Rush Take Down Bandits For First Home Win

Hey folks, I'm back again with another blog and this time, I'm doing a lacrosse blog on my hometown Edmonton Rush of the NLL. the Rush, played their first home game of the 2010 season with over 7,000 fans in attendance at Rexall Place and were able to defeat the Buffalo Bandits 11-7.

The Rush were able to open up the scoring on a fantastic goal by the red hot Ryan Ward who ended the night with 4 goals and 4 assists and Buffalo appeard to be very shaky in the 1st Q being outshot 13-6 but were only down 3-2 at the end of the opening quarter. A questionable call was made in the 1st quarter in which the Rush's Jimmy Quinlan made a fantastic leaping shot behind the Buffalo net and appeared to have beaten Buffalo goalie Ken Montador but the refs said no goal and Rush coach Derek Keenan did not throw a challenge flag onto the carpet. To me and the thousands at Rexall it appeard that the Rush had scored and at the time I was thinking that the refs Greg Hart and John Babbitt could use something to help them see better called glasses. 

In the 2nd quarter, I was still feeling peckish for something to eat, I had finished off a cup of fries of over priced fries with an equally over priced iced tea which in total cost me just under $14 but I was not in the mood to have to give up another limb for nourishment. As for the game during the 2nd Quarter, the game became a true defensive battle with no goals scored 10:44 minutes into the 2nd quarter when Jimmy Quinlan got his 1st goal and really should have been his 2nd goal of the night to increase the Rush lead to 4-2. After the Quinlan goal, the Bandits were able to respond quickly thanks to Mike Accursi scoring less than a minute later for Buffalo to make it a 4-3 game. The Rush's new offseason pickup NLL superstar Brodie Merill was able to restore the Rush 2 goal lead with his 2nd goal of the season to go into halftime with a 5-3 lead.

In the 3rd, Andy Secore, rookie Corey Small, and Ryan Ward with his 3rd of the night (he also scored in the 2nd)scored for the Rush and Sean Greenhalgh scored for the Bandits to make the game 8-4 after 3 quarters. In the 4th, the Rush were able to hold onto the lead thanks to fantastic goaltending from Matt Disher who made 35 saves on the night along with Corey Small and Andy Secore who both got their 2nd goals of the night along with Ryan Ward capping off a fantastic game with his 4th goal of the night.

The Bandits, were able to make the 4th quarter interesting thanks to 2 goals from Brett Bucktooth and Mike Accursi was able to get his 2nd goal of the game but it was not enough as the Rush were able to get their 1st win of the year at Rexall Place with the 11-7 win.

The Rush now have 2 wins and 1 loss on the season while Buffalo starts the year with 4 straight losses.

The Rush play again on January 30th at Rexall Place vs the defending NLL champs, the Calgary Roughnecks.

Thats all for now, I'm Avry and I'm gone but be sure to tune into my sports show Avry's Sports Show every tuesday night at 7PM Mountain time on blogtalkradio.com/avry and follow me on twitter at twitter.com/Avry