After moving into sole possession of the fourth and final playoff spot by virtue of their 17-13 won over the Ohio Machine Thursday night, the Chesapeake Bayhawks returned home to face the league leading New York Lizards Saturday night and shocked the defending champs 17-14 in front of 14,352.
Brian Phipps was a one man show early on for the Bayhawks notching seven saves in the first quarter and allowing the home team to end the quarter tied at three. Kevin Cooper registered two of Chesapeake’s scores one with an assist from former Terrapin Joe Walters. Another Terp, Jay Carlson assisted on the Bayhawks first score of the night helping out the team’s leading scorer, Brendan Mundorf.
While Paul Rabil kept the visitors in the contest with two early goals, the Bayhawks dominated play early in the second quarter. Walters assisted Myles Jones who scored on a man up just into the quarter. The was followed in quick succession by goals from Carlson, Walters, Mark Glicini and Jones again as the home team sprinted to an 8-3 lead midway through the quarter.
New York finally responded with 4:03 to play as Matt Gibson found the back of the net for the second time on the night and Rob Pannell garnered his second assist. The Bayhawks took just 11 seconds to respond as CJ Costabile scored on Carlson’s second assist after a rare Chesapeake faceoff win. The second quarter onslaught continued when Carlson dished assist number three to Mundorf and Callum Robinson rang up a two point goal with 56.6 seconds to play and Chesapeake tolled a 9-1 advantage for the quarter and took a 12-4 lead into halftime.
After a Lizards turnover, Walters opened the second half scoring with an assist from John Maloney and Chesapeake stretched the lead to nine. New York began to climb back into the game scoring their second man up goal and following that with a score just six seconds later to cut the lead to 13-6. The Bayhawks failed to convert on their extra man opportunity and Ryan Walsh scored to pull the visitors within seven.
Two Chesapeake penalties on that possession gave the Lizards a two man advantage but Phipps came up took on the role of save-ior stuffing Gibson’s attempt. The game turned sloppy for several minutes but Cooper racked up his hat trick with just under a minute to play and Matt Donovan scored on Walters’ third assist with no time left on the clock.
Mundorf opened the scoring on an extra man goal as Walters continued a blistering night for the Terrapins contingent as he earned his fourth assist of the night. However, the Lizards again crept back scoring three in quick succession and closing the gap to 16-10 with nine and a half minutes to play.
Greg Gurenlian continued his domination at the face-off X and it looked as though the Lizards had crawled within 16-12 when he scored off a face-off but was called for an illegal stick after Bayhawks’ coach Brian Reese called for a stick check. However, the Bayhawks couldn’t convert and Rabil scored a shorthanded two point goal. Suddenly the seemingly insurmountable lead had been shaved to three.
Phipps once again made a critical save – his 19th – on a Lizards’ EMO. The teams traded turnovers and Walters stopped the New York run when he tickled the twine with 4:49 left on an assist from Matt Abbott who had picked up a ground ball after Carlson’s shot hit the post. Rob Pannell wrapped up a seven point night scoring his second goal of the with eight seconds to play but the outcome had been decided.
Walters led the Maryland contingent with seven points on three goals and four assists, Cooper had a hat trick, Carlson had a goal and three assists and player of the game Brian Phipps finished with 19 saves.
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