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Two Major League Lacrosse teams debuted new homes, and both teams came away victorious on opening weekend.

The Boston Cannons unveiled newly renovated Veterans Memorial Stadium with a 13-12 victory over the New York Lizards, and the Atlanta Blaze defeated the defending MLL champion Denver Outlaw 14-12 in the first professional lacrosse game at Grady Stadium.

Over the offseason, the Cannons ownership invested $1.5 million into improvements and renovations to Veterans Memorial Stadium, located just outside of Boston in Quincy, Mass. Some of the immediately visible changes were 1,000 tip-up seats instead of bleachers in the middle of the stands and a 40-by-40-foot digital scoreboard.

The Cannons announced a sellout crowd of 5,025 fans, and the players were excited about the atmosphere.

“There’s always going to be a place for rooting for a home team,” said Cannons midfielder Martin Bowes, who grew up in Quincy. “This feels like it’s ours, and it is ours. Harvard, it was cool playing in the Coliseum, but we were renting. We were in, and we were out, and that was that. This is an opportunity to start something really special in a home we can have for years to come.”

“They brought me here before they had done the renovation and they’re like, ‘We’re going to build this into something,’ and I was like, ‘OK, you know, we’ll see,’” midfielder Kyle Denhoff added. “But coming into here today, the place is packed. They have the band going. They have all the food and drinks. I think the city of Quincy is happy to have us here.”

Looking to be closer to the city, the Blaze moved from Fifth Third Bank in Kennesaw (about 27 miles north of Atlanta) to Grady Stadium in Midtown Atlanta.

Head coach Liam Banks thought the experience in the first game was good for both the fans and players.

“Being downtown, there was a lot of great energy in and around the stadium,” he said. “The fans enjoyed it, but most important, the players loved it. They loved the stadium, they loved the skyline, and they loved the new red jerseys.”

Banks added that while the new stadium is an exciting change, the team needs to win games to keep the fans coming.

“We got our feet wet today operationally, introducing Grady Stadium to our fans,” he said. “As our summer progresses, you’ll see an evolution of who we are. It will be an atmosphere of where people want to be on Saturday night. If you win, people show up. We’ve got a great team and an owner who is willing to invest to make sure it’s a top-class organization and top-class product we’re putting out.”

Bayhawks Win Without Cottle

The 2019 season did not get off to a great start for the Chesapeake Bayhawks. In the season opener on the road against the Dallas Rattlers, the team was already without head coach Dave Cottle due to the death of his mother.

Then the Rattlers, coming off of a championship game appearance last year, jumped out to an early 3-0 lead.

The Bayhawks fought back, however. Attackmen Lyle Thompson, Steele Stanwick and Colin Heacock combined for 15 points, as Chesapeake came from behind and won the game 14-11.

“It was a tough, gritty win. We dug deep and made plays when we needed them,” Bayhawks offensive coordinator Tom Mariano, who coached the team in Cottle’s absence, said in a press release on the team’s website. “We started to impose our will in the second half by getting the ground balls and being a little more physical on defense.”

The Bayhawks picked up 10 more ground balls and won seven more faceoffs than, while outscoring the Rattlers 9-4 in the second half.

John Grant Jr. Makes Immediate Impact

The first goal of the 2019 MLL season came from recently unretired Denver Outlaws attackman John Grant Jr.

Grant, 44, playing in his first game since 2016, scored the first goal on the first shot of the game in the Outlaws’ 11-9 win at New York in the opener Friday.

Not only did Grant become the answer to a trivia question, he also added an assist in the game against the Lizards and scored a goal two days later in a loss to the Atlanta Blaze. Those three points leave him two points behind Paul Rabil to retake the league’s all-time scoring record.

Noteworthy

Challen Rogers scored two goals and added an assist in the Cannons’ victory over New York. … Cannons goalie Nick Marrocco made 18 saves against the Lizards. … Over the first two games of the season, New York’s Mark Matthews and Dylan Molloy each scored five points apiece. … Dillon Ward made 19 saves in Denver’s victory over New York. … Newly acquired faceoff specialist Kenny Massa won 18 of 29 faceoffs and picked up seven ground balls for the Bayhawks. … Nick Mariano scored the first two goals of the game for Chesapeake and completed the hat trick before halftime. … Bayhawks short-stick defensive middie Isaiah Davis-Allen, a third-year pro,  scored the first goal of his career. … Thompson and Stanwick led the Bayhawks with six points apiece.

Player of the Week
Mark Cockerton, A, Boston Cannons

MLL published an article prior to the start of the season presenting all the possible records that could be broken in 2019. The article named Mark Cockerton as a player that could challenge for the single-season goals record, and it seemed like he was trying to break it in one game.

Cockerton had six goals in the opener. While he was the one finishing plays and shots for the Cannons, he passed on the credit.

“It’s just a compliment to my teammates,” he said. “I’m a big off-ball goal scorer, you would say. I can’t do it if they don’t feed me the ball. I just try and move around as much as I can, find open lanes, and if I get the ball, try my best to put it in the back of the net.”

Play of the Week
Dylan Molloy, A, New York Lizards

James Fahey is both a talented defender and a big defender. He's emerged as one of the best poles in the league. In this instance, Dylan Molloy just did not care about either of those things. He executed a perfect bull dodge, not only knocking Fahey to the ground, but freezing Zach Goodrich in the process. This gave him plenty of time and room to fire one past Nick Marrocco, who was tough to beat throughout the game.