July 19, 2008

from staff reports

Sunday afternoon's game between the Chicago Machine and the Los Angeles Riptide featured two entirely different halves. After Los Angeles jumped out to a 10-6 half-time lead, the Machine outscored the Riptide by 11-3 in the second half for a 17-13 victory at TOYOTA Park.

Rookie Mike Leveille earned Bud Light MVP honors after scoring four goals with an assist. Meanwhile, fellow rookie Steven Brooks scored two goals, including his second two-point marker of the season, along with an assist.

Kevin Leveille scored two goals with an assist in the victory for Chicago, extending his streak of consecutive games with a goal to 45 straight outings.

Rookie Kevin Huntley led the Riptide for the fourth straight game, scoring four goals. Over the last four goals, the former Johns Hopkins University attackman has scored 18 goals with 4 assists.

Chazz Woodson, who won the Freestyle event on Thursday night at the All-Star Game, added three goals with an assist.

The Riptide outshot Chicago by a 47-43 margin.

SATURDAY
Rochester 18, New Jersey 17

The Rochester Rattlers got a goal with one second left from Gavin Prout to defeat the New Jersey Pride 18-17 tonight at Yurcak Field. Rochester (6-3) moves into a first-place tie with Philadelphia and Boston with the win.

Rochester broke its two-game losing streak to the Pride with the come-from-behind victory. The Rattlers outscored New Jersey 5-3 in the final quarter.

Rochester's Jeff Zywicki tied a team record with five goals in the first half. He added two goals in the second half to set a new career best. Alex Smith also set a team record with 27 faceoff wins. Mike Levin earned the win in goal, making 17 saves.

Matt Danowski led the Pride with five goals Merrick Thomson also tallied five points (3+2). Rob Scherr took the loss in a 17-save effort.

Rochester opened the game with a 4-3 lead after one and increased their lead to 7-3 early in the fourth. However, New Jersey ended the first half with six of the last seven points to take a 9-8 advantage into halftime. The Pride fought off numerous Rochester rallies to maintain the one-goal lead after three quarters.

In the fourth, Rochester kept the pressure on and finally grabbed the lead on Joe Walters' fifth of the night at 10:39. Danowski answered just 58 seconds to play to tie the game at 17. Each team had chances in the final two minutes, but Rochester got a turnover and had eight seconds to set up the final play. Casey Powell dodged past his defender, fired the ball in front, and Prout beat Scherr in tight for the winner.

Boston 14, Washington 10

Attackman Sean Morris led the team with four goals to earn Bud Light MVP honors as the Boston Cannons collected their second consecutive victory, and fifth win in their last six games, by defeating the Washington Bayhawks, 14-10, at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland, on Saturday night.

Midfielders Paul Rabil and Matt Poskay each chipped in with three goals in the Cannons victory.

With the win, improved their record to 6-3 this season, and went unbeaten in the season series against the Bayhawks. With the loss, the Bayhawks fell to a 3-6 record.

The Bayhawks struck first in the game with three unanswered goals, but Rabil saved the Cannons from being shut out in the opening quarter with his first goal of the game at 13:43. The Bayhawks held a 3-1 advantage after 15 minutes of play.

The Cannons controlled the flow of the game for the majority of the second quarter, but ended the frame in a 5-5 tie with the Bayhawks. Midfielder Tom Zummo collected a goal, assisted by Poskay, at 3:06 to bring the Cannons within one marker, and then Rabil tallied his second goal of the game at 4:48 to tie the game at 3-3.

The Cannons then took the lead with a goal from midfielder Matt Casey, his first as a member of the Cannons since being acquired from Los Angeles at the trade deadline, at 5:36. Poskay then found the back of the Bayhawks' net with a behind-the-back diving goal, to give the Cannons a 5-3 lead at 6:11. Midfielder Josh Porcell earned the helper on Poskay's tally.

The Bayhawks collected two goals, including one power play goal, near the end of the quarter to send the game into halftime locked at five goals apiece.

The Cannons stole momentum back in the third stanza, scoring six goals and only allowing one. Attackman Matt Alrich netted a goal to give the Cannons a 6-5 lead at 2:52, followed by consecutive tallies by Morris at 3:49 and 10:29 to push the Cannons advantage to 8-5.

The Bayhawks managed their only goal of the frame to close the gap to 8-6, but the Cannons went on another offensive run and regained their third quarter dominance. Poskay collected his second goal of the game, assisted by Alrich, at 12:35; Rabil scored his third of the contest at 14:08; and midfielder Kevin Dougherty found the net at 14:51 to give the Cannons an 11-6 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Morris collected his third tally of the contest, assisted by Rabil at 1:35 of the fourth to take a 12-6 lead for the Cannons, but the Bayhawks answered with two goals to tighten the Cannons' advantage to 12-8. The back-and-forth action in the quarter continued, as Poskay netted his third goal of the game, assisted by attackman John Christmas at 9:04, and Morris scored his fourth goal of the contest at 10:13 to recapture a six-goal lead for the visiting Cannons.

Poskay earned his second assist of the game on Morris' fourth tally. The Bayhawks retaliated with two more goals, but it wasn't enough as the Cannons ultimately earned a 14-10 victory in the contest.

Cannons goalie Kip Turner earned his sixth win of the season with 16 saves on the 26 shots he faced in the contest. Bayhawks goalie Chris Garrity took the loss with 23 saves on 37 shots.

Denver 15, San Francisco 8

After being held to a franchise-low last week against the Los Angeles Riptide, the Denver Outlaws showed that they can rebound as they defeated the San Francisco Dragons by a 15-8 margin at Spartan Stadium on Saturday night.

Matt Brown was named the Bud Light MVP after scoring a game-high six goals while Brian Langtry added a hat trick.

After setting an All-Star Game record with six goals on Thursday night, Ryan Powell helped in the Denver victory by scoring two goals with four assists.

Lewis Ratcliff and Bill McGlone each scored twice to lead the Dragons in a losing effort.