The Denver Outlaws suffered their second loss of the season as they fell to the second place Rochester Rattlers 19-14. Denver opened the scoring with a goal from Jeremy Sieverts, but proceeded to trail for the rest of the game.
Rochester scored seven straight goals in between the first and second quarter to take a 7-1 lead. Dave Lawson scored three of those goals while three rookies, Jordan Wolf, Mark Cockerton and Miles Thompson, scored two of the others.
Denver scored three times in the second but it went into halftime as 11-4 Rochester. Denver exploded in the third with six goals but they still couldn’t catch up and trailed 15-10. With four goals each in the fourth, the margin would stay the same as the Rattlers took this one 19-14.
This was the most goals scored for the Rattlers all year, but their offense has slowly been meshing together. Once again Wolf was one of the best players on the field and picked up four points. Rookie Mark Cockerton had a career high six points, matched by Lawson.
The Outlaws haven’t allowed nineteen goals all season and Jesse Schwatzman, coming off of a 28 save game, was actually pulled and split time with Charlie Cipriano. Schwartzman allowed 14 goals on 21 shots while Cipriano played much better, making ten saves on 15 shots.
Denver remains atop the MLL standings with a 7-2 record, but now the Rattlers have become players for that top seed. They are 6-3 and alone in second place, just one game back of the Outlaws.
Next week Denver hosts Boston on their annual Fourth of July game while Rochester heads to Charlotte to face a Hounds team that is coming off of a much needed win.
