Having been a lacrosse goalie since I was around five years old, I have gone through many sticks, sets of mesh and goalie heads. This summer brought the release of the third generation of the Eclipse goalie head from mainstay brand STX. Having been a long-time user of Eclipse II and previously Eclipse I, I decided it was time to try out Eclipse III. After one full season of using the head, I have concluded it is the best goalie head I have used in my long career. 

With the release, of the Eclipse III, STX increased the price of their goalie head from $110 to $119 dollars. The head is available at STX.com and comes in white, black and grey.   The Eclipse III follows a very similar face shape to most goalie heads and brings a new and improved long neck grip, a part of the head that was revitalized by its predecessor the Eclipse II. The neck grip provides an optimal spot for goalies to place their top hand, and it is a personal preference of mine to have my grip all the way at the top. This factor of the neck grip is what drew me to the eclipse in the first place. 

While the Eclipse II was one of the top goalie heads in the game, in recent years it received many negative reviews about the lack of stiffness. This lack of stiffness is what brought brands like ECD, Warrior, and Gait to create new goalie heads to address this problem in the hope to draw goalies away from the eclipse. STX recently heard the complaints about the stiffness of the Eclipse 2 and addressed it with the release of the Eclipse III. From countless days in the sun at games, my Eclipse 2 has become very soft and malleable, including a very noticeable deformity on the bottom half. From the moment I had a new Eclipse III, I practiced a couple low saves and noticed my stick no longer bending in half like my previous stick. The noticeable difference in the stiffness of the head is a game-changer for goalies. I am no longer afraid of my stick losing surface area on a low save or a ball hitting the top portion and bending backward and letting up a goal. I noticed this multiple times throughout the season while making high saves and the stick staying strong while my freshman teammate who still used the Eclipse II found trouble with his stick bending backwards on high shots. 

After one season the only negative part of my Eclipse 3 is a hairline fracture in the side of one of my sticks. This is a massive upgrade from my previous seasons of using the Eclipse II, in which I broke multiple sticks for good throughout the season. The comparison of the Eclipse II being used by one of my teammates and still struggling with it proved how much of an upgrade the Eclipse III was. This is an overall upgrade of a goalie’s head and has placed STX back at the top of the goalie head market and ahead of its competitors.