The Chicago Shamrox opened the NLL's preseason schedule with a 9-8 win over the defending champion Buffalo Bandits.
CHICAGO EDGES BUFFALO TO OPEN PRESEASON
Candy scores game-winner with seven seconds remaining
12/01/2008
The 2008 National Lacrosse League champions, the Buffalo Bandits, took to the floor at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena on Sunday morning against the Chicago Shamrox and came up a bit short, losing 9-8."I thought we did great except for the penalties, we really hurt ourselves in the fourth quarter and it cost us the game," said Bandits' head coach Darris Kilgour. "We had a lot of guys missing and I wasn't expecting us to put up too many goals."
Mike Thompson started in net for the Bandits, who trailed 4-2 after the first quarter. Ken Montour entered the game with 4:38 left in the third quarter. The Shamrox led 6-5 at halftime.
The Bandits had a strong third quarter to lead 8-7 heading into the fourth quarter. The Shamrox played strong defence in the fourth quarter to keep the Bandits off the scoresheet. With only seven seconds left, Drew Candy fired a shot on net that beat Finley Wilson to give his team the victory in their first preseason contest.
"We looked pretty rusty. We dropped the ball a lot on offence and we were a little concerned about that. Our transition game worked fairly well," said Shamrox' head coach Jamie Batley. "Overall, I thought the team did very well."
The Shamrox were playing with almost all of their team, whereas the Bandits were without John Tavares, Roger Vyse, Mark Steenhuis, Kevin Dostie, Pat McCready, and Rich Kilgour.
"We played their full roster to within one goal," Kilgour said. "Once we get all the guys back healthy, we will be right where we want to be."
Scoring has been an issue for the Shamrox for the last couple of years, as they don't seem to have consistency in that department and that is something that must be improved.
"I think it has been our downfall," Batley said. "We think we have made some adjustments to the team that helped us out defensively."
Batley was impressed with the play of Cody Jacobs and Tom Montour. "They were really good. Cody got a couple (goals). He's a great goal-scorer in this league and he's a great lacrosse player. Tommy is great. He has always been good in transition. We're very happy to have both guys on our team," he said.
--reporting by Scott Hill of The Turtle Island News, North America's Weekly #1 Native Newspaper
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