Toronto’s Big Lead Nearly Vanishes Late
Oakville, ON – The Toronto Rock used a five-goal run in the third quarter and a Josh Dawick hat trick to cap off the preseason with a 12-11 win over the Philadelphia Wings on Saturday night at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre.
Earlier in the week, the Rock received some good news with Tom Schreiber participating in his first full practice of the season while taking limited contact. On Saturday night, he played the full preseason game, his first full-contact action since fracturing his clavicle in the PLL playing for the Utah Archers.
After dropping their first two preseason games to Calgary and Saskatchewan, the Toronto Rock, with the bulk of the regulars in the lineup, wanted to end the exhibition season with a win to give them some momentum heading into Friday’s season opener in Ottawa against the Black Bears.
Tyler Hendrycks opened the scoring for the Rock but that was answered with a quick goal from Philadelphia to tie the score 1-1, and that’s the way the first 15 minutes ended while both team’s offences attempted to work their way into a rhythm.
In the second quarter, the Rock got rolling with a three-goal run to lead 4-1. Dawick, Corey Small and Mark Matthews on the power play did the damage against Wings’ starter Nick Damude. Philadelphia broke up the run with a goal of their own, only to see Dawick net his second and Chris Boushy score twice to help the Rock build a 7-2 lead at halftime.
The Wings closed the gap with the first three goals of the second half to shrink the Rock advantage to two, with the home side leading 7-5. As any fan of the sport knows, lacrosse is a game of runs, and the Rock scored five straight to push their lead to 12-5. Dawick topped of the quintet of Rock goals by completing his hat trick with a dunk goal from behind the cage. Philadelphia’s Mitch Jones found the mark with just four seconds left in the frame to break up the Rock run, but the Wings trailed 12-6.
The fourth quarter saw Philadelphia break out with a five-goal run of their own that forced many Rock players, coaches and fans hold their breath as the Wings had closed the gap to 12-11 with less than three minutes to play. Jones recorded a hat trick in the quarter, but it wasn’t enough as the Rock held on for the 12-11 victory.
Forward Josh Dawick recorded four points on the night including a hat trick and attributed the offensive success to ball movement and team chemistry.
“It’s big when you can move the ball side-to-side and getting Mark [Matthews] back in the lineup is big,” said Dawick. “[Boushy] is another easy guy to play with, because he goes out there and buzzes and creates space for his teammates and when he gets his opportunities, he’ll put them in the net.”
Boushy has his best outing of the preseason adding two goals and one assist and was optimistic about their season opener against the Ottawa Black Bears who relocated from Long Island, NY to the nation’s capital.
“It’s going to be a good test on Friday,” said the right-shot forward entering his sixth season in the league. “Last year’s New York team, they were a hard team to play against, no game was easy when we played them.”
Nick Rose got the win in the Rock net, stopping 30 of the 41 shots he faced. Damude took the loss for the Wings giving up 12 goals on 42 shots.
Dawick led all Rock goal scorers with three, Dan Craig, Boushy and Small each had a pair. Phil Mazzuca, Mathews and Hendrycks chipped in singles.
Both Challen Rogers and Mark Matthews left the game with injuries and did not return.
The Rock open the 2024-25 NLL season on Friday, November 29 on the road at Ottawa before hosting their home opener on Saturday, December 7 against the Albany FireWolves at 7pm ET at Paramount Fine Foods Centre in Mississauga. Fans can watch Friday’s season opener on TSN and TSN+ at 7pm ET.
For more information on Toronto Rock tickets, please contact a Toronto Rock account executive by phone at 416-596-3075, by email at tickets@torontorock.com or visit torontorock.com.
