By: Di Miller, Beat Writer Denver Outlaws
Lacrosse is Awesome
The Denver Outlaws (1-3) headed to Navy-marine Corps Stadium on Saturday May 21 to face the Chesapeake Bayhawks (3-1) for the only regular season meeting of the two teams during the 2016 season. What may be going wrong with the Outlaws? In their first nine years as a franchise, they made it to the play-offs each year; in 2013 and 2014 they broke numerous records, both team and individual; and they defeated the Rochester Rattlers during the MLL Championship game in 2014. But in 2015 they squeaked by with a record of 500 and for the first time in team history, did not make the play-offs; and in 2016 they are off to a 1-3 start. Heading into Chesapeake, they felt they were in a good position to come away with the victory. They had John Grant Jr. who had returned, but with the retirement of many key veterans over the past couple of seasons; the loss of Anthony Kelly; and now Dillon Ward, they are in rebuilding mode. Final Score: Chesapeake 20—Denver 13.
The Bayhawks would outscore the Outlaws 6-2 in the first, with goals from Brendan Mundorf (hat-trick); Drew Westervelt; Joe Walters; and Matt Bertrams. The Outlaws would only hit net twice, with the first from Brian Kormondy, the first of his MLL Rookie career; and the second by Callum Crawford. Score at the end of one: Bayhawks 6—Outlaws 2.
Heading into the second, it would be no different. The Bayhawks would outscore the Outlaws again, but this time 6-1. The only Outlaws player to score was Kormondy. The Bayhawks would see Matt Danowski (two); Nick Osello; Mundorf; John Maloney; and Westervelt find a space between the pipes. The Outlaws were facing another huge deficit to overcome heading into the second half of play. They had also decided to pull Ryan LaPlante from between the pipes and Johnny Rodriguez would go in for the second half. Score at the end of two: Chesapeake 12—Denver 3.
The Outlaws came out of the locker room with a different attitude. They outscored Chesapeake 5-3 in the third. Two momentous things occurred during one of the Outlaws five goals. Rookie Tim Cox would score his first career MLL goal in an Outlaws jersey and John Grant Jr. would get his 500th career point off the assist. In the period, Chesapeake would only score three times, with goals from Westervelt (hat-trick); Jesse Bernhardt; and CJ Costabile. Denver would get goals from Crawford; Jeremy Sieverts; Chris Bocklet; Tim Cox; and Dom Sebastiani. Although the Outlaws had outscored the Bayhawks 5-3, they still had a deficit to overcome. Score at the end of the third quarter: Chesapeake: 14—Denver 8.
Denver would start the fourth with a three goal run beginning with Noah Molnar; followed by Matthew Hossack (his first MLL goal as a rookie); and Thomas Kelly. But the Bayhawks shut them down going on their own three goal run. Joe Walters started it off and ended up with the hat-trick; Osello would get his second of the game; and Matt Mackrides would find net. Denver would come back with Sieverts hitting net, only for that to be notched off the board as Walters would score again. But Denver answered back with another off Sieverts on the power-play, giving him the hat-trick as well. This would be the final goal of the game. Denver couldn’t find a way to find the net again. Final Score: Chesapeake 20—Denver 13.
The teams were almost even on X with Denver leading 30-29; but Chesapeake would lead in ground balls 45-36. Each team would also score twice on the power-play.
As the NLL play-offs are down to only two teams, Denver will get back another one of their offensive power-houses, Wes Berg. But as the scores indicate, with the exception of their first loss of the season in Ohio in OT, their other two games have been lost by a significant margin. Denver needs to figure a way out of their slump on offense; the defense needs to protect their net-minders; and the goalies must be better prepared in net as both are young and with the offensive strength of the opposing veteran midfielders and attackmen, they have to find a way to stop the ball.
Next up, Denver heads back home after their three game road trip and will host the Boston Cannons (3-1) on Saturday May 28 at 6:30 p.m. MT, followed by another stellar fireworks show.
Di Miller, Beat Writer Denver Outlaws
Lacrosse is Awesome