Payback worth wait
MLL stars rally to stun Team USA in OT
The have nots of Major League Lacrosse handed the haves a humiliating setback in last night’s AllStar Game at Harvard Stadium.
Attackman Will Manny scored his third goal at 6:46 of overtime to give the MLL All-Stars an improbable 1514 come-from-behind victory against Team USA.
The national team selected by Duke coach John Danowski is made up exclusively of current or former MLL players, while many on the league’s AllStar team were Team USA castoffs. The game was Team USA’s final tuneup for the FIL World Lacrosse Championships in Israel on July 12-21.
Manny, who was named the game’s MVP, was a lastround cut from Team USA so he had a lot riding on the outcome.
“It was a great competition playing as hard as we can for the fans in an AllStar Game,” said Manny, a four-time All-Star from UMass.
“They picked this team to play those guys and we are not going to give up until the end, and I was fortunate enough to have the ball on my stick there.”
Manny’s tally capped a rally from a 14-8 deficit in the fourth quarter. The MLL stars had numbers through the midfield in the final rush, and Manny was positioned in a sweet spot to unleash the clincher.
“Someone set a pick for me,” he said, “and my defender went underneath the pick and I had space from eight yards. That was my money zone and I just let it go and it trickled in, and I’m happy about it.”
Team USA opened the second half with a pair of goals by Connor Kelly and John Haus to go up 9-8 at the 1:18 mark. Team USA held the MLL stars scoreless in the third quarter and kept up the offensive pressure into the fourth quarter when middie Drew Snider put Team USA up 14-8 with 7:01 left to play.
MLL All-Star defenseman Michael Manley went coast-to-coast to start the rally with 5:55 to go. Connor Buczek scored next and Mike Chenenchuk followed with a two-point shot to make it 14-12 with 4:04 to play.
“I picked it up and noted that nobody was in front of me,” said Chenenchuk. “I knew I had some space behind me so as soon as I picked that ball up I was able to put it in a good spot. We needed to settle down a bit but at the same time pick up the pace when you are down by six with six minutes to go. We needed to go to the goal really aggressive and get a run going in the fourth quarter.”
Kevin Rice’s second of the game cut the lead to 1413 with 2:55 remaining. MLL then forced a turnover and coach Bear Davis called a timeout with 23.6 seconds remaining. Buczek went off script and tied the game with 13.1 seconds on the clock.
“Connor was going to throw that ball to me and I was going to throw it over the top to two middies,” said Manny.
“But Connor is an absolute man who can run through forechecks like he does and scores. That’s what a big-time player does and Connor is a great kid and a great player.”