Rock’s win streak snapped at two by Seals

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RUCHARD MAUNTAH, Special to the Sun

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After road wins in its previous two games, the Toronto Rock’s path to recovery stalled at home on Saturday.

A goal by Rob Hellyer with 1:16 remaining erased a one-goal Rock lead and a mid-range shot by Wes Berg with 48.5 seconds remaining gave the San Diego Seals an 11-10 win at Paramount Fine Foods Centre. The San Diego response came after Toronto scored five times earlier in the period.

The Seals dominated the first 45 minutes of the contest, building a 9-5 lead after three quarters on the strength of a defense giving Toronto very little to work with in front of goaltender Chris Origlieri.

“We were chasing the game,” Rock captain Challen Rogers said. “Going into the half, we were not feeling good with how we were playing.”

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“(San Diego) was cutting off a lot and were pressing. We knew that going into the game. We’ve got to work a lot harder with our passes.”

Meanwhile at the Rock’s end, goaltender Nick Rose was left helpless on several occasions as San Diego forwards got to the front of the net seemingly at will. The Seals outshot the Rock 61-48.

The Rock came into the game off a dominant performance on Jan. 24 and a gritty overtime win against the Colorado Mammoth on Feb. 1.

Chris Boushy and Corey Small started Toronto’s comeback in the first minute of the fourth. Small added another, his third of the night soon after. Then Brian Cameron and Mitch De Snoo scored to give the Rock its first lead with seven minutes left. But it was a lead they could not hold.

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“It was nice to see the ball falling,” Rogers said. “We were moving the ball more and playing aggressive.“

“One of the qualities of this group is that we’re not going to fold up,” Small said. “We knew we could get back in the game. But we were not able to close.”

Berg ended with four goals on the night while Hellyer, who played with the Rock from 2012 to 2023, scored twice. Dylan Watson also scored two while Trent DiCicco, Ben McIntosh and Ty Thompson completed the Seals scoring.

De Snoo ended with two on the night. Elijah Gash, Josh Dawick and Tom Schreiber also scored for the Rock.

The Rock’s homestand continues on Friday with a rematch against the unbeaten Buffalo Bandits (6-0). Buffalo won the first meeting of the season 15-13 on Jan. 10 in one of the more entertaining games of this National Lacrosse League season.

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