SASKATOON – The Roughnecks rallied back from a five-goal deficit, but dropped their first game of the season 16-13 to the Saskatchewan Rush.

Rookies first-round picks Noah Manning and Kyle Pepper scored their first career NLL goals in the loss.

THE NUMBERS GAME:

Tyler Pace – 3G, 4A

Haiden Dickson – 3G, 4A

Tanner Cook – 2G, 3A

Brayden Mayea – 2G, 2A

Aden Walsh – 24/36 Saves

Saskatchewan started the game scoring two quick goals off of Jake Boudreau and Robert Church for an early lead.

Noah Manning sniped home his first NLL goal of his career to put the Riggers within one!

Ryan Keenan and Austin Shanks got a couple past Walsh to extend the Rush lead to 4-1.

Pace responded late in the first to cut the lead down to two heading into the second quarter, but Church and Austin Shanks each tallied another goal to take a four-goal lead.

Pace sniped his second of the night with a bouncer that went through the wickets of Frankie Scigliano to make it 6-3.

Zach Manns responded with a heater past Walsh to stretch the lead to four.

Walsh left the game before halftime, Cam MacLeod took over between the pipes after Walsh played 17:44 up to that point.

Dickson wired a bouncer past Scigliano to cut the lead to 7-4, byt Church rifled his third of the night and Shanks followed up with his own hat-trick that extended the lead to five.

Pepper scored his first NLL goal off a beautiful play in transition that led to a diving goal.

Church scored his fourth of the game to make it 10-5 at half.

Walsh returned in between the pipes to start the second half.

Dickson ripped home his second of the season, but Keenan scored shortly after to hold the Rush lead at five.

A few minutes later Dickson would score his hat-trick goal and Mayea tucked his first of the night to make it 11-8.

Mayea would score again following a Rush goal to hold the Rush lead at three.

The Riggers gained momentum after Manning, Pace and Cook scored goals to tie the game up at 13.

But the Rush scored three unanswered (two empty net goals) to close out the game.

THEY SAID IT:

Head Coach Josh Sanderson spoke to the media post-game:

“We started a little bit slow, but we fought our way back and kept getting better as the game went on. We can’t play three quarters, you gotta play a full 60 in this league to get a win and we’ll work on that and keep getting better as we go.”

UP NEXT:

The Roughnecks are back on the road for a tilt with the Toronto Rock on Saturday, Dec. 13th at 5 p.m.

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