SAY GOODBYE
Cannons win easily
Mitch Belisle (85) and Max Seibald (42) embrace at the close of last night’s Boston Cannons season finale at Harvard Stadium. Both retired following the victory over Ohio, ending an era for the franchise that won the MLL championship in 2011, but has missed the postseason five of the last six years.
In their season finale, the Cannons went out with a bang.
Winning 16-of-19 faceoffs in the first half, the Cannons struck early and often behind a balanced offense, defeating the Ohio Machine, 23-14, yesterday at Harvard Stadium.
It was a worthy sendoff for retiring veterans Max Seibald and Mitch Belisle, playing in their final Major League Lacrosse contest.
“What those guys meant to some of the young guys, particularly the rookies, the future is promising,” said coach Sean Quirk.
“It still hasn’t really hit me yet, but it was good to finish with a win,” said Belisle. “To finish at Harvard, it meant a lot.”
With the departure of two of the organization’s headliners, the Cannons are left to face an offseason mired in questions.
After trading the entire attack unit and starting faceoff specialist early in the season, plus their starting goalie missing the final four games with injury and now two captains departing, there’s more than a few clouds of uncertainty hovering over the team.
Last night, though, some of the potential future cornerstones of the franchise shined through.
Nearly the entire starting offense were players who were not a part of the Opening Day roster.
“We’ll put together our 25-man protected roster,” said Quirk. “Some of those guys we picked up late in the season with trades, then we added (faceoff specialist) Trevor (Baptiste). (Nick) Marrocco in goal, who replaced Tyler (Fiorito) who’s just been banged up all year, those are keys. We’ve really seen it the past couple of games, goaltending and faceoffs can dictate the game.”
The 2018 first overall selection, Baptiste was perfect at the faceoff dot early, securing the first 10 draws of the game to give the Cannons plenty of opportunity to work their settled offense.
Leading scorer James Pannell found the net 48 seconds into the game, only to be matched by Ohio. The Cannons scored the next five, two coming from rookie Zed Williams.
Midseason acquisition Mark Cockerton, acquired from Ohio before the trade deadline, scored three of the game’s next five goals to give the home squad an 8-3 advantage early in the second. He finished the game with eight tallies, the third time he’s reached at least six in a game this season.
“There was a little bit of rotating all season,” said Cockerton. “A lot of our goals tonight were one, two, three passes before a shot, and when you do that your offense is working pretty well.”
While the chemistry of a unit finally consistently together was an obvious turning point, Quirk believed it may be overstated in the landscape of the league.
“Every team has roster turnover,” he said. “The guys we made moves for proved to be working out. We added Cockerton in the trade, we pick up Shack Stanwick in a trade, those are all positive moves.”
The Cannons were perfect in the clearing game in the first half, usually a marker of a team that’s found its rhythm. After searching all season for the right pieces, it was a step in the right direction.
“It was a lot of fun to get out there and win,” said Seibald. “We haven’t had a lot of that this season. It meant a lot to go out with a win and special to do it with this group of guys.”
By halftime, the Cannons had opened up a 14-3 advantage. With a 22-9 lead being their largest of the night, they came five short of tying the franchise record.
It was the largest margin of victory all season in the league since the Cannons lost 25-7 to Charlotte on Opening Day on April 21.
For a team that’s lacked identity for more than a season, it was as high a note they could hope to end on.
“Everyone’s aware with Mitch and Max retiring,” said Cockerton. “To finish the year off like that was really special. Just seeing what we can do, I think we were playing well and we’re pushing through to 2019.”