(Rochester, NY)… The NLL season may be over for the Knighthawks, but the summer lacrosse season is in full swing. There are 17 Knighthawks playing in the following leagues: the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL), Major Series Lacrosse (MSL), the Can-Am Lacrosse League (CALL), and the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League (RMLL).
MSL:
The Peterborough Lakers rank fourth in the league at 2-3. Last week on Thursday, they fell to Brooklin 12-10. Despite the loss, Brad McCulley factored in on four of the Lakers’ goals, scoring twice and dishing out two assists. He was named one of the three stars of the game.
The Brampton Excelsiors pulled out a win against the Owen Sound North Stars on the same day. Riley Hutchcraft posted a third-period shutout and only allowed seven goals to help earn his team the win, 9-7.
PLL:
Week Four took place in Carolina for the PLL. That meant Knighthawks fans got to see a whole lot of Blaze Riorden. He played in Albany showdowns against his Rochester teammates in both games. Friday was a tough loss for his squad, falling 15-7 to Connor Fields and the Utah Archers. In that game, he still stopped over 50 percent of the shots he faced, making 17 saves.
For the second week in a row, Mitchell Dunham has been avoided by the opposing offense. He ended the game against Carolina with two ground balls and only three touches. Fields made Archers’ history with his goals, becoming the franchise’s all-time leading goalscorer.
On the second day of the weekend, Carolina hosted the Denver Outlaws. Once again, Riorden was slated to play against one of his Knighthawks teammates who was also an Albany alumnus in Jake Piseno. Piseno had a monster day, scoring his first goal of the season while adding two assists, two caused turnovers, and four ground balls. He scored his goal while driving through three defenders for a point-blank chance.
The Chaos got the last laugh in their final game of the weekend, though. Riorden shut out the Outlaws for the final 11 minutes of play, making two massive stops in the final two minutes after his team scored two more goals to take the lead. He made 14 saves for a .583 save percentage; Carolina pulled out the win 12-11.
Junior “A”:
Neither Knighthawk in Senior “B” played over the last week, so instead we’ll take a look at the Ontario Junior Lacrosse League and check in with St. Catharines Athletics coaches Dan Coates, Ian Llord, and Randy Mearns.
The Athletics are at the top of the league standings in the West and are 7-1 overall. Their only loss of the year came by one goal against the Kitchener Kodiaks. Through those eight games, they have scored 95 goals and allowed 72. They have three of the four leading point scorers in the league with Jameson Bucktooth, Zackary Toll, and Arrow Booth all over 35 points so far.
They play twice this week, against Toronto on Wednesday and against Brampton on Friday.



