Wild 11-10 Road Win Over Rochester
Rochester, NY – The Toronto Rock (3-2) overcame a 6-2 halftime deficit and the loss of starting goaltender Nick Rose to come all the way back and defeat the Rochester Knighthawks (4-2) by a score of 11-10 on Saturday night at Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, NY.
“We stuck with it,” said Rock Head Coach Matt Sawyer who moved past Les Bartley into an 8th place tie with Pat Coyle on the NLL all-time wins list with 94. “There were points in that game where we didn’t really like our game, but it’s been consistent with our season overall. We’re finding ways to get results and battling through some adversity. That’s a really good team we beat over there.”
Owen Hiltz and Mark Matthews sparked the comeback on the offensive side of the ball in the second half. Hiltz had three goals with all of them being at very important junctures including the tally that tied the game at 10-10. Matthews finished with 2 goals and 3 assists which included the game winning goal with 58 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
“It was just a product of moving our feet on offence and everybody swinging the ball,” said Matthews of his sneaky bounce shot that stood up as the game winning goal. “(Chris) Boushy found me on the back side there and there was just nobody underneath (on Rochester’s defence) and CJ (Kirst) did a good job clearing out, (there was) a little bit of a lane to the net and I was lucky enough to put it in.”
After a first half that saw the Rock down 6-2 at the break, the visitors came out with some inspired play to begin the third quarter to close to within two, down 6-4. Rochester answered with a score to go back up by three but in the process Knighthawks’ goal scorer Graydon Hogg collided with Rose in the Rock crease and the Toronto goaltender was down on the turf for some time and was forced to leave the game with a lower body injury.
Enter Troy Holowchuk who turned in 22:41 worth of standout relief work that allowed the Rock to chip away and come back in this lacrosse game. Holowchuk made 13 saves on 16 shots and held Rochester to just one goal over a 16:40 stretch that allowed the Rock to take a 9-8 lead with 8:03 to play.
“Our team is very much next man up,” said Holowchuk. “You hate to see Rosey go down like that and hope he’s alright but we know what we have to do and there’s a lot of trust in the team to just be next man up and do a job and get the job done.”
With the two teams exchanging two goals each the rest of the way it led to a frantic final 58 seconds after the Rock had taken the lead. Rochester had several chances to tie the game late but Holowchuk and the Rock defence were able to preserve the win.
There were some outstanding defensive performances that should not be overlooked.
Sam English had quite a night and Sawyer praised him following the game, saying he was the best player on the floor for either team. English finished the game with a goal, an assist, 8 loose balls and a caused turnover.
Brad Kri and Josh Jubenville were both in double digits as far as loose ball recoveries with 11 each. Kri had 3 caused turnovers while Jubenville had 1 and handled the bulk of the work at the faceoff dot for the Rock.
Prior to leaving the game due to injury, Rose was putting together a very good night as well making 35 saves on 42 shots for an .833 save percentage.
The Rock will return home for the first of three straight weekends when they host the Georgia Swarm on Kidz Night at TD Coliseum in Hamilton on Saturday, January 24 at 7pm ET.
For more information on Toronto Rock tickets, please contact a Toronto Rock account executive by phone at 905-426-4744, by email at tickets@torontorock.com or visit torontorock.com.
