Cannons fall in overtime
Overtime is where the Ohio Machine have separated themselves from the Boston Cannons.
Ohio attackman Marcus Holman scored the gamewinner at 6:26 of overtime to lift the Machine to a 1615 victory against the Cannons last night at Harvard Stadium. The Machine beat the Cannons, 13-12 in overtime, at home on June 10.
The Cannons dropped to 3-6 while the Machine (6-2) surged into sole possession of first place going into the MLL All-Star break. The Cannons resume play on July 16 at Rochester.
“We’ll get back to the drawing board and limit our turnovers at both ends of the field,” Cannons coach Sean Quirk said. “I feel that has been an issue, but we just have to put together 60 minutes and not have those lapses.”
The Cannons had the last possession in the fourth quarter and the first possession in overtime but failed to put the Machine away. The Cannons suffered a huge setback late in the fourth when midfielder Max Seibald’s two-point goal came off the board because of a man in the Ohio crease.
“We had our unit out there and we set up some plays, and in (overtime) it got broken up on a forced pass and it didn’t get through,” Quirk said.
The Machine tied the game 13-13 on consecutive goals by Peter Baum and Holman in the opening two minutes of the fourth quarter. The blitz drew a rapid response from the Cannons.
First-round draft pick Sergio Perkovic of Notre Dame, who was making his home debut for the Cannons, fired a missile from straight up at 2:33. Midfielder Joe Nardella scored his second unassisted goal following a faceoff to make it 15-13 at 2:39. The Machine tied the game 15-15 at 11:33 on a goal by midfielder Matt Schreiber with four seconds on the shot clock.
“We had our chances in the fourth quarter, and that two-pointer by Max there was a guy getting pushed in the crease,” Quirk said.
The Cannons opened the scoring in the second half when attackman Kyle Jackson ran a gauntlet through the Machine defense for his second of the match. Attackman Kylor Bellistri netted his fourth of the game to put the Cannons up 12-9 with 10:54 remaining in the third.
The Cannons defense and goalie Tyler Fiorito did a splendid job keeping the Machine off the board through the opening 10 minutes of the third. Ohio midfielder Jake Bernhardt ended the drought on a power move from behind the cage at 10:20. Attackman Davey Emala’s fourth of the contest with 19.3 seconds remaining gave the Cannons a 13-11 lead after three.
“Tyler made some huge saves, and defensively in the third quarter they played really well,” Quirk said. “They made some big stops and executed the game plan well and the whole team played hard tonight.”
The Cannons got on the board first on a spectacular individual play by Nardella 11 seconds in. He secured the faceoff from Machine specialist Jevin Reisman and made a run at the Ohio goal, firing a high shot by Kyle Bernlohr for a 1-0 lead.