The Boston Cannons of Major League Lacrosse fell to the Long Island Lizards 19-16 in front 6,108 fans at Boston University’s Nickerson Field. The Cannons came back from an 18-12 deficit to start the fourth quarter to close to 19-16 with 5:40 left in the fourth quarter. Long Island was too much in the end, holding the Cannons scoreless over the game’s final five plus minutes.
“We didn’t start this game well at all,” said Scott Hiller, Cannons head coach. “We came out flat and you can’t afford to do that in this league. When you play that way, especially against a team like Long Island they are going to score on you and be tough to beat.”

The Cannons actually outscored the Lizards 6-5 in the second half of the game. It was Long Island’s fast start that proved to be the difference tonight. The Lizards scored 9 points in the first quarter and five in the second, opening a 14-10 lead over the Cannons to close the first half.

Long Island was led in the first half by Jay Jalbert. The 2003 MLL MVP notched three first half goals including 2 two-point goals. He finished the game with four total goals, two of which were two-pointers and one assist for seven points. For his efforts he was named the game’s Bud Light MVP.

“We knew what Jalbert was going to do” said Ryan Curtis, Cannons defenseman. “We went over the things that we wanted to do defensively but we didn’t execute. I’m not taking anything away from Long Island, they are a great team and played well, but we did not execute tonight.”

The high scoring Cannons offense which came into the weekend leading the MLL in goals ran into a brick wall in net. Long Island’s Brian Dougherty tied a league record making 31 saves, including several key stops down the stretch.

“Doc’s a great goalie and he made some big stops,” said David Evans, Cannons attackman. “We also took some bad shots and didn’t finish on some opportunities.”

Evans had a solid night scoring four goals. The Cannons Conor Gill continues to rack up his assist totals. The MLL’s assist leader recorded five assists to go along with two goals to tally seven total points.”

“It’s a long season,” said Gill. “We did not play well tonight especially at the start. We’ve started a lot of games this season slowly, and that has been masked because we are winning. The loss may prove to be a good learning experience for us later in the season. We know how bad we can play and we know how good we can play.”

After trailing 18-12 to start the fourth quarter, the Cannons reeled off two straight Evans goals to cut the deficit. Long Island’s Chris Massey scored a power play goal to stop the run then Evans scored again followed by a Dusseau tally.

This is the final meeting of the season between the Lizards and the Cannons. Boston takes the season series two games to one. The Cannons loss today denied Boston’s bid to set the MLL record for fastest start to a season.