By Omran Wahidy
The Roughnecks opened up exhibition game action in week two of training camp with a 16-13 victory over the Rochester Knighthawks, backed by a huge five-goal performance from Riggers rookie forward Noah Manning, the recent ninth overall pick in the NLL draft.
If there was a highlight reel after this game, it would be littered with plays from the Victoria native in his first performance in a Roughnecks jersey.
Tanner Cook opened up the scoring just one minute into the game to take a 1-0 lead.
A few minutes later on the transition, Harrison Matsuoka dished a pass Eli Salama who doubled it up with a shot past Riley Hartley to extend the lead at two.
The Knighthawks responded with their first goal of the evening when Gareth Haigh shot a bouncer through the wickets of Aden Walsh to cut the lead to 2-1.
Manning made his mark on the game with seven minutes remaining in the first quarter after a beautiful diving goal to put the Roughnecks back up by two.
The Knighthawks got one back to bring the score to 3-2.
Cook delivered again with his second of the night to extend the Riggers lead right back to two.
The Knighthawks got one back in transition after Josh Medeiros put one past Walsh to cut the score to 4-3 after the first quarter of play.
In the second quarter, a great transition play from rookie Kyle Pepper, taken two picks after Manning, to get the ball to an open Haiden Dickson paid dividends after Dickson made a great move all alone to get the Roughnecks up 5-3.
The Knighthawks responded with a goal to cut the deficit to 5-4.
Mathieu Gautier crashed the net and put one through Hartley to give the Riggers a two-goal lead at 6-4.
The Knighthawks responded quickly to cut the lead to 6-5.
Manning dazzled again with another diving play to put the ball in the back of the net for his second of the game. The aggressive forward extended the lead to 7-5 going into the half.
In the third quarter Brett McIntyre got the scoring started for the Roughnecks after a shot sailed past Hutchcraft to extend the lead to 8-5.
A couple minutes later Manning dove again to pot his third goal of the night. The rookie wasn’t done there, on the following offensive possession Manning put his head down, drove to the net and leaped to get his fourth goal and extend the lead to 10-5.
The Roughnecks had all the momentum as a couple minutes later, Dickson sniped home his second of the game to stretch the lead to 11-5.
The Knighthawks showed some signs of life with a goal to snip the lead.
The Roughnecks answered back with Gautier’s second goal of the evening to bring the lead back up, but Gautier had more in the tank. A couple minutes later the forward potted in his third of the game to extend the lead to 13-6.
The offence continued to roll as Manning sniped home his fifth goal of the night.
Brayden Mayea scored his first of the night with a minute remaining in the third quarter to give the Riggers a 15-7 lead going into the fourth quarter.
The offence continued to sizzle in the fourth quarter with Dickson scoring his third of the game to extend the lead to 16-7.
The Knighthawks got a couple past MacLeod to cut the lead to 16-9 with ten minutes remaining.
They scored another one off a nice shot from Brad McCulley to bring the Knighthawks within six.
Rochester continued to rally back after a few more goals, one on the man-advantage, to cut the lead down to 16-13.
UP NEXT
The Roughnecks continue exhibition action on Saturday when they take on the defending champion Buffalo Bandits at 12 p.m. at the Brampton Memorial Arena.
