June 8th, 2016

OAKVILLE, ON - The Oakville Rock earned another split in week two of the Major Series Lacrosse League season. This week was a home-and-home with the Six Nations Chiefs, in which both contests were won by the home squad.

Monday night at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre, the Rock were up early in the first period, but surrendered a late period goal to head into the first intermission tied at 3.

The same was true in the second period, as the Chiefs added a last second goal to trail 8-7 heading into the third. In the final frame Oakville came out firing, securing the win with 7 goals in the final period and chasing Chiefs goalie Dillon Ward. Leading the way for Oakville were Rob Hellyer (2G, 4A), Stephan Leblanc (3G, 4A) and Wes Berg (2G, 4A). Goaltender Nick Rose was solid between the pipes picking up the win.

Rock Head Coach Matt Sawyer said the win showed maturity in his teams play, "That's a game last season that we might have come out a bit tense in the third period with only a one goal lead and buckled under the pressure. With some of the veteran acquisitions we made in the off season, we were able to calm ourselves down, recognize the situation and play a good third period. A guy like Dan MacRae was tremendous for us tonight, He had two early goals and was great picking up loose balls."

The return matchup was Tuesday night in Six Nations. A few lineup changes, but mainly the same core players and goalie Steve Fryer getting his first start of the season. The first 11 minutes and 47 seconds of the game the teams traded chances, but no one was able to find the net until Randy Staats opened the scoring for the Chiefs. Cody Jamieson, Craig Point and rookie Jordan Durston would add 3 more and the Rock were down 4-0 after one.

The Rock continued to shoot on Chiefs goalie Dillon Ward, who bounced back strongly after being pulled the night before. Bryan Cole, playing in his first game of the season, finally beat Ward at 12:37 of the second. the Rock trailed 6-1 heading into the fianl frame.

Randy Staats went to work early for the Chiefs in the 3rd, completing his Hat-Trick. Oakville was finally able to get on a bit of a run late as Brad Kri (1) and Mitch DeSnoo (2) scored transition goals. in the end, it was too little, too late for the Rock who fell 9-4 in a rare, penalty-free lacrosse game.

Despite the loss, Sawyer felt the effort was there. "I thought we had our chances in the first, their goalie was really good tonight, but I felt Fryer was  too. We just couldn't bury on our chances."

The loss moves Oakville to 2-2 on the season. The host the Brooklin Redmen at home on Monday, June 13th. The team will honour the Abbey Park Field Lacrosse team prior to the game for recently winning the Bronze medal at the OFSSA Championship. Gametime is 8PM at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre in Oakville.