The New York Lizards kept control of the third seed in Major League Lacrosse on Saturday with a 16-15 win over the Boston Cannons on the road. The Cannons drop to 5-6, the same record as the Ohio Machine, and they both are now tied for fourth place while Boston owns the tiebreaker.
Both teams were without star players at the world championships. Boston was especially impacted, missing the second league leading scorer Paul Rabil, Kevin Buchanan, Chris Eck, Mitch Belisle, and Brodie Merrill.
Meanwhile, the Lizards missed Rob Pannell, Drew Adams, Ned Crotty, Kyle Hartzell and Greg Gurenlian. Both teams missed their elite talent, maybe no one missed more than Adams for the Lizards, as Sean Brady allowed 15 goals and made just 13 saves.
Going into the fourth quarter the game was tied at 11 before the Lizards scored two in a row from JoJo Marasco. The Cannons scored four straight to take a 15-13 lead with goals from Mike Stone and Owen Blye along with two from Brent Adams. However, Boston had deja vu from their home win over Ohio as defenseman Michael Kimmel tie the game with a two pointer.
It didn’t end happily for the Cannons in overtime, however, as Marasco scored his third goal on a power play to end the contest.
The most interesting part of this game was seeing who stepped up with so many empty slots. Brady struggled in net to replace Adams while Craig Bunker did a great job filling in for Eck, winning 17 of 32 faceoffs. Jerry Ragonese, another veteran, proved to do well winning 15 of the faceoffs for the Lizards.
For the Cannons, getting cracks at the lineup were Brendon Porter, Owen Blye, Shane Sturgis, and Jack Reilly. Sturgis, an attackman making his debut, picked up one assist. Blye, who has played in nine games in a smaller role, scored a hat trick.
For the Lizards, Steve Dircks played his first game since May while Alex Zomerfield, Martin Cahill and John Austin made their 2014 Lizards debuts.
Both teams are back in action next week as New York faces last place Chesapeake and Boston battles Florida in the start of a home and home series.
