most deceptive goals you’ll ever see.

As it turns out, NLL PR manager Doug Fritts noted that it was the referees who shouldn’t have let this go—the officials must determine the true location of the ball before any restart of play, even though I haven’t been able to track down this exact rule after browsing through 114 pages of NLL rulebook..