Deciding on STX Eclipse to be the first goalie lacrosse head we'd review was a no brainer. We'd heard so much about his head we had to put it through its paces. We wanted to know if what people were saying stacked up against a critical review. Here we go.
The Eclipse weighs in around 11.2oz / 318 grams. It's not the lightest goalie head going around, but puts it amongst the lighter heads. Any concerns with the head being too heavy are easily allayed with an ultra light pole, like the Gait Ice.
The head is flexible, but by no means flimsy. The flex makes the head more durable, allowing it to better cope with the beating goalie heads tend to take. STX have not included ACP, so playing in hot temperatures may mean the head flexes slightly more. We've not heard of the cold affecting this head, but best check the user’s reviews for any occurrences.
Scoop
The scoop of the STX Eclipse is fantastic. The top of the scoop is a straight line which makes for super easy ground balls. The back of the scoop is very smooth with no lip which can raise the tip off the ground.
The angle of the scoop creates a sizable ridge at the back. This ridge is great for raking the ball back into the crease once you've trapped it. STX have done a great job.
The Eclipse reportedly has the largest face, but we placed it over the Voidlyte and couldn’t' see much of a difference. Aside from the slightly different dimensions, we couldn't confidently say one was bigger than the other.
Sidewalls
It was news to us, but the STX Eclipse was the first goalie head with open sidewalls. We also believe they were one of the pioneers of introducing offset technology into goalie heads as well. We’re looking at a real goalie head pioneer here that has withstood the test of time.
The sidewalls are quite strong and have a small amount of flex in them. We feel this flex is absolutely necessary because you need a bit of give in a goalie head. Goalie heads are forever being smashed into a ground ball contests on the crease. You don't want it snapping because you happened to check an opposition’s stick at the same time.
Following the style of STX lacrosse heads designed with forward cant, the sidewalls do angle back slightly as they extend from the neck. Only this head doesn't have the forward tilt as the sidewalls approach the scoop.
There's no flare to the sidewalls so some meshes will not fully stretch to the holes. Well, you could stretch it to the walls, but you might as well go ad play tennis with it for all the good it'll do you.
And one last little thing, you can roll the ball along the outside of the bottom half of the sidewall. This doesn't make a lick of difference, other than help us show off with our tricks.
Throat
The sidewalls around the throat are quite large. There's a lot of support triangle support bars in the area which give the whole area a solid feel to it. We found that while the lacrosse head is quite wide and challenged our mesh stringing abilities, the tapering in of the sidewalls created a great pocket and throwing channel.
Another observation is that the sidewalls do become near parallel as they approach the scoop, so it would be difficult to form a good channel there. But we found the ball naturally released from around the throwing strings so it wasn't much of a concern.
Neck
At a glance, you can see the neck contains a sizeable amount of support. If you take a close look, you'll notice that the lateral support bars do fan out further that the STX Guardian or their Goalmaster. The head fitted snugly onto the shaft and was very stable. This is a must for those close-in, twitch saves.
Summary
The STX Eclipse lacrosse head is a fantastic keeper head. Considering just the bare necessities of strength, flexibility and weight, it's an excellent head. But when you also factor in it's head size, the amount of flex, ease of ground balls, raking and the neck support, it's clear to see why this head is the most popular in the game.
