By Bobby Ingram
Staff Writer
newjerseypride.com

DENVER - Heading into their road tilt against Denver, the final game before an influx of rookies shakes up their line-up, the Pride were considered underdogs by many.

Heading into halftime, the Pride were two shots off the post from a tie game. But as the third quarter began, any hopes of an upset were quickly dashed. The Outlaws scored the first 8 goals of the quarter to balloon their lead to 14-4, and never looked back en route to a 19-11 victory.

Ryan Powell opened the run with a dodge inside, and Brian Langtry soon added a two-point goal. Drew Westervelt’s second score of the game made the score 10-4, and after the Outlaws won the following draw, Geoff Snider gave Denver an 11-4 lead just 4:11 into the half.

“The problem with us is we look at our unlucky breaks, or their lucky breaks, and then build on the negative,” Pride coach Peter Jacobs said. “We don’t expand on the positive.

“It’s been a problem with the Pride for the last four years, and what we need to do is change the culture. Guys are getting a look of defeat when one thing goes wrong, and you’ve got to be better than that.”

The Outlaws continued to build on their positives as another face-off win set up a Jeff Sonke goal, followed by Snider again taking the resulting draw down to score and up the margin to 9 less than six minutes into the half. While the Pride appeared to have stopped the bleeding, they failed to convert on the offensive end, and the Outlaws added another goal by Langtry 11:22 into the half to make the score 14-4.

In addition to the snowball effect, Jacobs felt much of the Pride’s woes could be linked to Denver playing with more energy in the quarter.

“We need to get better with our conditioning,” Jacobs said. “That first quarter we ran great, but from the second quarter on we didn’t do a good job of creating transitions.”

A Merrick Thomson score 12:57 into the half finally ended the run, but the damage had already been done.

With his appearance in the loss for the Pride, Scott Urick moved into first on the all-time games played list, however it was a short effort for the league’s number three all-time scorer. Urick contributed a goal in the first, but had to leave the game soon after with a hamstring injury.

With Urick injured, Thomson stepped up to provide one of the few bright spots on the day, scoring four goals and adding in an assist, and could well have had two more goals if not for tremendous saves by Denver’s Jesse Schwartzman in close. Dating back to last season, the second-year player is averaging three goals per game in the team’s past four outings.

“Merrick is a tremendous player,” Jacobs said. “When Scott went down he was ready to be in there, and we need to find a way to get him on the field a lot more.”

The game also marked the MLL debuts of two of the Pride’s ten 2008 Collegiate Draft selections. Suiting up for the first time were Albany midfielder Jordan Levine and Maryland defenseman Joe Cinosky, and both were impressed with the pace of the professional game.

“It took some getting used to,” Levine said, “but I think by the second half, actually by the fourth quarter – the third quarter was pretty brutal – but by the fourth quarter I was a lot more comfortable.”

“It’s a completely different game,” Cinosky said. “It’s like a quick transition drill 100 percent of the time.”

The new speed wasn’t the only change from college for Cinosky, who made his mark with a long pole at Maryland.

“I got to play with a shortie out there,” Cinosky said. “It was a little different, but hopefully I’ll get used to it soon.”

After the game, Jacobs was happy with the play of his rookies in their debuts.

“I thought Joe did a great job,” Jacobs said. “He stepped in and played with the short stick a lot, something he hadn’t really done before, and I honestly thought he did great. Jordan did a lot of what we asked him to do between the lines, and he created some offense.

“There’s a pretty steep learning curve, and hopefully they’ll keep progressing.”

For the second consecutive game, the Pride jumped out to an early lead when Dan Chemotti scooped up a loose ball and beat Schwartzman 1:23 into the game. The Outlaws responded however with goals by Matt Hanna and Matt Brown to take the 2-1 lead.

Greg Peyser nearly knotted the score shortly after, finding space with a dodge, but his shot struck the post, and Denver earned possession on a push. Brown then assisted Westervelt to extend the Outlaws lead to 3-1 on the ensuing possession.

The Pride used a man-up opportunity, an area which they struggled in the season opener, to draw within one of the Outlaws after the first quarter. With Nate Watkins penalized for an illegal body check, Thomson found Kevin Boland, who buried a shot at 8:05 of the first to make the score 3-2.

The teams continued to trade goals early in the second. Brendan Mundorf scored 1:26 into the second to extend the lead, but Urick answered at 3:45. The margin was soon spread however as the Outlaws took the resulting draw for a Watkins goal to extend the lead to 5-3.

The Pride again chipped away at the lead with a man-up tally, this time by Thomson, but the Outlaws were again able to counter, as Brown scored his second of the game to make the lead 6-4. The Pride nearly drew within one again in the half’s waning seconds but Conor Ford’s shot found iron.

Following the Outlaws third-quarter run, Chris Unterstein scored the Pride’s second consecutive goal with a phenomenal one-man effort. Spinning off his man, Unterstein fired a low-angle shot past Schwartzman to cap the third quarter scoring at 8-2 in favor of the hometown squad.

Thomson scored twice more early in the fourth, however Powell and Mundorf answered each respectively, leaving the Pride behind 16-8 with only 7:36 to play. Another Westervelt goal upped the lead to 17-8.

The Pride’s strong face-off play in the fourth quarter continued following a behind-the-back goal by Matt Rewkowski, and Peyser added a quick second, however Sonke answered for the Outlaws to again stretch the lead to 8.

Fittingly enough, with the team on the verge of a rookie invasion, it was a rookie that capped the Pride’s scoring, as Levine scored his first career MLL goal after the Pride won yet another draw following Sonke’s score.

“Greg [Peyser] beat his guy and I was open,” Levine said, “so he gave it to me and I got the shot off.

“It was just like any other goal,” Levine added, apparently un-phased by the significance of his MLL first.

Sonke answered in kind however, setting the final score at 19-11.