Four goals each from Holden Cattoni and Thomas Hoggarth were the driving force behind a dominating performance for the Rochester Knighthawks (4-0), who kept their perfect start to the season going with a record-setting 17-9 win over the Panther City Lacrosse Club (2-3) Saturday at Segar & Sciortino Field at The Blue Cross Arena.
POST-GAME REPORT
By winning their fourth straight, the Knighthawks tied their franchise record for wins in a season and their 17 goals tonight were the most ever scored in a single game in their three-year history.
Along with Cattoni (4+3) and Hoggarth (4+3) turning in a seven-point effort, assistant captain Curtis Knight (1+7) also totaled seven points as he scored once while adding six assists. Ryan Smith (3+1) logged a hat trick while Matt Gilray (2+0) also produced a multi-goal outing. Turner Evans (1+2), Ryland Rees (1+1), Austin Hasen (1+2), Dan Coates (0+2) all notched multi-point outings. Brad Gilies, Thomas Vela, Mitch Ogilvie, Tyler Halls, and Jordan Stouros completed the scoring as they earned one assist apiece.
Goaltender Rylan Hartley made 37 saves in his fourth straight start of the campaign. The netminder paces the league with four wins and is tied for fifth with an .800 save percentage.
Jonathan Donville (3+3) led all Panther City players with six points, factoring in on four of his team’s first five goals, while Will Malcom (0+3) and Nathan Grenon (2+1) both chipped in three points. Liam Patten (1+1), Mathieu Gautier (0+2), Dean Fairall (2+0) all recorded a multi-point performance before Patrick Foley (0+1), Chad Cummings (0+1), Josh Medeiros (1+0) and former Knighthawk Phil Caputo (0+1) tallied one point.
Nick Damude (2-2) and Cam MacLeod (0-1) split the goaltending duties. Damude earned the start before being replaced by MacLeod midway to start the second quarter, but MacLeod suffered the loss.
The first quarter was the embodiment of a true team effort for the Knighthawks, who stormed out to a 5-2 lead on the strength of five different goal-scorers and five players recording multi-point efforts in the opening frame.
Work smarter, not harder 🤷
Hoggarth with a backhanded goal for his 3rd of the night! pic.twitter.com/G1Gzn4fVpk
— NLL (@NLL) January 8, 2023
Rees, playing just his second game of the season, opened the scoring with an unassisted goal 4:10 into the contest but a quick strike from Donville 2:42 later would even the score at 1-1.
Rochester, however, would take control from there, scoring four of the next five goals with Smith and Hasen each finding the net within 1:57 of one another in transition while Cattoni and Knight followed suit following Donville’s second of the quarter. Knight’s fourth of the season in the final minutes of the frame would prematurely end Damude’s night as he was replaced by MacLeod at the start of the second.
The Knighthawks wasted no time in testing MacLeod as they carried their three-goal run into the start of the second quarter to cushion their lead. Halls, who’s coming off a record-setting performance in the team’s last game in Albany on Dec. 17, found Gilray in transition and the latter beat the Panther City netminder with his first of two in the frame to put Rochester up 6-2.
The teams combined for seven more goals over the next nine minutes, beginning with three straight power-play tallies.
Panther City needed only nine seconds into its first power-play opportunity of the night as Fairall converted from long range before Evans and Hoggarth capitalized on the man-advantage for Rochester at 7:44 and 10:20, respectively.
Additional Panther City goals by Grenon and Medeiros were answered by Cattoni and Gilray, with each scoring their second of the night, to send the Knighthawks into halftime with a 10-5 cushion.
A three-goal run by Rochester to begin the second half gave the Knighthawks their largest lead of the night with Hoggarth and Cattoni completing their hat tricks to widen the gap.
Rochester carried a 14-8 lead into the fourth quarter, which began with Donville completing his hat trick 28 seconds in and a final tally from Patten less than five minutes later. The Knighthawks countered with back-to-back goals from Smith and Cattoni’s fourth of the night to put the finishing touches on a dominating 17-9 win.
The Knighthawks look to continue their winning ways as they travel to Nassau Coliseum to face the New York Riptide on Sunday, Jan. 15. Faceoff is set for 3 p.m. and will be available on Big 107.3 and ESPN+.
