A dominating defensive performance and Tom Schreiber being Tom Schreiber were exactly what the Toronto faithful had been waiting for as the Rock continued their turn-around with a 14-9 victory over the Calgary Roughnecks.
The return of the 2023 Defensive Player of the Year Latrell Harris from a devastating ACL injury provided a huge boost to the Toronto back end. The Rock seemed energized as they stifled Calgary shooters with a smothering defense that included thirteen blocked shots and seventy-one loose balls. What did get through was turned aside by a confident looking Nick Rose. Through the first three quarters they limited Calgary stars Curtis Dickson and Dane Dobbie to a combined two points.
In only his third appearance of the season, Tom Schreiber looked in mid-season form with his sublime ball handling and shooting skills. Right handed or left, high or low, behind the back or side-arm, it was impossible to take your eyes off the uber talented American. Schreiber set the tone early with a first half hat trick and ended the night with a team leading six points. Former Roughneck, Chris Boushy scored the goal of the night with a high-flying slam dunk from behind the net. Boushy took Brian Cameron’s pass and subtly faked to his left causing Cam MacLeod to dive to cover the far post. Boushy then elevated and dunked the ball back to the right causing TSN announcer Teddy Jenner to exclaim, “put it on the highlight reel!”
For the Roughnecks, it was an obvious let-down after a beating Georgia in overtime just six days ago. Calgary had some early success getting to the middle of the floor, but were unable to beat Nick Rose. The Rock defense made an adjustment and were able to keep Calgary to the outside for the remainder of the game where they proceeded to get in shooting lanes and block shots. As the Roughnecks continued to press they committed a number of unforced errors that Toronto was able to scoop up and go the other way.
Despite the loss, Eli Salama and Justin Inacio played well and were Calgary’s two best players. Salama played four quarters of aggressive, athletic defense and was consistently advancing the ball up the floor. He finished with seven loose balls, a blocked shot and a caused turnover. At the face-off dot, Justin Inacio faced his toughest challenge of the season in T.D. Ierlan. Ierlan finished last season with a face off win percentage of 72%, but Inacio went 14 of 28 and looked confident every time he went to the dot.
Toronto (2-5) will look to make it three in a row as they travel to Colorado to take on the Mammoth (4-3) in Week 10 action. Calgary (3-3) will try and forget this game as they go out on the road to take on the Ottawa Black Bears (4-3).
