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Posted on Saturday, 28th March 2009 by admin

Rock 1-1 on the road this weekend

TORONTO – The Toronto Rock were defeated by the Edmonton Rush 16-12 tonight and fall to 5-8 in the NLL East Division standings.

Rock forward Craig Conn opened the scoring for the game 4 minutes in followed by another goal by Rock defender Peter Lough, both goals assisted by newcomer Nick Carson.  Tyler Gibbons scored his first ever NLL goal for the Rush and Edmonton forward Jimmy Quinlan tied the game at two putting one past Rock goaltender Bob Watson.

The teams exchanged goals as Luke Wiles scored for the Rock and Andy Secore responded with his first of the game for the Rush.   Edmonton took the lead with another two and Rock goaltender Steve Dietrich replaced Watson in net for Toronto.  Lewis Ratcliff, who recorded five goals in the Rock’s win over the Calgary Roughnecks last night, scored his first of the game with just under five minutes left in the quarter.

Rock defenders Rob Marshall and Scott Campbell each put one past Brandon Atherton to give Toronto a one goal lead and forward Kasey Beirnes secured another, resulting in seven goals on fourteen shots for the Rock.  Quinlan scored another for Edmonton with two minutes remaining in the first and the Rock would hold a one goal lead to close out the first.

Despite Edmonton holding a two man advantage, Blaine Manning scored his second of the game before Secore and Jamie Floris scored two in a row for the Rush tying the score at 8-8.  The high scoring game continued on with another two Toronto goals from Kasey Beirnes & Luke Wiles, both their second of the night.   Three Rush goals to follow would give Edmonton the 11-10 lead ending the first half.

Tight defence for both teams kept the scoring low to begin the third quarter before Mike Hominuck scored the first goal of the second half for the Rush six minutes in followed by another from Ian Hawksbee.  Craig Conn would score the first Rock goal of the second half on a diving goal past Rush goaltender Chris Levis and a powerplay goal from Luke Wiles brought the Rock within one closing out the third quarter.
Andy Secore scored his fourth of the night to open the scoring in the final quarter and secured another shortly after with eight minutes to go in the game.  Mike Hominuck recorded his third of the night to give the Rush a four goal lead to finish off the game and defeating the Rock 16-12.

The scoring was spread out among the Rock with Luke Wiles leading with 5 points (3 goals, 2 assists) and Kasey Beirnes and Craig Conn each with a pair.  Blaine Manning recorded 1 goal and 5 assists and Lewis Ratcliff tallied 1 goal and 4 assists. Rob Marshall, Peter Lough and Scott Campbell contributed a goal each.

The Rush were led by Andy Secore who tallied 8 points (5 goals, 3 assists) and Mike Hominuck who recorded 3 goals and 4 assists.  The Edmonton Rush improve to 4-8.

The Toronto Rock (5-8) return home next weekend to host the Boston Blazers at the Air Canada Centre on Friday April 3rd 2009 at 7:30 p.m. EST.

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Tags: Blaine Manning, Bob Watson, Brandon Atherton, Calgary Roughnecks, Conn, Edmonton, Floris, Gibbons, Man Advantage, Nll, Quinlan, Ratcliff, Rob Marshall, Scott Campbell, Secore, Six Minutes, Tight Defence, Toronto Rock, Wikipedia, Wiles
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Posted on Friday, 27th March 2009 by admin

Lewis Ratcliff leads the Rock with five goals in big road win

TORONTO – The Toronto Rock hit the road this weekend and faced off against the Calgary Roughnecks tonight in front of 10,586 fans.  An equally impressive offensive, defensive and goaltending effort by the Toronto Rock proved to be successful as they pulled out a huge win over the Roughnecks with a final score of 12-10.  The win puts the Rock (5-7) into a positive position heading into their scheduled match up against the Edmonton Rush tomorrow night.   .
Lewis Ratcliff opened the scoring for the Rock nearly five minutes into the first quarter and quickly followed by another before Calgary put themselves on the board on a power play goal by Kaleb Toth.  Jason Crosbie scored a third for Toronto and the Rock took a two goal lead with just over four minutes left in the quarter.  Toth scored another for the Roughnecks closing the gap to one and with a two man advantage, Calgary tied the game at three all with Scott Ranger scoring his first of the night and closing out the quarter.

On the Rock’s fourth power play of the night, Kasey Beirnes opened the scoring for Toronto in the second quarter and a tough defensive line along with stellar goaltending by Bob Watson held Calgary off in the second while Lewis Ratcliff scored his third for Toronto.  Toth also secured his third of the game to follow but Ratcliff didn’t take long to put another one past Roughnecks goaltender Matt King and Rock forwards Craig Conn and Luke Wiles each secured their first goals of the night back to back to give Toronto an 8-4 lead.

Matt King, who started his fourth straight game in goal tonight for Calgary was replaced with Pat Campbell with 6:50 left in the second quarter and the scoring streak continued as Kasey Beirnes recorded another for the Rock and Toth responded with his fourth of the night.  The Roughnecks trailed the Rock by four goals heading into halftime.

Watson stopped the first four shots by the Roughnecks until forward Dane Dobbie connected on a power play goal for Calgary in the third quarter.  A five minute penalty for Craig Conn gave the Roughnecks a man advantage and Kaleb Toth put one past Watson to bring the score up to 9-7 with just over three minutes left in the third and the score remained with the Rock up by two to finish out the quarter.

Dobbie scored first for the Roughnecks early into the fourth and another gave Calgary their seventh power play goal tying the game at 9-9.  Huge saves by Bob Watson and two back to back goals from Blaine Manning would give a two goal lead back to Toronto with six minutes left in the game.  A one handed goal behind the net from Ratcliff, his fifth of the night, followed and the Toronto defence held the Roughnecks to only one more goal from Dobbie.
Despite serving 42 penalty minutes throughout the game, including one that ran into the end of the game, the Rock pulled away with a huge win over the Roughnecks with a final score of 12-10.

Leading the Rock with six points (5 goals, 1 assist) was former Calgary Roughneck forward, Lewis Ratcliff.  Kasey Beirnes recorded 2 goals and 3 assists and Blaine Manning tallied 2 crucial fourth quarter goals along with 2 assists on the night.
Rock forward Jason Crosbie recorded 1 goal and 4 assists and Craig Conn and Luke Wiles each contributed a goal each.  Goaltender Bob Watson saved 41 of 51 shots to record the win.

Kaleb Toth led the Roughnecks with eight points (5 goals, 3 assists) and Dane Dobbie tallied 3 goals for Calgary.  Josh Sanderson recorded 1 goal and 6 assists.
The Rock make their way to Edmonton to face off against the Rush tomorrow night on Saturday March 28th at 9:00 p.m. EST.

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Posted on Wednesday, 25th March 2009 by admin

Playoff hopes alive heading into two-game road weekend

TORONTO – The Toronto Rock ride a two game win streak into Alberta this weekend. On Friday the Rock face the Calgary Roughnecks at Pengrowth Saddledome and then travel to Edmonton on Saturday to throw down with the Rush at Rexall Place. Ball drop for both games is 9:00 p.m. ET.

The Toronto Rock (4-7) won their second home game of the season last Saturday 16-10 over the Rochester Knighthawks to halt the K-Hawks three game win streak. Lewis Ratcliff led the domination for Toronto with five goals. Other contributors were Luke Wiles who recorded three, Craig Conn and Bill McGlone who both chipped in two apiece and Stephen Hoar, Rob Marshall, Peter Lough, and Nick Carson who all added singles.

“We played well at both ends of the game,” said Rock head coach Jamie Batley. “Lewis was in a bit of a funk but broke out of it last weekend, and it was nice to see Whip (Bob “Whipper” Watson) have back-to-back great performances.”

Rock goaltender Bob Watson was named this week’s National Lacrosse League (NLL) Overall Player of the Week for his performance in Saturday’s game. Watson, 2008’s NLL Goaltender of the Year, backstopped his way to the NLL recognition turning away 38 of 48 shots on goal.

This Friday’s only NLL matchup finds the Toronto Rock visiting the Calgary Roughnecks. The Roughnecks (8-2) sit atop the West Division standings led by Josh Sanderson with 64 points (21goals, 43 assists). The Rock fell to Calgary 16-9 on January 17^th at the Air Canada Centre under the direction of original ’09 Rock coaches. This will be Batley and his coaching staffs’ first meeting with the Riggers this season.  

“We got off to a slow start at 2-7,” said Batley about the first half of the Rock season. “Since the Boston game the guys have played great, we have our head above water. We’re looking forward and hope to get some points this weekend.”

Rexall Place provides the backdrop for Toronto’s Saturday, March 28^th game against the Edmonton Rush.   The Rush (3-8) are last in the West Division and sit two games out of what would be their first-ever playoff spot.

The Rock boast three straight wins over the Edmonton Rush. When the two teams met this year in Toronto on February 7^th the Rock manhandled Edmonton 16-9 in front of a home crowd of 13, 486.

“Toronto has a good team,” said Edmonton Rush head coach Bob Hamley. “Jamie brought in his system, and it’s successful. We played them last month and we know what they can do. They have a pretty dynamic offence, with lots of weapons.”

Don’t miss any of the weekend road action. The Toronto Rock website has a direct link to the NLL Network featuring high quality online video broadcasts of the NLL regular season and playoff games for the 2009 season. Visit http://www.torontorock.com and click on ‘ROCK TV’ under the multimedia heading.

Tags: Air Canada, Air Canada Centre, Ball Drop, Batley, Bob Watson, Calgary Roughnecks, Calgary Saddledome, Game Road, Head Above Water, Mcglone, National Lacrosse League, Nll, Pengrowth Saddledome, Rexall Place, Rob Marshall, Rochester Knighthawks, Rock Coaches, Rock Face, Toronto Rock, Whipper Watson
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