Major League Lacrosse :      July 27, 2001 [ The Game Story]
New Jersey Pride 12 Rochester Rattlers 13 Scoring: Scoring: Jay Jalbert David Curry Jesse Hubbard Jon Hess Chris Massey Scott Urick Jeff Wills (4, 1) (2, 2) (2, 1) (1, 2) (1, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) Tim Soudan Ryan Powell John Grant Jake Bergey Marshall Abrams Darcy Sweet Cory Kahoun John Fay (3, 0) (2, 1) (3, 0) (2, 0) (1, 0) (0, 1) (1, 0) (1, 0) Saves: Saves: Steve Koudelka 10  (0.435) Brian Dougherty 14  (0.538) Current Record :     (5-3) Current Record :     (4-4) Team Page For 2001 Team Page For 2001       The Game Story:

Rochester came back from an early three-goal deficit and hung on to defeat the New Jersey Pride 13-12 in front of 2,686 at Yogi Berra Stadium in Montclair, NJ. The Rattlers received a few key breaks in the final few minutes, most importantly a soft check to the head call against NJ's Reid Jackson with 22 seconds left in a tie game. A somber Jackson explained after the game what happened, "I had his [Ryan Powell] gloves jammed low and as he tried to lift his stick to pass my stick slipped off and hit him in the head and lost us the game. A senior defenseman should not be doing that."

Interesting line-up note for NJ, Chris Massey started at midfield and it looks like the strong play of Scott Urick is keeping the Pride from uniting the Princeton trio at attack. The Pride jumped out to a 3-0 start on goals from Jay Jalbert, Jesse Hubbard, and Urick. That would be all for a while as the Rattlers scored the next seven goals while holding NJ scoreless for almost 23 minutes. Jake Bergey bulldozing his way in and long pole Marshall Abrams showing some deft moves to get a score highlighted the Rochester goals. A mini-skirmish occurred in front of the Rochester bench with 8 minutes to play in the second quarter. Both teams were penalized and NJ came away with a 5 vs. 4 advantage that they couldn't do anything with. New Jersey's Jon Hess dodged from behind to end the quarter with a 7-4 score.

The tone for the second half was quickly set by Jalbert from New Jersey who had the first two goals to bring his team within one. "I wasn't happy with my play in the first half. I wasn't playing hard enough. I decided to come out and start hitting people and picking up ground balls [in the second half]," said Jalbert. Powell answered back with a textbook inside roll from behind. Jeff Wills took a big shot that was saved by Brain Dougherty but Hess caught the rebound and moved it to Wills for a second chance, which was converted. Tim Soudan, who seemed to be asleep earlier in the game, brought Rochester back to being up two with an unassisted goal. Massey, dodging from up top put the Pride within one. New Jersey then tied it up through the fault of Rochester defenseman Regy Thorpe. Off the whistle, Thorpe made a defensive call "Silver" then went out to play David Curry close way out in the corner of the box with about 10 seconds left in Q3. This defense looked like a plan to shut-off all offensive players so Curry put on the after-burners, left Thorpe in the dust and scored just as time expired. Chris Cercy won the face-off to start the fourth quarter for the Rattlers who moved the ball around beautifully until it got to John Grant who finished with a diving shot. New Jersey though answered with three in a row to take their first lead since the 1st quarter. The crowd was roaring with every goal. This is where things got very interesting. With three minutes remaining Tim Soudan spun through three defenders and scored to bring Rochester within one. Rochester eventually retains possession and as Powell makes a move to the crease Jackson is called with a 30 second pushing call. Jackson characterized the move as a dive and said there was no push. Anyway the point was made null because NJ goalie Steve Koudelka made a nice save and held the ball to kill the penalty. Just as the teams were about to be at even strength, Koudelka threw the ball the length of the field to attack man Urick. Urick could not catch the ball because his stick was blatantly being held yet the official, who was about 5 yards from the play, ignored the call. The Rochester defenseman picked up the ball and dumped it back into his offensive end where Soudan scored on a nifty behind-the-back goal to tie with 1:23 to play. The ball bounced around the midfield line and Rochester got it back leading to another call against Jackson with the check on Powell's helmet. Rochester Head Coach Guy Van Arsdale shared his thoughts, "When you slash someone with two hands on the head why wouldn't you call it. You've got to call in the last minute what you would call in the first." The Rattlers went man-up and quickly scored on a crank shot from John Grant. New Jersey couldn't get the face and a desperation shot by goalie Koudelka was saved by Dougherty.

Side-notes: Ric Beardsley has the biggest mouth on the field. He talks trash to the officials all game and to fellow players. Here is a quick sample on his thoughts on teammate John Fay trying to take Peter Jacobs, "That's a tasty match-up in my eyes." As a follow up to one of my previous articles, Brian Dougherty was wearing Warrior under his equipment this game. The MLL allows players to cut the palms out of their gloves in order to get a better hold of the stick, but Ryan Mollett doesn't care, "I don't mess with my equipment. I just get it and put it on."