BY: Brad Kasnet
Many of the greatest rivalries in sports are found between Boston and New York. Red Sox-Yankees, Celtics-Knicks, Patriots-Jets, so it should come as no surprise that the Boston Cannons have begun to develop a rivalry of their own with the New York City area entry in the MLL, the Long Island Lizards.

The Cannons will take on the Lizards this Saturday in the first of a home-and-home series and add another chapter to the budding rivalry between these two franchises.

It’s only been four years since the MLL began play, but the Cannons have faced the Lizards twelve times, more than any other team, and have battled to some exciting finishes and faced each other in some key games. The Lizards and Cannons have finished first and second in the American Division in each of the first three seasons of MLL action.

In 2001, it was all Long Island, as the Lizards won all four meetings that year en route to winning the inaugural MLL championship. After that, though, the tides have turned in Boston’s favor, at least in the regular season.

The 2002 season saw four meetings all decided by two goals or less, three of which were decided by a single goal. David Evans was a Lizard-killer that year, scoring 13 points in three games, including an August 5 game where he turned in a five-goal outburst that included a pair of two-pointers. That game came down to the wire, tied in the closing seconds when Mike Regan scored with six seconds remaining to give the Cannons a thrilling 18-17 win.

Just two weeks later, it must have seemed like déjà vu when the score was once again tied at 17 in the final minutes when Regan was the hero once again, scoring with 1:43 remaining to take three out of four games for the season.

Last year, the Cannons and Lizards split their regular season series and met again in the playoffs, where the Lizards downed the Cannons 20-14 to advance to their third straight MLL New Balance Championship Game.

This season, the Cannons and Lizards play their three regular season games in the first five weeks, so the two teams will become familiar with each other quickly. The opening night matchup in Boston was one for the ages, as the Lizards jumped out to an early lead, but saw the Cannons come charging back to tie the game before Tim Byrnes scored with seven seconds remaining to give the Cannons another last-minute win over Long Island.

Recent meetings between the Cannons and Lizards have often been decided at the face-off X with two of the league’s best, Boston’s Peter Inge and Long Island’s Chris Cercy, matching up.

In the last four meetings between the teams, the face-offs have had lopsided results and whichever face-off man dominated led his team to victory. Inge twice earned MLL Defensive Player of the Week honors after winning 20 of 32 face-offs against Cercy on July 6, 2003, and then taking 28 of 34 in this season’s opener to tie the MLL single-game record.

Cercy, though, outplayed Inge in the other two games of the 2003 season, winning 24 of 32 faceoffs in the July 24 meeting, and taking 22 of 34 in the semifinals.

On the offensive side, Conor Gill and Jay Jalbert have been the stars for their respective teams when the Cannons and Lizards have clashed, but the two have a long history together. Gill and Jalbert were teammates at the University of Virginia and won a National Championship together in 1999, but now find themselves as the focal points of opposing offensive units in the MLL.

Jalbert scored 17 points in his four games against the Cannons while Gill has tallied 22 points in his four games facing Long Island. Another pair of offensive leaders are familiar with each other from their college days. Tim Goettelman of the Lizards and Mike Battista of the Cannons were Greyhounds together at Loyola.

With the Cannons at 3-0 and the 2-1 Lizards nipping at their heels, the next two weeks will be a battle for first place in the American Division. If history is any indication, the games are sure to be hard-fought and close games that will leave fans on the edge of their seats until the final whistle.