Christopher Crane, Beat Writer Rochester Knighthawks
Lacrosse is Awesome
With the NLL regular season winding down and post season dreams still yet to be decided in the Eastern Division, the Rochester Knighthawks (9-8) played host to the New England Black Wolves (9-8) at the Blue Cross in a must win to punch their ticket to the post season. Unfortunately, the Knighthawks would come up short as New England would take an 11-6 win.
It would be Rochester getting things started in the first quarter as the Knighthawks Scott Campbell would go in unassisted at the 12:31 mark to put Rochester up 1-0 with teammate Austin Shanks following up just under a minute later with his own unassisted score to put Rochester up 2-0. New England would finally get on the board in the closing seconds of first quarter as Kyle Buchanan would net his only score of the night at the eight second mark to make it a 2-1 game at the end of the first quarter still in favor of Rochester.
The second quarter would see New England finding the back of the net first at 9:23 from Stephan LeBlanc to make it 2-2. Rochester would then answer back a minute later as Rochester’s Luc Magnan would find teammate Kyle Jackson for a spectacular goal to give the Knighthawks a 3-2 lead. The Black Wolves would close out the second quarter action netting scores from Callum Crawford at 7:46; and John LaFontaine at 4:38 to give New England a 4-3 lead heading into halftime.
Third quarter play would see the Knighthawks make it a 4-4 game as Shanks would net his second on the night at 13:07. New England turned up the pressure on Rochester as they would go on a three goal run from Evans; Johnny Powless; and Adam Bomberry to make it 7-4 Black Wolves. Rochester got one back from Eric Fannell at 6:47 to make it 7-5 still in favor of New England. The Black Wolves put up another from Fontaine, his second of the night at 2:34 to make it 8-5 at the end of the third quarter.
To start the fourth quarter saw New England showed no sign of slowing down as they would outscore Rochester 3-1. Netting scores for New England were LeBlanc for his second of the night; along with teammates Manney and Watkinson hitting twine. Netting the only score for Rochester in the fourth was Joe Resetarits, his only score of the night. New England would take the contest. Final Score: New England 11—Rochester 6.
Rochester will be back action as they take on the Buffalo Bandits (8-9) Saturday April 28th at Key Bank Center.
Christopher Crane, Beat Writer Rochester Knighthawks
Lacrosse is Awesome