Pride Dismantle Machine, 21-13
Published on June 16, 2007 under Major League Lacrosse (MLL)
New Jersey Pride News Release
PISCATAWAY - The Pride exploded offensively against the Chicago Machine to earn their first win of the season 21-13 in front of 3,604 fans. The Pride's 15 first-half goals tied a franchise record for goals in a half, and the 21 scores were one shy of a franchise high. Coming into the game, the Pride's season high for goals was 16.
The Pride answered Pat Heim's second minute goal with four consecutive tallies to take the early lead, and never looked back.
The win also marks the first time the Pride have triumphed over a Western Division team. The Pride lost in 2006 to both San Francisco and Denver and in 2007 to Los Angeles.
Conor Ford scored first for the Pride, assisted by Chris Unterstein, and following a Kevin Boland goal, Ford returned the favor, feeding Unterstein for the 3-1 lead. Greg Peyser capped the run for the Pride with a fantastic solo effort through the midfield to stretch the lead to 4-1.
The Pride blew the game open at the end of the first quarter with a devastating run. With the shot clock off, Unterstein spun to the goal and scored a dunk with only ten seconds remaining in the quarter to make it 6-3.
"They put a short-stick on me," Unterstein said, "which is almost borderline degrading. Then I went to cage to draw someone looking to dump the ball to one of our shooters, but no one came to me, so I took it."
Chris Colliniates won the ensuing draw and fed Scott Urick, who found the back of the net with 0.6 seconds remaining in the quarter.
The Pride added a third unanswered score in 29 seconds on a fantastic play by Corey Harned. During a scramble on the face-ff, Harned snagged the ball out of the air one handed. The long-stick took off down the field and buried a sprawling shot.
"I was given an opportunity there," Harned said. "They didn't slide to me, and you've got to take that opportunity."
Joe Yevoli's first goal with the Pride completed the Pride's second four-goal run, and extended the Pride lead to 9-3.
Unterstein led the Pride with 6 points, on 4 goals and 2 assists, earning Bud Light MVP Honors. Yevoli, Boland and Peyser also added hat tricks for the Pride.
"He's great," Jacobs said of Unterstein. "He's an athletic guy, he's a strong kid. He makes good feeds and smart decisions, and he was good for us tonight."
"[Yevoli] understands his role with the club right now," Jacobs said, "and he's happy with it. Anytime you put up three goals you're not going to be disappointed."
Jacobs was also complimentary of Peyser's play.
"The kid's a beast," Jacobs said. "We told him to take the offensive opportunities if he gets them, and tonight he did. He can score, he's got that kind of skill."
Robb Scherr saved 20 of 33 shots, and shut out the Machine for a 18:20 stretch before allowing the Machine's final goal with 14 seconds remaining. He made an astonishing nine saves in the fourth quarter.
"I asked him with two minutes to go if he wanted to finish it or come out," Jacobs said, "and he wanted to finish it. I respect him a lot, and he's done a real nice job for us this year."
The excitement of the fans following the game was only surpassed by that of the Pride members on the field.
"It's great for all our guys," Harrison said. "It's so hard, with every team being so good in this league. It's just great to get the monkey off our backs and get into the win column, but I think we're going to be fine."
"It's a total relief," Jacobs said. "We played a full sixty minutes. I tell the guys that anytime we do that, and we do the little things, we're going to win by a lot."
Jake Deane cut into the Prides lead in the tenth minute, but Unterstein found Scott Urick a minute later to extend the lead back to three. Kevin Leveille again narrowed the gap to 5-3.
Following the Pride's second run, Chicago's Nick Schmidt and the Pride's Kyle Harrison traded goals to bring the score to 10-4.
Chicago chipped into the Pride's lead with three unanswered goal, two by Leveille, but the Pride answered with scores of their own by Urick, Peyser and Unterstein, his third of the first half, to make the score 13-7.
Leveille again scored for the Machine with an acrobatic solo-effort, but the Pride closed the half out with goals by Yevoli and Unterstein to take a 15-8 lead into the break.
Yevoli completed his first hat trick with the Pride 33 seconds into the second half, and Conor Ford's second score of the game put the Pride ahead 17-8
Chicago looked to make a game of it late in the third quarter, sandwiching four scores around a fifteen-yard laser by Greg Peyser to cut the lead to 18-12, but Boland and Unterstein again found the back of the net to give the Pride a 20-12 lead before the final session.
Both teams' defenses stepped up the intensity in the fourth quarter, as the first goal of the period did not come until the ninth minute when Jesse Hubbard scored to extend the Pride's lead to 21-12.
Major League Lacrosse Stories from June 16, 2007
- Pride Dismantle Machine, 21-13 - New Jersey Pride
- Barrage Suffer First Loss of 2007 to Long Island - Philadelphia Barrage
- Riptide Stun Dragons - San Francisco Dragons
- LA Riptide Earn Victory Over Conference Rival - Los Angeles Riptide
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