Tag Archives: Matt Sawyer

Apr 3 2011

Boston Blazers “Playing For Our Playoff Lives”

By Stacey Kilpatrick

BOSTON, MA – The Rochester Knighthawks [7-5] clinched a playoff spot Saturday night at the TD Garden after beating – literally – their East Division rival Boston Blazers [6-8] in a 19-8 game that was more like a Bruins-Canadiens match with all the pounding.

“A couple of scrums,” Boston Blazers head coach Matt Sawyer said.

Actually, a couple is two. There were 14 penalties for fighting and roughing. At one point it was looking like a UFC match, with gloves flying off, jersey’s being ripped up and players laying on top of one another in the straddle position, fists cementing faces.

“[Kyle] Rubisch had a good one with [Jarrett] Davis there; that’s just a lacrosse fight,” Sawyer continued. “Two guys going at it. The second half there I guess we were just trying to show a little fight in ourselves that we weren’t happy with what was going on. But to be honest it was nice to see it when we saw it.”

Well the teams fought with their fists, but their sticks, Rochester held the upper cuts on that end, clearly, and to Rochester coach Mike Hasen’s loving.

“We just want to come out here and play our game …. Tonight we caught [Boston] at a good time where they’re struggling a little bit.”

The Blazers put down a dreadful performance and Sawyer stated the obvious when he said that losing five games in a row sucks.

“It’s tough, and asking me after that performance out there it’s even worse,” Sawyer said. “It’s something that we’re all going to remember for a long time … right now what’s foremost in our mind is that abysmal effort.”

Boston wasn’t catching any breaks and goalie Anthony Cosmo was having difficulty catching the ball, saving 22 of 41 shots.

Rochester’s Sean Williams put the Knighthawks on the board at 10:47 in the first quarter and from there the Knighthawks kept barreling Cosmo.

At the half, Boston was down 9-3, with Rochester goals from Davis, Craig Point and Cory Vitarelli, two by Cody Jamieson and three from Jordan Hall.

Jamie Rooney, Kevin Buchanan and Dan Dawson put the three in for Boston, but the scores didn’t do much; they didn’t instill confidence in the Blazers and the goals certainly didn’t inflict fear in the non-wobbling knees of the Knighthawks.

“First half we had nine goals on the board that we gave up and five times we had that ball in our stick before the ball went in the net. Just terribly sloppy at this point in the season,” Sawyer said.

He admitted to thinking of putting Nick Rose in the game when they were down with 1:00 left in the third.

“I told Rose he was going in.”

Well, why didn’t you put Rose in when you were down six?

“They scored a goal on [Cosmo]. But Cos, being a veteran goalie, he likes a lot of shots so I gave him the opportunity to stay in there,” Sawyer said.

But you’re the coach. You have the say. If you want to win, pull out your goalie whose missing most blocks left, right, straight and upside-down.

“I asked him what he wanted to do in between the third and fourth [quarter] and he’s a proud guy and he likes to work and he wanted to stay in there. If I hadn’t known that it was going to turn into a shooting gallery on the power-play I certainly would have pulled him.”

Sawyer added that, “We look to score early and look to score often and neither is happening right now; not early nor often. So we’ll continue to work at it.”

Maybe the Blazers will end their five-game failure streak when they face Philadelphia next Saturday, April 9, in their final regular season game.

“We’re in a must-win next week against Philadelphia. It’s essentially playing for our playoff lives.”

Apr 3 2011

Boston Blazers "Playing For Our Playoff Lives"

By Stacey Kilpatrick

BOSTON, MA – The Rochester Knighthawks [7-5] clinched a playoff spot Saturday night at the TD Garden after beating – literally – their East Division rival Boston Blazers [6-8] in a 19-8 game that was more like a Bruins-Canadiens match with all the pounding.

“A couple of scrums,” Boston Blazers head coach Matt Sawyer said.

Actually, a couple is two. There were 14 penalties for fighting and roughing. At one point it was looking like a UFC match, with gloves flying off, jersey’s being ripped up and players laying on top of one another in the straddle position, fists cementing faces.

“[Kyle] Rubisch had a good one with [Jarrett] Davis there; that’s just a lacrosse fight,” Sawyer continued. “Two guys going at it. The second half there I guess we were just trying to show a little fight in ourselves that we weren’t happy with what was going on. But to be honest it was nice to see it when we saw it.”

Well the teams fought with their fists, but their sticks, Rochester held the upper cuts on that end, clearly, and to Rochester coach Mike Hasen’s loving.

“We just want to come out here and play our game …. Tonight we caught [Boston] at a good time where they’re struggling a little bit.”

The Blazers put down a dreadful performance and Sawyer stated the obvious when he said that losing five games in a row sucks.

“It’s tough, and asking me after that performance out there it’s even worse,” Sawyer said. “It’s something that we’re all going to remember for a long time … right now what’s foremost in our mind is that abysmal effort.”

Boston wasn’t catching any breaks and goalie Anthony Cosmo was having difficulty catching the ball, saving 22 of 41 shots.

Rochester’s Sean Williams put the Knighthawks on the board at 10:47 in the first quarter and from there the Knighthawks kept barreling Cosmo.

At the half, Boston was down 9-3, with Rochester goals from Davis, Craig Point and Cory Vitarelli, two by Cody Jamieson and three from Jordan Hall.

Jamie Rooney, Kevin Buchanan and Dan Dawson put the three in for Boston, but the scores didn’t do much; they didn’t instill confidence in the Blazers and the goals certainly didn’t inflict fear in the non-wobbling knees of the Knighthawks.

“First half we had nine goals on the board that we gave up and five times we had that ball in our stick before the ball went in the net. Just terribly sloppy at this point in the season,” Sawyer said.

He admitted to thinking of putting Nick Rose in the game when they were down with 1:00 left in the third.

“I told Rose he was going in.”

Well, why didn’t you put Rose in when you were down six?

“They scored a goal on [Cosmo]. But Cos, being a veteran goalie, he likes a lot of shots so I gave him the opportunity to stay in there,” Sawyer said.

But you’re the coach. You have the say. If you want to win, pull out your goalie whose missing most blocks left, right, straight and upside-down.

“I asked him what he wanted to do in between the third and fourth [quarter] and he’s a proud guy and he likes to work and he wanted to stay in there. If I hadn’t known that it was going to turn into a shooting gallery on the power-play I certainly would have pulled him.”

Sawyer added that, “We look to score early and look to score often and neither is happening right now; not early nor often. So we’ll continue to work at it.”

Maybe the Blazers will end their five-game failure streak when they face Philadelphia next Saturday, April 9, in their final regular season game.

“We’re in a must-win next week against Philadelphia. It’s essentially playing for our playoff lives.”

Apr 3 2011

Blazers Extend Losing Streak, Look to Rebound against Philadelphia

By Matt Noonan

BOSTON, MA – This was not your typical National Lacrosse League contest, but instead, a boxing match between two physical teams that desperately needed wins.

Although, after they kicked, scream, yelled and played tough physical lacrosse, the Rochester Knighthawks [7-5] earned their seventh win of the season, as well as clinched a playoff spot after their 19-8 thrashing against the Boston Blazers [6-8].

“[It] sucks,” stated Boston Blazers head coach Matt Sawyer. “It’s tough and asking me after that performance out there was even worse [and it’s] something that we’re all going to remember for a long time.”

Boston’s last win came on February 19, against Minnesota. Josh Sanderson recorded four goals and Casey Powell added six assists, but ever since that Saturday evening, the Blazers have yet to add a win in their win column.

The Blazers have now lost five games in a row, which isn’t something that either Sawyer or his team likes to brag about.

“We’re not focused on that [because] we’re focusing right now what’s foremost in our mind, [which is our team’s] abysmal effort,” said Sawyer.

The Blazers shots weren’t crisp, their defense was horrendous, and their passes weren’t even on target.

Also, let’s not get started with goaltender, Anthony Cosmo, who only saved 22 of 41 shots on net, but has Sawyer said after the game, the goalie wanted to play the entire 60-minutes, which sounds sort of bizarre, right? Yet, Cosmo is a competitor and has always put his team first.

“He likes a lot of shots, so I gave him the opportunity to stay in there and asked him what he wanted to do in between the third and fourth [quarter] and he’s a proud guy and he likes to work. He wanted to stay in there. If I hadn’t known it was going to turn into a shooting gallery on the power-play, I certainly would have pulled him,” said Sawyer.

“We’re coming back with him against Philadelphia [next weekend], so if [Cosmo] wanted those shots in the fourth, he was getting them.”

Whether Cosmo should have been pulled is certainly a valuable question, but what the Blazers needed was something to get the squad fired up.

The Boston Blazers use the phrase, “fired up” before, during and after games, but nothing seemed to fire this particular squad up, especially not even the fights or various goals. Boston was flat, but Rochester took advantage of their poor play and executed their game plan. The Knighthawks scored early and often, as well as left the TD Garden with sole possession of third place in the East Division.

“It feels nice [to be in the playoffs],” said Rochester head coach Mike Hasen. “It’s something that [was] goal, I guess, so we got that far, [but have] more work to do.”

Hasen also commented on Boston’s five game losing streak, but primarily kept the attention on him, his team and their win.

“I can’t comment on what’s happening in their room,” said Hansen. “I just know what we have in our room and we just continually build and just keep moving forward, so that’s our focus. Our focus is us and I think we we’re just catching them at the right time [because] they are a good team and they’ll get out of this and they’ll be trouble when they do.”

After this particular loss, the Blazers are clearly unsure of where their 2011 future remains foggy and unknown. They could win out and most likely grab the final playoff spot in the East or end a season, which began with so much promise with two back-to-back losses.

Yet, Sawyer seems to have a plan and so does his staff and players. He wants to win, but the question, which remain is does he have enough energy and will power to motivate a team that can clearly contend for a championship?

“We’re anxious to get this turned around and we feel when we do, we know we can do some damage,” said Sawyer.

“Our first goal is to make the playoffs and from there on in is to advance. I believe in this team, of course, I [think] that we can win a championship or else, I wouldn’t be standing up here, so [yes], we’re anxious to get back out there and perform.”

Feb 7 2011

Boston Blazers earn an important win against Toronto, 9-7

By Katherine Hansenauer Cornetta

BOSTON, MA – Two weekends ago, the Boston Blazers were handed their first defeat of the season against a high-powered Toronto Rock offense. On Saturday night, they played their best defensive game of the season so far to douse the Rock offense, winning 9-7.

Dan Dawson, who had found himself in the feeder role for most of this young season, broke out for 3 goals on a night where he admittedly took many more chances than he has been. He led the team with 11-shots on the night.

“This year, I hadn’t buried the ball when I got the opportunity,” Dawson explained during his post-game interview. “My shot percentage is down, and I haven’t shot the ball enough. I’ve found myself standing on the outside, being the feeder, and letting other guys do the grunt work. Tonight, I took more shots – I could have taken more – but I just need to keep burying the ball.”

The Blazers scored the game’s first goal for just the second time this season when Casey Powell and Ryan Powell got fancy with some behind the back shots to feed Geoff McNulty for a goal a mere four minutes into the game.

The Rock tied the game up on Garrett Billings first goal of a three goal night. Billings had been out last week with injury, and looked like a man on a mission during the first half. But, a renewed Boston defense were able to hold him and teammates Stephen LeBlanc and Colin Doyle at bay. While the Rock stayed neck in neck with the Blazers for most of the first quarter, they couldn’t match the Blazers’ offensive output through the second and third quarters, only coming within one in the waning moments of the fourth before Blazer Josh Sanderson buried a shot to put the game away.

“They were real good defensively. We couldn’t penetrate the scoring area, and we only had 14 shots on the first half, which is not good,” said Troy Cordingley. “We were chasing them the whole time, and we can’t play catch up with Boston.”

Sharing the spotlight Saturday night with Dawson was Kevin Buchanan, who also had 3 goals on the evening. Two of those goals were from long-range, penetrating through a transparent Rock defense. He demonstrates a clear chemistry with the Powell brothers, who assisted on two of those goals. The Powells combined had 9 assists on the evening, having a hand in 6 of the Blazers’ 9 goals.

“(The Powells) have a definite chemistry,” said Blazers coach Matt Sawyer. “I say anytime you can have brothers play together, it’s good. They grew up playing together, and you know that they’re going to battle for each other, and be on the same wavelength.”

What sealed the deal for Boston was a deeper focus on defense than in games past. Defense was a focus of the entire roster, with offensive studs like the Powells and Dawson contributing to stop the usually high-flying Rock offense. The defensive effort held Rock star Colin Doyle off the goal tally for one of the first time’s in recent memory.

The renewed defensive focus helped goaltender Anthony Cosmo, who saw a drastic drop in shots from the two teams’ last meeting (60 in January and 36 Saturday night.) The Blazers knew they had to being supporting their league leading goalie a bit more if they wanted to right the ship after they dropped three of their last four games.

“(Cosmo’s) the heart and soul of this team,” said Dawson. “He’s our backbone, and when he puts together an effort like he did tonight, he’s fun to watch. We’re going to ride him as far as he’ll take us.”

The Blazers (4-3) host the Colorado Mammoth (1-4) next Saturday night at the TD Garden.

Jan 29 2011

Philadelphia Hands Boston Their Third Loss of the Season

BOSTON, MA – The TD Garden has hosted some crushing defeats, but Friday’s loss against the Philadelphia Wings (2-2) was sincerely heartbreaking. Philadelphia tallied five goals in the third quarter and one in the fourth to hand the Boston Blazers (2-3) their third loss in a row, 11-5.

“We came out with a lot of energy and played with our most consistent sixty minutes of the year. I like our team and they work hard, so I was happy to see the results of all their hard work,” said Philadelphia Head Coach John Tucker

“That effort wasn’t good enough tonight,” said Boston Blazers head coach Matt Sawyer.

During the first quarter the Blazers recorded three goals off of sixteen shots on Wings goaltender, Brandon Miller (43-saves), but forward Casey Powell responded to an early Wings goal, which tied the game, 1-1. Yet, the Wings responded immediately with their second goal of the evening, when Dan Hardy found an opening past Blazers goaltender, Anthony Cosmo (22-saves).

“We knew that [the Blazers] could stay close and put a run together,” said Tucker. “We were committed to playing the first five minutes as hard as we possibly could [and] try to stretch the lead, fortunately we did. We came out of the gates and extended our lead and playing with the lead, I thought our guys responded pretty well.”

The Blazers would not score again until the third period, but watched the Wings build an impressive 5-3 lead before halftime.

Both Alex Turner and Athan Iannucci scored during the second quarter to build the lead, which would expand after halftime. The Wings watched Turner and Iannucci, as well as Ryan McClelland combine for five goals in fifteen minutes.

“Philadelphia’s a real good team, they’re well coached and they’re going to put that kind of effort defensively and from the goaltending, [they’re] going to be tough for everyone and we approached that game like we were just [going] to walk through them,” said Sawyer.  “[We] can’t show up and just expect to win.”

Besides Dan Dawson’s two goals during the third period, the Blazers were held scoreless during the final fifteen minutes and were unable to tie the game or even pull out a dramatic win.

In fact, the Blazers allowed back-up goaltender Nick Rose an opportunity to play during the final 14-minutes of regulation, but despite his 10-saves, he did allow one goal.

“The boys played well in front of me, they were solid once I went in, just unfortunately we couldn’t put a couple more in the net, but it happens,” said Rose

Besides the poor play by the Blazers, the Wings were able to watch Miller play quite an impressive game, which clearly was something that impressed the 7,492 fans.

“[Brandon Miller] was off the charts. Boston is actually extremely talented, they had a lot of chances and he saved everything that he should of saved tonight and a lot of them had no chance, he made some incredible saves, but to Brandon’s credit, he’s been consistently good all year long,” said Tucker

With the loss, the Blazers will look to rebound on Saturday against the Rochester Knighthawks (2-1), a team that Boston has already lost to once this season.

“We need to forget [this loss] quick because [we have] Rochester [on Saturday] and there’s no time to feel sorry for ourselves and there’s only one group that’s going to help us get out of this and that’s the group in that dressing room,” said Sawyer.

Jan 16 2011

Boston Blazers Beat Edmonton, 10-7 in Home Opener (1/15/11)

by Matt Noonan

BOSTON, MA – Boston Blazers forward Nick Cotter clearly kept the Edmonton Rush on their toes for the entire four quarters, as he finished the evening with three goals and led his squad to a 10-7 victory during the teams home opener at the T.D. Garden.

Cotter scored two goals during the first half and recorded a third during the fourth quarter, which solidified the win for the Blazers.

Besides Cotter’s epic performance, the Blazers also watched Casey Powell find the back of the net twice to record two goals during both the first and second half of regulation.

Ryan Hotaling, Dan Dawson, Geoff McNulty and Josh Sanderson each added one goal of their own too during the teams second win of the season.

Goaltender Anthony Cosmo allowed only seven goals through 60-minutes, but continuously kept the Blazers in contention to steal multiple leads from the Rush and eventually the game.

Blazers head coach Matt Sawyer seemed rather satisfied after the win as Boston advanced to (2-0) on the season. They will next play Friday January 21 against the Toronto Rock at 7:30pm eastern.

Jan 12 2011

Blazers Coach Content After First Win

The Boston Blazers kicked off their 2011 season with an impressive 10-6 win against the Philadelphia Wings on Saturday January 8. Blazers captain Dan Dawson led the team with 8 assists, while teammate Casey Powell tallied 5 goals and goaltender Anthony Cosmo surrendered six goals, but saved 25 of the 31 shots on net.

On Wednesday January 12, 2011, Blazers head coach Matt Sawyer discussed through a league conference call that he was rather pleased with his teams outcome during their first game.

“We were relaxed, I was relaxed and calm (prior to the beginning of our first game). I guess (we all experienced) some anxiety and (were) just anxious to get the game started, but that’s no difference from any other coach. We felt calm and we were relaxed and just anxious to get going and happy with the result.”

The Blazers will have their home opener this Saturday January 15, 2011, when they welcome the Edmonton Rush to the T.D. Garden for a 7:30pm faceoff. For tickets and other information, make sure to visit the teams website at www.blazerslacrosse.com.