The last time the New York Lizards reached the MLL Championship was 2010 when they lost 13-9 to rival Chesapeake Bayhawks. Now the Lizards find themselves in the Championship game once again, this time against in-state rival Rochester Rattlers, but it certainly wasn’t easy as they had to defeat the Boston Cannons in overtime 16-15 to get to this point.
The Cannons wanted to come out of gates strong, and they did that. Ryan Tucker, Kevin Buchanan, and Brent Adams scored three goals within the first seven minutes then the Cannons held a tough Lizards offense to zero goals in the first quarter.
Realizing his teammates and the fans were starting to panic, JoJo Marasco took it upon himself to get the Lizards back into the game. He opened the second quarter with New York’s first goal of the game. He later responded to two Cannons’ goals with another goal, and Marasco’s play lit a fire in the Lizards. Soon, Paul Rabil and Kevin Unterstein followed with goals of their own to cut Boston’s lead to one goal. Ryan Tucker tried to keep the Cannons ahead by scoring a goal, but Ned Crotty, Rob Pannell, and Matt Gibson fired the ball into the net to get the Lizards a 7-6 lead going into halftime.
The Cannons couldn’t hold the Lizards offense off forever, as the third quarter belong to New York. Leading the way was Gibson, who scored two goals in the third quarter. Following him was Rabil, Marasco, and Mike Stone who extended the Lizards’ lead to 12-7 by the end of the third quarter.
If this past season’s Cannons-Lizards match ups has taught fans anything, its never to expect either team to roll over in the fourth quarter. Max Seibald opened the fourth quarter with a two-point goal, then after Pannell, Steven Holmes and Tommy Palasek scored for the Lizards and Kevin Buchanan scored for the Cannons, Seibald added another two-point goal. The Cannons were able to tie the game thanks to two goals from John Glesener and a goal Josh Hawkins at 15 and send the game in overtime, but the hero of the game was Matt Gibson as he tallied his fourth goal of the night to send the New York Lizards to the MLL Championship game.
At the end, Adam Ghitelman joined the Cannons rush with Scott Ratliff before being decked by Drew Adams. The ball went to Paul Rabil who fed it to Gibson, and what we got was the most iconic finish to an MLL game in league history.
