Marrocco a saving grace
The Cannons snapped a three-game losing streak yesterday, avenging a humbling loss in the process.
Superb goaltending from
Nick Marrocco of Duxbury in conjunction with streaky scoring allowed the Cannons to dominate the Charlotte Hounds, 14-7, in a Major League Lacrosse contest at Harvard Stadium.
Marrocco made 21 saves to earn his first MLL win, and was named Player of the Game for his efforts, as the Cannons improved to 4-9. They close out the season at home on Saturday against the reigning MLL champion Ohio Machine.
“Our goaltending was spectacular tonight,” said Cannons coach Sean Quirk. “There was great goaltending and that defensive unit certainly helped.”
The Cannons were determined to reverse their 25-7 beatdown by the Hounds in the season opener in Charlotte on April 21.
After sleepwalking through the second quarter, the Hounds’ Ryan Brown scored to make it 6-2 after going 29:36 without a goal. Dylan Maltz cut the Cannons lead to 6-3 on a bullet shot at 5:25.
Attackman Kyle Jackson ended the brief Hounds’ rally with his third of the game. Max Siebold and James Fahey scored seven seconds apart to push the Cannons lead up 9-3.
The hosts outscored Charlotte 6-2 in the third and opened the fourth with midfielder Challen Rogers’ second of the game. The Cannons’ game plan in the fourth was to bleed the shot clock and contain Charlotte. Charlotte scored three unanswered goals but James Pannell stopped the rally with his third tally at 11:45.
“The third quarter was our best quarter and the guys came out strong,” said Quirk. “They popped in a couple of quick ones and our guys just bounced back because they didn’t dwell on those goals.”
The Hounds scored the opener at 2:51 of the first on a slick individual effort by Mike Chanenchuk, a second team All-American from Maryland, by ripping a 20yard shot by Marrocco.
The Cannons attack labored early, as they went scoreless in their opening 10 trips into the Charlotte zone, a skid facilitated by the fantastic play of Hounds goalie Charlie Cipriano. The Hounds were equally ineffective with eight straight forays without a tally, but led 1-0 at the end of the first.
“We weren’t clicking in those first few minutes or so,” said Quirk. “There was a little bit of sloppy play and that sort of thing, but we told the guys to relax and move off-ball more. When we started to do that, we started to jell on the offensive end.”
The Cannons tied the game 1-1 on their opening possession of the second quarter. Midfielder Sergio Perkovic, a second-year pro from Notre Dame, ripped a shot from 10 yards that beat Cipriano 27 seconds into the frame.
Marrocco made three consecutive saves from close range on the Hounds 11th straight fruitless trip into the Boston zone. The Cannons responded with a scoring splurge on consecutive goals by Pannell, Jackson and Shack Stanwick to go ahead 4-1 with 3:39 left in the half.
The hosts went up 5-1 on Jackson’s second of the quarter with 3:03 on the clock. Rogers ripped a shot from 10 yards with 53 seconds remaining for a 6-1 lead at intermission.
“I think that was huge and our defense stepped up big,” said Marrocco. “After that the offense knew they were going to get something going, and when the ball went in the offensive end they did their thing.”