Rock drop close game to Black Bears
Published
Mississauga, ON – The Toronto Rock (0-4) lost a tightly contested game against their provincial rival Ottawa Black Bears (2-1) by a score of 12-11 in a thrilling back and forth game. Josh Dawick led the Rock offence with four goals and three assists on the night.
The Rock were able to play their best 60 minutes of lacrosse this season but fell just short in the final seconds of the game.
“Yeah, that sums it up. We were close,” Chris Boushy said after the loss which kept the Rock winless on the year.
Despite Toronto losing their fourth consecutive game, the locker room doesn't see it that way.
“I mean, we're looking at a two and two record here”, said Boushy.
Toronto was in full control in this game. The offence started on time scoring just over a minute into the game to take the lead and build some confidence immediately. The teams would trade goals throughout the quarter leaving the scored knotted 4-4 after the opening 15 minutes of play.
The second quarter saw more physicality and less scoring with heavy hits and multiple loose ball battles in the corners. Defender Mitch de Snoo had a big hit along the boards while Jake Darlison had a few caused turnovers to keep the Rock in the game which was tied 7-7 at the half.
The Rock came out hot in the third quarter. After winning the opening draw of the half, Phil Mazzuca was able to find drawman Josh Jubenville who buried it past Higgins to go up by one. Five minutes later, it would be Josh Dawick scoring his second goal of the game off a great feed from Mark Matthews who finished with a goal and five assists. Ottawa would get one back while killing a penalty to make it a 9-8 game heading into the fourth quarter.
In the fourth, Dawick stayed extra warm scoring his third and fourth goals of the night, just 54 seconds apart amidst a 4-1 second half run that gave the Rock an 11-8 lead.
Cue the Ottawa comeback.
Ottawa’s Jeff Teat scored two goals just over a minute apart to make it a one-goal game with just under five minutes remaining in the fourth. The Black Bears didn’t stop there, scoring twice more including the go-ahead goal to go ahead 11-10 with 1:59 to play.
In the dying seconds of the game, Dan Craig appeared to score a goal with just four seconds left. Upon video review, the officials determined that Boushy had stepped in the crease on the way to retrieve a loose ball just seconds prior to the Craig goal. This meant the tying goal was nullified as there should have been a stoppage with 8.3 seconds left and from there Ottawa escaped with the win and avoided overtime.
Without star faceoff man TD Ierlan through all four games this season, Josh Jubenville has handled the bulk of the faceoff duties, but it’s been more of a team approach to gaining possessions off the draw.
“We were laying a little bit more on the line for ground balls and making a point to get there first and leave everything contested,” said Jubenville.
Nick Rose recorded 34 saves while his counterpart Zach Higgins stopped 42. The Rock outshot the Black Bears 53-46. Toronto has outshot their opponent in every game this season.
The Rock will turn the calendar to 2025 and rest up on a bye week before playing their biggest rivals, the Buffalo Bandits on Friday, January 10 in Buffalo. Toronto’s next home game will be Kidz Night on Saturday, January 18 when they host the Saskatchewan Rush at Paramount Fine Foods Centre in Mississauga