Attackman Brendan Mundorf scored three goals while goalkeeper Brian Phipps recorded 14 saves, but a bad fourth quarter was the difference as the Chesapeake Bayhawks suffered an 18-8 loss to the Rochester Rattlers at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
Mundorf scored two of his goals on acrobatic plays in which he dove across the crease while shooting the ball into the net. Phipps stopped 11 shots in the first half before being overwhelmed by an onslaught of shots after intermission.
“Give credit to Rochester, they capitalized on our mistakes. That’s what good teams do,” Phipps said afterward. “That’s a team that has played in the championship the last two years and they showed why tonight.”
Midfielder Joe Walters contributed a goal and an assist for Chesapeake (4-3), which was trying to complete a sweep of its two-game home stand. Anthony Kelly fought hard at the faceoff stripe and won 14 of 30 for the Bayhawks, who were outscored 8-0 in the fourth quarter.
“We didn’t compete the way we needed to. I wasn’t happy with the effort we gave, especially in the fourth quarter,” Chesapeake Head Coach Brian Reese said.
“It was death by a thousand cuts. It seemed like every mistake we made, they capitalized,” Reese said. “We missed a couple layups on the offensive end and the goalie made some good saves. It seemed like every time he made a stop they were able to come down immediately and get a transition goal on us.”
Midfielder Matt Mackrides agreed with that assessment and also gave credit to Rattlers goalie John Galloway, who matched Phipps with 14 saves.
“We had too many turnovers on the offensive end and we weren’t finishing our shots,” he said. “Fundamental errors and mental errors all led to them getting a big lead on us at the end.”
Both of Chesapeake’s goals in the first quarter were of the spectacular variety. Mundorf opened the scoring by beating defenseman John Lade to the cage, diving across the goal-line while firing a shot into the top corner and absorbing a push from behind.
Close defenseman Jesse Bernhardt then put an end to a 3-0 Rochester run with a remarkable play. Bernhardt cut to the crease on a fast break, took an inside pass from Abbott and whipped a no-look, back-handed shot into the net to make it 3-2 with 33.1 seconds left.
Chesapeake opened the second stanza with three straight goals to take a 5-4 lead. Attackman Drew Westervelt scored off a sidearm crank shot, Walters whistled a low liner past Galloway’s ankles while Mundorf completed the run by finishing a transition opportunity with a left-handed laser from the wing.
However, Rochester scored four unanswered goals to close the first half and take an 8-5 lead at intermission. The Rattlers increased their advantage to four by scoring the first goal of the second half. Midfielder Greg Coholan stopped the bleeding for the Bayhawks with an unassisted goal off a sweep move from up top, firing in a hard bounce shot to make it 9-6 at the 9:51 mark.
Mundorf cut the deficit to two with a goal that was identical to his first of the game. The left-handed once again slipped inside Lade and drove to the cage, diving and shooting while drawing a penalty for a push in the back.
Two-way midfielder Matt Abbott followed with an unassisted tally of his own, beating a short stick to the front of the net for a point-blank shot and suddenly it was 9-8 with 3:41 left in the third quarter. Rochester scored the final goal of the frame to stop the 3-0 run and take a 10-8 lead into the fourth.
“We were able to get within goal and I thought we had some momentum and we just couldn’t sustain it,” Reese said.
The Rattlers then took total control in the fourth quarter, outscoring Chesapeake 8-0 to pull away.
“Some bad luck and bad bounces and all of a sudden they put a big run together. We needed to find a way to stop it and we couldn’t,” Chesapeake defenseman Michael Evans said. “We got a little complacent and went away from our game-plan. If we’re going to be successful we need to do a better job of fighting on every possession.”
Chesapeake is off next weekend then travels to Boston to play the Cannons at Harvard Stadium on June 23.
“We have a bye week and we need to regroup. We need to dig in and start making plays,” Reese said. “Everyone needs to do better. I’ve got to coach better and the players need to perform better. If everyone does a little bit more individually our team will be okay. That was a frustrating loss, but we have to keep fighting.”