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Outlaws Drop 19-17 Decision to Chicago

Denver–May 31, 2007 – The Denver Outlaws jumped out to a 13-8 halftime lead against the Chicago Machine, but could not hold on in the latter stages, as the Machine recorded their first ever victory and dropped the Outlaws to 1-1 on the season. Chicago outscored Denver 11-4 in the second half and attackman Athan Iannucchi scored seven points to propel the Machine to an exciting 19-17 victory on a beautiful night in Chicago 's new venue, Toyota Park in Bridgeview, IL.

With the Outlaws ahead 17-15 late in the fourth, Iannucci tallied a huge two-point goal on a man-up opportunity to tie the game and then scored again less than 10 seconds later to give Chicago their first lead with just over three minutes left. The Outlaws could not find a way to respond in the waning moments and lost only their fourth game in team history and their first regular season road game.

After Outlaw attackman Brendan Mundorf scored with 7:16 remaining in the third quarter to make the score 14-8, Chicago ran off seven of the eight next goals to tie the game before Matt Hanna and Geoff Snider answered to give the Outlaws a two goal cushion. Iannucchi got open on the left wing and fired home his two-pointer to tie the game and then found himself open again to finish a fast break by face-off man Dan Kallaugher to take the lead for Chicago.

Denver was plagued with poor shooting and decision-making in the second half and saw their offensive production plummet in the final 30 minutes. Chicago plugged away behind a host of new faces making their first appearances in Major League Lacrosse after being drafted on Thursday night. Pat Heim, the MLL's first overall draft pick, had four goals and made an immediate impact for the Machine. The Outlaws did not dress any of their draftees.

Midway through the first quarter the Outlaws trailed 4-2, but midfielder Jeff Sonke hammered home a two-point goal to tie the game and set off a string of four straight Outlaw tallies that brought the first quarter to a close with Denver ahead 6-4. Sonke led all Denver scorers with five goals while Josh Sims pitched in with four assists. The Outlaws also got solid production from Hanna and Mundorf, who registered three goals and one assist each in the losing effort.

The Outlaws continued to find success on both ends of the field in the second quarter as they outscored the Machine 7-4 to take a five goal lead into the half. Much of their success was due to the stellar face-off play of Snider, who finished the game winning 27 out of 40 draws.

Twelve different players registered points for the Outlaws including goaltender Trevor Tierney, who assisted one of Sonke's goals in the first half. Tierney finished with 12 saves. Iannucchi led all scorers with seven points for Chicago, which also got four points each from Heim and attackman Sean Morris. Next up for the Outlaws is their third straight Western Conference game to open the season, when the Los Angeles Riptide come to town on June 9th. The Outlaws took all three games from Los Angeles in 2006 and will look to get back on the winning side of things next weekend.

Line Score 1 2 3 4 TOTAL
Denver 6 7 1 3 17
Chicago 4 4 4 7 19

SCORING SUMMARY
1st Quarter
Chicago - Kevin Leveille (Athan Iannucci) 1:39
Denver - Mike Law (Geoff Snider) 2:19
Denver - Jeff Sonke (Matt Hanna) 2:42
Chicago - Nicholas Schmidt (unassisted) 4:21
Chicago - Brad Heritage (powerplay) (Doug Shanahan) 6:52
Chicago - Pat Heim (unassisted) 7:37
Denver - Jeff Sonke (2pt)(Josh Sims) 7:59
Denver - Hunter Lochte (unassisted) 11:19
Denver - Jeff Sonke (unassisted) 14:40

2nd Quarter
Denver - Matt Hanna (Brendan Mundorf) 0:47
Chicago - Athan Iannucci (Kevin Leveille) 2:40
Denver - Jeff Sonke (Trevor Tierney) 6:32
Denver - Brendan Mundorf (Chris Unterstein) 7:26
Chicago - Brad Heritage (unassisted) 7:57
Chicago - Doug Shanahan (Sean Morris) 8:23
Denver - Matt Hanna (Josh Sims) 9:05
Denver - Greg Bastis (unassisted) 11:50
Chicago - Pat Heim (unassisted) 13:34
Denver - Matt Brown (Geoff Snider) 13:42
Denver - Brendan Mundorf (Chris Unterstein) 14:50

3rd Quarter
Denver - Brendan Mundorf (Josh Sims) 8:44
Chicago - Jordan Hall (Nicholas Schmidt) 10:46
Chicago - Athan Iannucci (Kevin Leveille) 13:13
Chicago - Zach Heffner (Athan Iannucci) 13:55
Chicago - Pat Heim (Sean Morris) 14:21

4th Quarter
Denver - Matt Brown (powerplay) (unassisted) 2:38
Chicago - Sean Morris (Jordan Hall) 5:56
Chicago - Sean Morris (Zach Heffner) 7:40
Chicago - Nicholas Schmidt (unassisted) 8:58
Denver - Matt Hanna (Josh Sims) 9:40
Denver - Geoff Snider (Benson Erwin) 10:01
Chicago - Athan Iannucci (2pt)(powerplay) (Jordan Hall) 11:47
Chicago - Athan Iannucci (Dan Kallaugher) 11:56
Chicago - Pat Heim (unassisted) 14:09