New Jersey Falls to Boston Cannons

[Sonny]

PISCATAWAY - In a virtual must-win for both teams, the Pride's strong showing on face-offs and late push were not enough to overcome Brett Bucktooth and the strong play when it mattered of Jake Coon, as the Boston Cannons prevailed 16-13 in front of 2,966 at Yurcak Field. Bucktooth had six goals and an assist for the Cannons (4-4) to earn Bud Lite MVP honors.

"He's an excellent player – one of the top scoring midfielders in the league," Pride coach Peter Jacobs said. "We talked about Bucktooth at practice last night, we talked about Bucktooth before the game today, and we let him dominate us. It's a really, really sad commentary on us, because [only one] of his goals was assisted. They were just dodging goals, and we didn't slide. We deserved to lose the game because we didn't play with our heads."

The Pride (2-5) were the apparent victims of a controversial play for the second straight week against the Cannons. After an 8-5 halftime deficit, the Pride came out firing early in the second, as Kyle Harrison found Jesse Hubbard for his third assist of the game, then answered with his second goal at the 1:13 mark to cut the lead to 8-7.

Shortly thereafter, Hubbard fired a shot from top-left at seventeen yards. The shot rocked the back-right netting, but the ball came free, rolling behind the net. The shot was ruled no-goal, and following a stoppage the refs examined the net for holes, finding one small one they said a ball could not fit through.

"I'm 100% [positive it was a goal]," Hubbard said. "I was right out front and took it lefty. It literally went right into the middle of net, then I guess it funneled to the back. I saw it hit the net, I turned, and the next thing I know the goalie is running after it. It's pretty unbelievable that no ref was able to see that it went through the pipes."

"It's not that I had a view," Jacobs said, "but it's the magic bullet from JFK. There's physically no way you can be in front of the cage, have the ball come out the other side and [it not be a goal.] It's an atrocity."

Had the goal stood, the Pride would have taken the lead on the strength of six unanswered scores. The Cannons capitalized on the break, scoring four unanswered themsleves. The decision was the third controversial goal to go against the Pride this season. Last week the Cannons were granted a goal despite only one second being on the clock when the ball came into play in the back corner. In week one an apparent two-point goal by Adam Doneger, which would have given the Pride an 11-10 lead, was ruled a one-pointer. The Pride lost the game 11-10 in overtime.

Jacobs was unwilling to pin the loss on the blown call however. "We have to be mentally stronger than that," Jacobs said. "It's partially my fault. I should have made a statement time-out after that, as opposed to the TV time-outs. The effort was mediocre at best and our play stunk. I though they out-hustled us, I thought they outplayed us and out \-fought us. I thought they did everything better than us tonight."

Another familiar trend was the team's poor performance in the second quarter, and the resulting loss, as the Pride were outscored 5-2 by Boston in the quarter. The Pride have been outscored by three or more in the second in all five losses this season, by a total score of 28-9.

Harrison got the action underway fast with a goal just eighteen seconds into the opening period. The Cannon's Brett Bucktooth answered on the next possession to tie the game at one. Adam Doneger found Jesse Hubbard open coming onto the field in the fourth minute, and Hubbard fired a shot into the back of the net, but Bucktooth again answered for the Cannons, with a solo-effort low-angle tally, making the score 2-2.

The game went without another goal until the final minute of the turnover-prone first quarter, when Harrison threaded a pass to Scott Urick who fired low under pressure. Boston goalie Jake Coon got a piece of it, but it trickled across the goal line. Boston's Chazz Wilson concluded the scoring in the quarter with an acrobatic crease dive right out of last week's meeting between the Pride and Cannons, as the quarter ended with the score knotted 3-3.

Boston got off to a fast start with five unanswered to open the second quarter. Bucktooth completed his hat trick just 49 seconds into the second, and Woodson extended the lead at 1:53. Bucktooth notched his fourth of the day on Boston's first power play of the game, following a Greg Peyser slash. The Cannons were 0-for-5 against the Pride on the man-advantage last week.

John Christmas found Matt Poskay open on the crease to bring the lead to four, and following an illegal check on Ryan McClay, Christmas found Mikey Powell who buried the shot for an 8-3 Boston lead. The Pride cut into the Boston lead late in the quarter as Harrison found Urick who scored at 11:47. Urick added an assist to Doneger on a Pride power play in the fourteenth minute to cut the lead to 8-5 at the intermission.

David Mitchell scored first for Boston following the Hubbard non-goal, then Matt Poskay scooped up a blocked Powell shot on the crease and tucked the ball home for the slam dunk goal. Joe Kostolansky tallied next for the Cannons, scoring under pressure to stretch the lead to 11-7 with 3:37 to play in the third. Powell added to the lead shortly after to put the Cannons ahead by five.

The Pride cut into the lead at the end of the quarter with a blast from the past. First Hubbard scored with a fantastic solo-effort, then Urick took a feed from Conor Ford and picked a corner to bring the score to 12-9 after three. Boston again stretched the lead with two unanswered to open the fourth. Christmas registered 1:41 into quarter and Bucktooth got his fifth of the game at the three minute mark to give the Cannons a14-9 edge.

Conor Ford and Kevin Boland added quick scores, bolstered by a run of face-ff victories by Chris Colliniates, who was 18 of 30 on the game, and the Cannon's lead was cut to 14-11, but Coon made a series of key saves in deep to maintain the three-goal edge into the game's final minutes. Bucktooth scored his sixth goal of the game on a behind-the back effort with 2:24 to play to extend the Boston lead to 15-11. Mikey Powell added the Cannon's 16th goal 43 seconds later. Kevin Boland added two goals late for the Pride, but it was not enough.

Line Score 1 2 3 4 TOTAL
Boston 3 5 4 4 16
New Jersey 3 2 4 4 13

1st Quarter
New Jersey - Kyle Harrison (unassisted) 0:21
Boston - Brett Bucktooth (unassisted) 0:54
New Jersey - Jesse Hubbard (Adam Doneger) 3:48
Boston - Brett Bucktooth (unassisted) 4:49
New Jersey - Scott Urick (Kyle Harrison) 14:33
Boston - Chazz Woodson (unassisted) 14:53

2nd Quarter
Boston - Brett Bucktooth (unassisted) 0:51
Boston - Chazz Woodson (unassisted) 1:53
Boston - Brett Bucktooth (John Christmas) 4:05
Boston - Matt Poskay (John Christmas) 8:16
Boston - Mikey Powell (John Christmas) 9:34
New Jersey - Scott Urick (Kyle Harrison) 11:47
New Jersey - Adam Doneger (Scott Urick) 13:40

3rd Quarter
New Jersey - Jesse Hubbard (Kyle Harrison) 0:34
New Jersey - Kyle Harrison (unassisted) 1:12
Boston - David Mitchell (unassisted) 4:06
Boston - Matt Poskay (Mikey Powell) 9:17
Boston - Joe Kostolansky (unassisted) 11:24
Boston - Mikey Powell (Brett Bucktooth) 11:53
New Jersey - Jesse Hubbard (unassisted) 12:42
New Jersey - Scott Urick (Conor Ford) 13:36

4th Quarter
Boston - John Christmas (unassisted) 1:41
Boston - Brett Bucktooth (unassisted) 3:00
New Jersey - Conor Ford (Scott Urick) 7:16
New Jersey - Kevin Boland (Dan Chemotti) 8:28
Boston - Brett Bucktooth (unassisted) 12:37
Boston - Mikey Powell (John Christmas) 13:20
New Jersey - Kevin Boland (unassisted) 13:51
New Jersey - Kevin Boland (Greg Peyser) 14:53