The team, which plays in the National Lacrosse League (NLL) at Hamilton’s FirstOntario Centre, began the 2023-24 season with five wins and zero losses – a club record start. Photo Credit: Toronto Rock.
Hamilton’s lacrosse team, the Rock, have high hopes for 2024.
The team, which plays in the National Lacrosse League (NLL) at Hamilton’s FirstOntario Centre, began the 2023-24 season with five wins and zero losses – a club record start.
However, since then, the team has lost two of their last three games and now sits at second place in the 15-team league with a record of six wins and two losses.
The Rock lost their last match on Saturday (Feb. 10) against the Calgary Roughnecks by a score of 11 to 10, a game that saw the Roughnecks snap a three-game losing streak even though Hamilton hosted the tilt.
The Rock were down in the match by five goals before mounting a comeback by scoring four goals in the fourth quarter.
Nevertheless, the team still came up short, in large part due to Roughnecks goaltender Christian Del Bianco who saved 44 shots.
The game also marked Country Night at the FirstOntario Centre.
Unfortunately, the Rock will not be playing in Hamilton this upcoming Family Day weekend.
The team plays on Friday (Feb. 16) at Bell Place in Laval, Quebec against the New York Riptide in what is part of the NLL’s Unboxed series.
The Unboxed initiative is meant to bring lacrosse matches to nine different communities that do not have a professional team.
The Riptide (5-4) are one of the hottest teams in the league now, as they have only lost one match in 2024.
The Rock’s next home game is on Feb. 24 at the FirstOntario Centre against the Vancouver Warriors.
The Rock will be playing at the FirstOntario Centre for the entire 2023-24 season despite upcoming major renovations to the arena.
The Rock will temporarily relocate their home games to the Paramount Fine Foods Centre in Mississauga for the 2024-25 season.
Their final regular season home game in Hamilton will be on Saturday, April 13, 2024, before they finish the campaign on the road against the Saskatchewan Rush on April 20th.
The Rock also seem to be getting a fair amount of support from fans, with the team averaging an attendance of 9,423 last season.
For comparison, the Bulldogs hockey team reportedly averaged 3,760 fans per game last season in Hamilton.
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats football team is by far the most popular local sports franchise, with an average attendance of 22,941 people.
It should be noted that the lacrosse team still technically goes by the name the “Toronto Rock” even though they relocated to Hamilton permanently in 2021.
The team’s owner, Jamie Dawick, who is from Oakville, told CBC Hamilton at the time that the decision to keep the same name was for branding purposes, especially since the Rock are the only Ontario-based franchise in the league.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
