BAYHAWKS FIRE PAST CANNONS; WILL PLAY LONG ISLAND IN COLUMBUS
By Nelson Coffin
Disarming the Boston Cannons, 15-10, in a major Lacrosse League semifinal Sunday night catapulted the Baltimore Bayhawks back to the Major Lacrosse League finals against longtime nemesis Long Island to retrieve the championship banner that eluded them a year ago. The showdown will be staged at Crew Stadium in Columbus at 4 p.m Sunday, September 1.
Powerful Rob Shek bends this Blade head with just a cradle
The Lizards have won both meetings with Baltimore this season and defeated the Bayhawks in the inaugural MLL championship match last summer. That makes it three successive wins for Long Island over the 'Hawks, who have an even more dominating stranglehold on the Cannons.
MLL Executive Director Matt Pace takes in the action
Baltimore, owner of the league's best record at 11-4, had won five straight against Boston (7-8) coming into the playoff match at Ravens Stadium and wasted little time ensuring the streak would continue. "They did exactly what we were afraid they might do," said Boston Coach Scott Hiller, whose club was outscored, 48-26, in three setbacks to the Bayhawks this season. "[Baltimore goalie Greg] Cattrano made some saves and they fastbreaked the hell out of us. They're the one team we haven't figured out yet."
Steve Dusseau
The Bayhawks used their entire arsenal to get the job done, unleashing a potent midfield that combined to score 13 goals while the more renowned attack was relatively quiet. The big guns up front for the hosts, Mark Millon (44 goals, 63 points this season) and Tom Marechek (30 and 12) were content to finish with a goal and an assist each while middies Jeff Sonke (2 goals), Rob Shek (2), Kip Fulks (1), Paul Cantabene (2), Josh Sims (2) and Gary Gait (2) prospered against a no-help defense. "That's just the style Boston plays," said Baltimore Coach Gary Gait. "They weren't going to slide from our attack and give up easy goals, and we were smart enough to recognize that."
Scott Hiller
The Cannons, without injured attackman David Evans (team-leading 42 points), fell behind, 8-3, at the end of the first quarter and plummeted to a 12-4 hole by the intermission. Only after game MVP Cattrano (23 saves) executed a daring dash to the midfield line and dished to Shek, who ran past a defender and deposited a shot into the net for a 15-4 advantage with 3:35 remaining in the third period, did the bleeding stop for Boston. The Cannons finally began to assert themselves when middie Mike Regan finally solved Cattrano and Scott Doyle popped in a two-pointer 30 seconds apart. Conor Gill and Brian Silcott teamed for the next three Cannon goals that pulled Boston to within five with five minutes to go. But that's when a Cattrano stop on a point-blank shot by a driving John Madigan a minute later stopped Boston's momentum, giving the Bayhawks a chance to run out the clock without further damage. "They put on a nice run," said Cattrano. "We don't feel like they felt they were ever out of it and we never felt they were out of it."
To compete next week against the defending champs, Baltimore will have to change its ways of giving up too much running room to the fleet-footed Lizards. Long Island owns 18-12 and 18-13 verdicts over the Bayhawks this season. "They've put up a couple of serious seven-goal runs against us," noted Gait. "We've got to make sure we get back on defense." Cattrano hopes the Bayhawks can avoid a pitfall that has plagued them against the Lizards (10-5), who rocked New Jersey, 19-11, in the other semifinal Saturday at Hofstra. "They've really attacked us in the beginning and caught us a little off-guard," he said. Baltimore knows its best chance lies in being more deliberate against a rival that has talent to spare. "I think Long Island is a little deeper," said Hiller. "They can run nine middies at you, but if Cattrano gets hot, anything can happen."
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