For the first time in 2012, the Rochester Rattlers have lost at home. The loss ends their three game win streak and the Rattlers are now 2-1 in the second half of the season. The Bayhawks bounced back after their loss to Charlotte last weekend and are now 1-1 after the All-Star break.
Some first quarter action, well, there was hardly any except for the goalies. John Galloway and Kip Turner held each team scoreless until John Grant Jr. put one past the shoulder of Galloway at the 3:18 mark. The assist went to Jeff Reynolds. That would be the only goal of the first quarter.
There were bad, forced passes made, along with shots that went wide or rang off the post. Guys had chances to score, but their shots were just a little off, went way wide or the goalie got a piece of it. Ground balls were a problem for Rochester and that was not a good thing, especially when you’re up against Chesapeake. At the end of the first, the Bayhawks were up 1-0.
The lack of scoring would carry over to the middle of the second quarter. Again, each team had opportunities but their shots were off the mark or the goalies stood strong. There was a scary moment for Rochester though and Galloway took a shot off his hand from Drew Westervelt. He would be ok though.
Scoring in the second got off to a start when Danny Glading took John Lade to the net off a restart and pinged the bottom corner. This came with the help of a pick set by Ben Rubeor, it moved Lade ever so slightly off of Glading and gave him enough room to score.
Not a moment later, Chesapeake got the ball off the faceoff and Michael Kimmel hit a streaking Dan Hostetler, who cut back inside on his defender and nailed the top corner. The Bayhawks now had a 3-0 lead.
Rochester’s first goal came with hustle. It started when Galloway made a beautiful one on one save against Grant Jr. and Roy Lang raced Grant Jr. to the end line and dove to get possession. After the Rattlers cleared it, Brad Ross took the ball up top and beat Kimmel down the right side and zipped one past Turner. Rochester was behind 3-1.
The next goal was started when Turner came up big twice. Chesapeake transitioned and Reynolds passed to Matt Abbott, he then question marked Jordan MacIntosh, and shot it left handed past former Syracuse teammate Galloway.
About 21 seconds later, Matt Mackrides snagged the ball up from the faceoff, sped down the field and put one in to give Chesapeake a 5-1 lead.
Rochester won the faceoff and gained possession. Steven Boyle had his name called when he drove from X and pulled a little outside roll on Barney Ehrmann and snuck one past Turner. Rattlers were now down 5-2.
Adam Rand was called for covering the ball with his hand on the faceoff and Rochester was awarded the ball. They settled and Ned Crotty got the ball up top, dodged down the right side, drew the slide, outside rolled, tossed it to Rob Rotanz, who found an open Kevin Leveille on the crease. Leveille danced his way across the top of the crease throwing a few fakes and buried the ball in the back of the net. Rochester was on a roll now and cut the lead to two. 5-3 Bayhawks with 3:41 left to go in the first half.
Crotty was inverted into a midfielder, allowing Dan Hardy to go play attack. This proved successful for the Rattlers on a few occasions. Ned drew a pole up top, beat him on a dodge and hit Leveille on the crease. Unfortunately, Leveille couldn’t finish and it led to a Chesapeake transition, where Abbott showed off his two way lacrosse skills. He got the ball from Kimmel, faked a left handed shot, pulled up, switched to his right and put it past Galloway to give the Bayhawks a 6-3 lead going into halftime.
At the end of the first half, Chesapeake leads in goals, 6-3, and in shots 14-11. Both teams were tied with 8 saves a piece and 17 groundballs. Chesapeake led 7-4 in faceoff’s.
Chesapeake won the faceoff to start the third quarter. Glading and Abbott played the two man game with Lade and Tim Fallon. Abbott set the pick for Glading, who then took advantage of Fallon and ran right past him to put the ball in the back of the net. The Bayhawks were now up by four.
The next faceoff showed just how brutal the faceoff guys can be. Fallon got his head right under Rand’s and as Alex went to readjust, he took Fallon’s helmet with him. Faceoff guys are like two rams battling each other. The whistle blew and the officials had a re-do, where Fallon nearly took Rand’s head off, and got called for it. The ball was awarded to Chesapeake.
Chesapeake threw the ball away and White picked it up. He tossed it to a still inverted Crotty, who beat his LSM defender, John Orsen, and this time did it all himself, giving Rochester their first goal of the second half. 7-4 Bayhawks.
Transition was a problem mid third quarter for the Rattlers, who had two failed clear attempts in a row. After they got it down to the other side of the field, they lost the ball because of a shot clock violation.Chesapeake then ran down the field, settled, and ended it with a little tic-tac-toe play. Steven Brooks saved the ball from going out and got it to Glading. Dan passed to Westervelt who got it to Kimmel on the left side of the crease. Who then passed it back to a cutting Westervelt, where he quick sticked it into the back of the net. Giving Chesapeake an 8-4 lead with 8:27 left in the third.
Chesapeake’s next goal came from a breakdown of Rochester’s defense. From Grant Jr. going to the net and trying an around the world shot, to the defense trying to get the ground ball, Kimmel got lost in the action, was left unattended and cut behind the defense from up top to where Glading got the ball right into his stick. Chesapeake was now up 9-4.
Ned Crotty was gain a part of the Rattlers next goal. After they transitioned and settled. Crotty came streaking in from up top, getting the pass from Rotanz and hitting Leveille on the left side of the crease, who put it past Turner. 9-5 Bayhawks would be the end score for the third.
Rochester opened up the scoring in the fourth quarter at the 11:17 mark. Rotanz passed to Leveille, who took his defender inside the top of the two-point arc. Got in close to Abbott, so that he couldn’t use his stick, and whistled one past Turner. That gave him a hat-trick and cut Chesapeake’s lead 9-6.
Bad transition by the Rattlers led to a Chesapeake clear and settled offense. Where Westervelt drew MacIntosh and dodged from behind the net to score his second goal of the night and put the Bayhawks up by 4 with 8:57 to go in the game.
Roy Lang made his presence known when he took on Abbott and went to the net by himself. Pulling a jump shot and beating Kip off stick side. Chesapeake’s lead was down 10-7 and that would be Rochester’s last goal of the evening.
The first two-point goal of the night came from none other than Kyle Dixon. After he scored you could see Bayhawk Coach Dave Cottle excited that they finally got a two-point goal on the score sheet. Rochester had defended very well against it all night, but they let up for that one second and Dixon took advantage of it.
The final goal of the game came off a restart at the Rochester end. Glading tried to fire a pass to Ben Rubeor, that got tipped, but somehow still got to him, and he scored to make the score final at 13-7, in favor of Chesapeake.
To end the game, the Bayhawks held the ball until the shot clock ran out. Rochester ran down the field into a Chesapeake pressure defense and tried to get a goal from a Roy Lang shot. Goalie Kip Turner came up big again and cleared to the attack, where they held the ball until time ran out.
Chesapeake moves to 8-2 overall, standing on top of the MLL. On their schedule next is Ohio, who have shown life defeating the Nationals in their first game of their double header with them this weekend. That will be the Bayhawks second to last away game. Hopefully they will be able to bring home a win.
Rochester is now at an even .500 with a record of 5-5. They have four games remaining and will need to win those four games in order to see the playoffs. Their next game is on July 20 versus the Charlotte Hounds at home. They will need to clean up their transition play if they want to beat the Hounds, who, as Chesapeake saw last weekend, are no joke.
