Ground Ball (GB)

What counts as a ground ball

A ground ball is a loose ball that a player picks up and controls. The ball has to be loose first: it hit the turf after a shot, a check, a dropped pass, or a faceoff or draw, and neither team had possession. Control means the player did something with the ball: moved away from the pressure, dodged, or made a clean pass. There is no set amount of time. Scooping it and losing it on the next touch does not count, because the player never had control.

Every faceoff or draw win produces one ground ball. It goes to the player who comes up with the ball, often a wing rather than the player who took it. When two players fight for the same loose ball, the one who comes away with it earns the ground ball.

How SquadProfile records it

Tap the player, then tap Ground Ball. The app records it against that player and the game clock, with no result or location to choose. The faceoff or draw result is a separate stat recorded for the player who took it, so a win and the ground ball that follows can belong to two different players. One convention for boys and girls lacrosse keeps ground balls comparable across teams on section leaderboards.

Common mistakes

• Counting a pass that skips on the turf on its way to a teammate. If the ball was never loose, it is not a ground ball.
• Giving the faceoff or draw player the ground ball automatically. The win is theirs; the ground ball goes to whoever scoops it.
• Giving the goalie a ground ball on a save the goalie holds in the crease. That is a save, which has its own stat.
• Handing out two ground balls on one scramble. One loose ball produces one ground ball.

Where it shows up

Ground balls appear as the GB column on season leaderboards for every state, section, and class, on each game's public box score, and in the team's season stats in the app. Tap the GB header on a leaderboard to rank players by ground balls.

Related stats

• Caused turnover: the defensive play that often creates the loose ball.
• Turnover: the other side of the same play.
• Faceoff (boys) and draw control (girls): the win is recorded for the player who took it, separately from the scoop.