Turner Stones Cannons with 14 Saves as Bayhawks Advance to Championship
Attackman Ben Rubeor fired in a season-high six goals while goalkeeper Kip Turner anchored a dominating defensive effort with 14 saves as the second-seeded Chesapeake Bayhawks beat the Boston Cannons, 16-10, in Major League Lacrosse semifinals before a crowd of 8,090 at Harvard Stadium.
Rubeor netted five of his goals in the second half as the Bayhawks broke open a back-and-forth affair by outscoring the host team 7-2. Turner got hot and made 10 of his saves after intermission for Chesapeake, which completely shut down a potent Boston offense.
“Today was a total team effort. We had a game plan that we thought would slow them down and we executed it really well,” All-MLL defenseman Michael Evans said. “The coaching staff emphasized winning our individual matchups and I thought we were able to do that. Kip Turner is the backbone of our defense and he was awesome today.”
Evans shut out All-MLL attackman Ryan Boyle, who had two goals and six assists to lead Boston to a 16-13 victory over Chesapeake on July 28th. Long stick midfielder Michael Simon limited Paul Rabil, the Offensive Player of the Year, to just two assists.
“Last time against Boston, we didn’t win any of the individual matchups. This time, Michael Evans won the Ryan Boyle matchup, Michael Simon fought off Paul Rabil, Jeff Reynolds won some matchups with Kevin Buchanan,” Chesapeake head coach Dave Cottle said. “We didn’t have to slide as much as we did in the last game and I thought that was the difference.”
All-MLL midfielder Kyle Dixon scored three goals, two of which were 2-pointers, and also had an assist in totaling six points for Chesapeake (11-4), which will take on top-seeded Denver (12-3) in Sunday afternoon’s (3 p.m.) champion
