There is nothing sweeter for a team in last place than beating the No. 1 team in the league.

The Rochester Knighthawks did just that when they defeated the Saskatchewan Rush 16-11 at home. They remain last in the NLL East but prospects are much rosier now that they are 4-6 after a second straight win and losses by two of the teams ahead of them.

Two game balls were presented in the dressing room Saturday. One was symbolic. It was for all the players collectively for continuing to believe in themselves. The other went to Jake Withers for his work on faceoffs plus his steady play on defense.

Cody Jamieson scored three goals and assisted on four and Rochester’s youth brigade excelled as second-year players Kyle Jackson and Josh Currier and rookie Austin Shanks scored two goals each.

The offense has been clicking with veteran lefties Jamieson and Cory Vitarelli meshing well with Jackson and rookie Eric Fannell, and with Joe Resetarits working on the other side with Currier and Shanks.

“We are a lot younger and a lot faster than in the past,” Jamieson said.

Dan Dawson remained out of the lineup. Weekday work commitments as a firefighter kept him from a huge win over Georgia the previous weekend and the coaching staff opted to put the same lineup that beat the Swarm on the floor against Saskatchewan. If the same strategy applies this week, the No. 5 all-time scorer in NLL history might again be a healthy scratch unless a lefty forward is injured.

Goaltender Matt Vinc remains Rochester’s backbone. Vinc has played more minutes, 553, than any other NLL goalie and his stats — a goals-against average of 11.17 and a save percentage of .787 — are best among goalies who have played more than 300 minutes. Vinc, 35, a high school teacher in St. Catharines, Ontario, when he’s not padded up, has been NLL goalie of the year five times and he might be about to make it six. Nobody else has got the nod more than twice.

Few other teams have as good a defense corps as the 10-man demolition crew the Knighthawks put on the floor.

Now they go into Buffalo to play the first-place Bandits intent on showing, again, that they are a better team than their record suggests.

Rush Humbled

Before they showed up in Rochester, the Rush were riding high atop the NLL West at 8-1 including 6-0 on the road. They had won nine consecutive regular-season games against the Knighthawks dating all the way back to 2011. Then they lost 16-11. Evan Kirk was replaced in the crease by Tyler Carlson in the second quarter and the offense was way off its 16-goals-a-game average.

Derek Keenan had been antsy going in.

“If you look at it statistically, going into that game they were not a 3-6 game,” said the Rush coach. “They’ve added a lot of speed and athleticism to their lineup and Vino is playing really well.”

His club squandered a 3-0 lead. Their only other loss, to Buffalo, saw them blow an even bigger lead.

“Sometimes I think our guys think it’s going to be easy. We get off to big starts then take their feet off the gas. We’ll get better at that.”

He said this from a Bahamas beach while watching game film. He gets around but lacrosse stays on his mind — even under palm trees.

Swarm Get Reinforcements

The return of Jordan Hall and Chad Tutton provided the spark and the Georgia Swarm, getting an overtime goal from Shayne Jackson, got back into the battle for an NLL East playoff berth with a 13-12 home victory over the Toronto Rock.

Hall, who missed the first eight games due to weekday work commitments, scored three goals Saturday. Tutton, who also hadn’t played this season while completing rehab from an injury suffered in last spring’s playoffs, injected oomph to the defense.

“Those guys coming in, we knew their character and the way they are around the room that it was going to give us a little bit of energy,” said Swarm coach Ed Comeau. “Hallsy was great and did a lot of little things for us, and Tutts played solid D.”

Jackson’s winning goal came off a perfect pick-and-roll play with Jesse King, who scored three goals. King’s over-the-back pass sent Jackson diving into the crease to stuff a ball behind goalie Nick Rose.

we comin' 

Final Score presented by @Enterprise@ShayneJackson32 | #GameWinner pic.twitter.com/nbY3IVr1MW

— Georgia Swarm (@GeorgiaSwarmLAX) February 18, 2018

“I saw Kinger,” Jackson said. “He had the ball low and I just wanted to come in with speed and get separation from my guy and set a good pick for Kinger to get his hands free. I just wanted to make sure I rolled and got open. Kinger was able to hit me. I caught it, and I was having trouble catching it all night but, when I caught it, I just wanted to reach around Rosie and the ball went in.”

The Swarm are 4-5 heading into a weekend bye and they suddenly look, with their reinforcements, a lot like the team that won it all last June.

Up 5-0, Rock Lose

Toronto was up 5-0 in the sixth minute but lost in overtime and missed a chance to move into a tie with the idle Buffalo Bandits for first place in the NLL East.

“In the end, we just weren’t good enough and they cashed in on their chance at the end,” Rock coach Matt Sawyer said after his team slipped to 5-4. “We created some opportunities in OT. It was a heck of a game and a tough one to lose.”

Rock lefty Adam Jones scored three goals and assisted on four to regain the league points lead with 59 (24G, 35A) in nine games.

Keogh Connects

A 19-11 win at New England on Sunday was a big one for the Colorado Mammoth. They had lost two in a row and needed to get back on track. They succeeded, maintaining a firm hold on second place in the NLL West in the process.

Stephen Keogh scored four goals and Eli McLaughlin and Zach Greer got three each. The Mammoth were outshot 47-41 and Dillon Ward made saves when they were most needed as his club improved to 5-3 and gained a game on the Rush.

“This win was really about team,” said assistant coach Dan Stroup. “We’ve been pushing team wins. We say, ‘Every time you’re out there, do it for the team.’ Nobody really cares who scores as long as you’re working all the time for the guy next to you. I think that really showed.”

Loss After Loss After Loss

The loss was the Black Wolves’ third in a row. Doug Jamieson got a rare start in goal, which didn’t look good when the Mammoth were up 6-1 after one quarter. New England battled back and led 7-6 but Colorado scored eight of the next 10 goals, forcing Jamieson to the bench. He stopped only 15 of the 29 shots on goal he faced. Aaron Bold took over and did not fare any better.

Taking penalties that created 10 Colorado manpower advantages to only two of their own didn’t help the cause. New England dropped to 4-4. When it loses, it loses big. Opponents’ victory margins: 13, 12, 5, 8.

“In the locker room, we’re saying all the right things and then we’re coming out slow,” said defenseman Brett Manney. “Something has to change.”

He Can Score, Too

Chad Cummings is creating a reputation as a formidable Calgary defenseman. The 6-foot-5, 217-pound checker from Caledon, Ontario, is an obstacle opposing forwards prefer to avoid. He was a back-end force during the Roughnecks’ 20-12 home win over Vancouver last Friday and had a special reason to celebrate afterwards: he scored his first NLL goal. He ran into the Stealth zone with the ball in the second quarter and, when nobody confronted him, he kept going and tossed the ball high into the net.

Cummings, 26, is in his second NLL season. He played NCAA field lacrosse at Brockport, and during his summers he has been playing box lacrosse with the Cobourg Kodiaks in Ontario.

It was the third win in a row for the Roughnecks, 4-5, who are playing up to their potential after a 1-5 start.

500 Helpers

Colorado’s Ryan Benesch and Vancouver’s Rhys Duch surpassed 500 career assists during the weekend.

Question and Answer

Q: Billy Dee Smith usually wears No. 3 and Eric Fannell usually wears No. 66 but Smith had No. 91 on his back and Fannell wore No. 73 Saturday. Why?

A: Rochester players wore Native American uniforms that were purchased last year and 3 and 66 were not among the re-used garb.

WEEK 12

There are only three games this weekend and they are all on Saturday.

ROCHESTER (4-6) at BUFFALO (6-3), 7:30 p.m. ET

Rochester ended a six-game losing streak with a 17-10 win in Georgia on Feb. 11 and made it two wins in a row with a 16-11 home triumph over Saskatchewan on Saturday.

Buffalo, winner of four in a row, had a bye last weekend. Alumni Night will see former players welcomed back for this game.

Offense: Buffalo is No. 3, Rochester is No. 4.

Buffalo’s leading scorer is Dhane Smith with 56 points including 21 goals and Josh Byrne leads all rookies with 36 points including 17 goals. Rochester’s leading point-getter is Joe Resetarits with 50 points including 20 goals.

Defense: Rochester is No. 3, Buffalo is No. 6.

Rochester is 1-3 on the road. Buffalo is 3-1 at home.

This will be the third of four meetings. Rochester won 21-11 on Dec. 23 and Buffalo won 16-14 on Feb. 3. Both games were in Rochester. They will conclude their schedules April 28 in Buffalo.

CALGARY (4-5) at SASKATCHEWAN (8-2), 8:30 p.m. ET

Now it’s time to see where the surging Roughnecks stack up against the league’s No. 1 team. Dane Dobbie returns to the lineup after a one-game suspension.

“They probably are playing better than anybody in the league so we have to be much better than we were last weekend,” Keenan said.

Saskatchewan lost its first road game, 16-11 in Rochester, on Saturday.

Offense: Saskatchewan is No. 1, Calgary is No. 6.

Robert Church of the Rush is second in the scoring race a point behind Toronto’s Adam Jones with 58 (23 G, 35 A) and teammate Mark Matthews is third with 57 (20 G, 37 A). Calgary’s leading scorer is Curtis Dickson who has 41 points including 24 goals. Ben McIntosh has a league-best 28 goals.

Defense: Saskatchewan is No. 1, Calgary is No. 5.

Saskatchewan has the most efficient power play and third-best penalty killing so staying out of the penalty box is of utmost importance for the Roughnecks.

Can Christian Del Bianco maintain his league-leading 80.6 save percentage? We’ll soon find out.

Calgary is 1-2 on the road. Saskatchewan is 2-1 at home, where average attendance of 14,474 is best in the league. Having played seven of their first 10 games on the road, the Rush are at home for six of their last eight.

This will be the second of three meetings. The Rush won 13-12 in Calgary on Jan. 27 on Ben McIntosh’s goal 46 seconds into overtime. They’ll close out the regular season April 28 in Saskatoon.

NEW ENGLAND (4-4) at VANCOUVER (1-9) 10 p.m. ET

New England is going to miss the playoffs if it doesn’t get its act together in the hotly-contested NLL East, so a win over a one-win Stealth squad buried in the league basement is a must. A win would lift the Black Wolves into a tie with idle Toronto for second place in the division. A loss would give idle Georgia a share of third place.

Offense: New England is No. 8, Vancouver is No. 9.

Shawn Evans leads the Black Wolves in points with 48 including 18 goals. Cory Small has 47 points including 17 goals for the Stealth.

Defense: New England is No. 8, Vancouver is No. 9.

New England’s 19-11 home loss to Colorado on Sunday was its third in a row, while Vancouver’s 20-12 loss in Calgary stretched its losing streak to five games.

New England is 1-2 on the road. Vancouver is 0-4 at home, where average attendance is a league-low 3,735.

This will be the second of two meetings. The Black Wolves won 13-9 at home back on Dec. 29.

BYES: COLORADO (5-3), TORONTO (5-4), GEORGIA (4-5).

Time Travel

FEB. 22, 2014: Toronto Rock forward Colin Doyle joined John Tavares, Gary Gait and John Grant Jr. as the fourth player in league history with 500 goals when he scored against the Minnesota Swarm.