Lacrosse Weekend: NLL, MLL, and College

National Lacrosse League's Regular Season Finales

The National Lacrosse League's regular season ended on Saturday as final seeding for the playoffs were set. The Edmonton Rush, the number one team in the league, defeated the Vancouver Stealth 10-5 to end the season with a 16-2 record. The Rush, who started the season 14-0, earned a first round bye and home court advantage throughout the Champion's Cup playoffs. 

The Rush will face the winner of the first round matchup between the Calgary Roughnecks and the Colorado Mammoth. Roughnecks finished the season with a 14-8 victory over Vancouver, while the Mammoth had a come-from-behind win over the Philadelphia Wings in Philly. This match-up will be played in Calgary because the Roughnecks has the better record.

Cody Jamieson
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The best team in the East is the current holder of the Champion's Cup, the Rochester Knighthawks. The Knighthawks, led by the league leader in points Cody Jamieson, defeated the Buffalo Bandits 16-14 in front of 19,070 fans in Buffalo on Saturday. The 19,070 fans is tied for the most fans at a regular season game. With the win, the Knighthawks finish the season 14-4 and have won nine of their last ten games. While the Knighthawks have been on fire since the beginning of March, the Bandits have gone cold. They have lost their final eight games to end the season 8-10 and now have to travel to Toronto for their first round matchup with the Rock. The Rock won their final regular season game 8-6 against the Minnesota Swarm. 

Major League Lacrosse's FaceOff Weekend

Rob Pannell
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Eight of the MLL's ten teams played a game during opening weekend, called FaceOff Weekend. The new team to the league, the Florida Launch, faced off with the Denver Outlaws at FAU Stadium in Boca Raton, Florida. The first half was all Outlaws and they led 11-1 at half time. The Launch had a mini comeback in the second half, but still lost 14-10. With the win, the Outlaws' regular season winning streak was extended to 21 games. The last time they lost a game in the regular season was in July of 2012. Yet, Denver has never won a MLL Championship. The Ohio Machine defeat the Charlotte Hounds 15-8 in Charlotte. Machine netminder Scott Rodgers had 23 saves in the win. The defending champion Chesapeake Bayhawks lost to the Boston Cannons 15-9. Kevin Buchanan scored seven goals for the Cannons. In the final game of the weekend, the New York Lizards defeated the Rochester Rattlers 18-15. Rob Pannell scored six goals for the Lizards, five of them unassisted. 

ACC Tournament Final

Matt Kavanagh
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The Syracuse Orange (#4 in the Inside Lacrosse Poll/#4 in the Coaches Poll) went head-to-head with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (#9/#9) in the ACC Tournament Final. This is both school first season in the ACC. In the semi-finals, #3 seeded Syracuse defeated #2 seeded Duke 16-15 in a rematch of last year's National Championship, which the Blue Devils won. Billy Ward scored the game-tying goal for the Orange with fifteen seconds left and Dylan Donahue followed that up with a goal with a second left to win it for the Orange. Notre Dame, seeded fourth in the tournament, also scored a game winning goal in the closing seconds. Matt Kavanagh scored the game-winning-goal with less than seven seconds left to put the Irish up 6-5 and clinch a spot in the final. 

The Final was just as thrilling as the two semi-final games. At the half, Notre Dame and Syracuse were all tied up at seven. However, the Fighting Irish came out of the half hot, scoring seven goals in the third quarter and only giving up two goals to take a 14-9 lead. Six minutes into the fourth quarter, the Fighting Irish seemed to be on their way to victory as they had a 15-10 lead. But, the Orange began to fight back. When Scott Loy scored with 2:02 remaining, the Notre Dame lead was down to one. Notre Dame won the ensuing face-off, but Dominic Lamolinara, who came on at the start of the fourth, saved a point blank shot off of his face mask. Syracuse got the ball and went on the attack. The Orange could not get the ball in the net as Conor Kelly made a great save with a few seconds left to seal the deal for the Irish. Kavanagh was MVP of the Tournament. 

Patriot League Final

Jack Runkel
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The Loyola Greyhounds (#1/#1) went up against the Lehigh Mountain Hawks (#18/#18) in the Patriot League Championship Game. Loyola defeated Colgate 12-6 in the semi-final, while Lehigh defeated Army 12-11 in their semi-final game. Loyola won the game handily, 17-6, and extended their winning streak to fourteen games. Lehigh struck first, but Loyola, whose only loss this year came at the hands of Virginia in OT, scored six consecutive goals and was up 7-3 at half time. The second half was all Greyhounds, as they scored nine goals to the Mountiain Hawks four. When the horn sounded, Loyola won 16-7. Greyhound goalie Jack Runkel made fifteen saves and was named Patriot League Tournament MVP.

National Lacrosse League Finals

The National Lacrosse League held it's championship game, called the Champion's Cup, last night. 

Cody Jamieson
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The Eastern Conference Finals featured the Toronto Rock and the Rochester Knighthawks. Toronto beat the Buffalo Bandits 7-6 to make the Conference Finals. The Rock didn't allow a goal in the 2nd half. Rochester defeated Philadelphia 14-13. The Knighthawks held off a rally by the Wings, who scored 7 goals in the 4th period, to win. When the Conference finals came around the #1 seed Toronto out shot Rochester 64-40. However, the Rock could not pull out the win. Rochester won 17-13. 


In the Western Conference Finals, the Edmonton Rush and the Minnesota Storm. Edmonton were 4th in the West in the regular season with a 6-10 record. Edmonton beat the 1 seed, Calgary, 19-11. Minnesota beat the 2 seed, Colorado, 14-10. The game between the Rush and Storm was not even close. Edmonton dominated 15-3. Ryan Ward had 4 goals and 3 assists, Aaron Wilson had 3 goals and 4 assists, and Shawn Williams who only had 1 goal and 5 assists. The lead at 1 point was 11.


The Edmonton Rush are led by NLL's Defenseman of the Year and NLL's 1st Team All-Pro Kyle Rubisch and NLL 2nd Team All-Pro Goalie Aaron Bold. Rubisch was the league leader in forced turnovers with 43. Bold was 3rd in Saves with 571 and 3rd in Goals Against Average with 10.47. 


2012 NLL 2nd Team All-Pro Cody Jamieson is a leader on this Rochester team. He was 4th in the League in points for the regular season. Rochester has 2 All-Rookie Team members Johnny Powless and Stephen Keogh. Powless also won the Sportsmanship Award. 


Now to the game. 

The goalies after the game
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The 1st half was low scoring. Edmonton's Zach Greer scored the 1st goal of the game in the 1st quarter. In the 2nd quarter, the rush added to the lead while Rochester could only put 1 on the board. Going into halftime, it looked like Edmonton was going to pull away.


The momentum shifted largely after halftime. Rochester blew the game open in the 3rd period. The Knighthawks scored 6 goals in the quarter. Edmonton scored none. Jamieson and Mike Accursi both had 2 goals. Keogh and Powless scored the other goals. Edmonton could not recover as Rochester won the game, 9-6. 


Jamieson was the games MVP. He had 4 goals and 4 assists. Matt Vinc had 46 saves on 52 shots.