Cannons get it together, end skid
The Boston Cannons didn’t rely on just one player to help them break out of a slump.
Instead, they received contributions from up and down the lineup to put away the Chesapeake Bayhawks, 17-14, last night in a Major League Lacrosse game at Harvard Stadium.
Ten different players scored goals and the Cannons (5-5) held on late to snap a two-game losing skid and climb back to .500.
“The guys are really playing unselfish,” said Cannons coach Sean Quirk. “They’re starting to play really good team offense and just got to keep it rolling now.”
The Cannons led from the get-go and took a 9-5 advantage into halftime, but could never pull away from the Bayhawks (4-4).
Myles Jones, the first overall pick in the MLL draft out of Duke, notched his first professional goal to pull the Bayhawks within three, 9-6, just 33 seconds into the third quarter.
But the Cannons responded in a big way by scoring four straight goals in a span of 2:27 to open up a 13-6 lead.
Josh Hawkins got it all started with a goal from the wing, followed by a tally from Brent Adams just 16 seconds later.
Goals by Kevin Buchanan and Challen Rogers gave the Cannons some breathing room against a Chesapeake squad that wouldn’t go down easily.
The Bayhawks showed off their resiliency by scoring five unanswered goals before the third quarter was over.
Brendan Mundorf, who scored a game-high seven goals, was a key figure during the spurt, scoring twice as Chesapeake closed the gap to 13-11 heading into the fourth quarter.
“In the third quarter, Chesapeake kept punching away,” Quirk said. “I think we’ve learned a lot about ourselves over the last four or five games. Really proud of the guys of the way they battled back.”
The Bayhawks inched closer, 14-13, on a goal from John Maloney with 10:17 left in regulation, but couldn’t notch the equalizer.
Rogers, Hawkins and Adams each registered insurance goals in the final minutes to secure the win.
“Obviously we had to make it interesting at the end,” Hawkins said. “We dug in. Dug in on the defensive end. Dug in on the offensive end and we figured it out.”
The Cannons didn’t come out looking like a team that had dropped three out of its last four contests and had slipped into the middle of the pack in MLL.
Will Manny came up big for the Cannons early, tallying two goals in the second quarter. With his first goal, he became the eighth Cannon to record 100 in his career.