Rock Win Home Opener 13-11

Toronto Moves To 2-0 On The Season

Oakville, ON – The Toronto Rock (2-0) defeated the back-to-back defending champion Saskatchewan Rush (0-2) by a score of 13-11 in front of over 10,000 fans at Air Canada Centre on Saturday night.

“Overall it’s a real nice win, and we can take a lot from that game,” said Rock Head Coach Matt Sawyer.   “I guess it’s easy to say when you win, but it was a great team effort. We had the lead, they stormed back, but we settled down. The young guys, McArdle and Reinholdt, came up with huge goals and restored the cushion. It was just a very solid team effort.”

The Rock started off with a bang, taking a 1-0 lead just ten seconds into the game. A pair by Mikey MacDonald sandwiched Phil Caputo’s first goal as a member of the Rock. Damon Edwards, stopped twice by Bold earlier in the period, scored two in a row in transition, one a shorthanded fast break, to end the period with a 5-0 Rock lead.

Saskatchewan got on the board in the second quarter with a goal from captain Chris Corbeil but three in a row from the Rock stopped any Rush momentum. Bradley Kri scored off a face-off and Challen Rogers, with his first, and Jesse Gamble followed that up with transition goals.

Kieran McArdle tasted his first NLL fisticuffs in a scrap with Ryan Dilks behind the Saskatchewan net. McArdle interfered with Bold for an extra two but Dilks received an early shower with two for instigating and a game misconduct.

Mark Matthews added a late goal for the Rush but the Rock led 8-2 at the half.

The Rush turned on the jets in the third outscoring the Rock 6-3. Robert Church had a hat-trick of power play goals. Adam Jones, Mike Messenger and Curtis Knight also scored for the Rush. Turner Evans potted his second of the season, Kasey Beirnes his fourth, and Tom Schreiber his first of the season for the Rock.

Matthew Dinsdale and Mark Matthews scored for the Rush to bring the score to 11-10 before McArdle and Reid Reinholdt restored the cushiony lead. Ryan Keenan scored one more for the Rush but Nick Rose stood tall in the last minute to secure the win.

The Rock got goals from 11 different players as the balanced attack kept the Rush on their heels. Leading the point parade were Schreiber and Evans each scoring once and adding four assists for five point games.

Toronto will have a bye week coming up and then return to action on Saturday, January 28^th against the Rochester Knighthawks at Air Canada Centre. It will be Student Night and there will be special discounted tickets available for students that can be purchased online at torontorock.com/studentnight.