The Toronto Rock opened their pre season with a hard fought 13-12 win over the Colorado Mammoth. Garrett Billings opened the scoring for the Rock before the Mammoth responded with four unanswered goals to close out the first quarter leading the Rock 4-1
Toronto came out of the gate flying, scoring three goals in the first 1:21 of the quarter as Scott Johnston, Mike Woods and Garett Billings each found the back on the net on Tye Belanger. The Rock would score a total of five unanswered goals in the first eight minutes of the 2nd quarter, taking a 6-4 lead before Mat MacLeod responded back for the Mammoth. The teams would trade goals to close out the half and it was 7-6 Toronto at the break.
The third quarter was fairly quiet as both teams traded two goals apiece leaving Toronto with a 9-8 edge going into the final 15 minutes.
The seesaw battle continued into the fourth with three quick goals exchanged right off the hop and it was knotted at 10 early on in the frame. Not long after that Stephan Leblanc would complete the hat trick before Peterborough Junior Laker grad Jeff Swift scored his first National Lacrosse League goal to put the Rock up 12-10. Jordan McBride would bring the Mammoth to within one as he drove to the net hard and found a small hole on Zac Boychuk. Toronto would get one more when Brendan Thenhaus scored what would become the eventual winner as the Rock took this one 13-12.
Tye Belanger and Dillon Ward shared duties in the Colorado net while Zac Boychuk played the entire 60 minutes for Toronto.
Mammoth scorers were Jordan McBride (2g), Cam Holding (2g), Jackson Decker (2g), John Grant Jr (1g 4a), Drew Westerfelt (1g 2a),Sean Pollock (1g), Cameron Mann (1g), Mat MacLeod and Adam Jones (1g).
Scoring for the Rock were Stephan Leblanc (3g 2a), Rob Hellyer (2g 2a), Garrett Billings (2g), Jesse Gamble (1g 2a), Eric Law (1g 1a) Scott Johnston (1g), Mike Woods (1g), Jeff Swift (1g), Brendan Thenhaus (1g), Mike Lum-Walker (2a), Roger Vyse (1a) and Ethan O’Connor (1a)
