Crawford, Black Wolves dominate Knighthawks

The New England Black Wolves have been scratching and clawing to get back in to the win column and on Saturday night then finally got there.

After starting the season with a franchise best 4-0 record, the Black Wolves have lost three straight and the offense was really struggling. On Saturday night, New England (5-3) dominated the Rochester Knighthawks (1-8) and completely took over the last three quarters of this game after going down 2-0 at the start.

The Black Wolves scored two goals in less than 10 seconds at the end of the first quarter to tie the score at two. The two quick strikes seemed to rattle the Rochester goaltender, Rylan Hartley, who was making only his second career start.

The Black Wolves outscored the Knighthawks 5-2 in the second quarter to take a 7-4 lead into halftime. New England had goals from seven different players in the first half and carried the offense with a 37-27 shot advantage.

New England would take over the game in the second half, carrying the play and dominating the Knighthawks on their way to an 18-7 win. The Black Wolves outscored the Knighthawks 11-3 in the second half as the Black Wolves’ offense finally woke up and controlled the ball all over the floor.

New England stud Callum Crawford finished the night with four goals and eight assists. His partner in crime, Joe Resetarits also had a hat trick and finished with four points to keep his hot play going. Resetarits has now recorded hat tricks in his last three games.

Probably the most important sign for the Black Wolves was Reilly O’Connor and Stephan Leblanc getting back in the goal column. With rookie Andrew Kew out, O’Connor (3G, 2A) and Leblanc (2G, 3A) helped bring the offense back to where it was early in the season.

Tony Malcom came up clutch with two big goals as Colton Watkinson, Adam Bomberry, Jordan Durston, and Joe Nardella also added key tallies for the Black Wolves. The 18 goal outburst was the highest since their 21 goal game versus New York back on December 27th.

Rochester was carried by Holden Cattoni who had three goals. Former Black Wolves captain Shawn Evans came in to the game needing only one goal to jump into ninth place in National Lacrosse League history but failed to find the back of he net and only tallied three helpers on the night.

Doug Jamieson made 35 saves for the Black Wolves while Hartley and Wende combined for 52 saves on the night for the Knighthawks.

New England will be back in action next weekend as the travel to Nassau on Friday to face the New York Riptide. The Black Wolves will then return to Mohegan Sun Arena on Sunday, March 1st to face the Halifax Thunderbirds in their first multi game week of the seaon.