The Toronto Rock lacrosse team, which plays at Hamilton’s TD Coliseum, won their first national championship in 15 years on Sunday evening in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The Rock swept the final series 2-0 over the Halifax Thunderbirds with a 13-11 win in Hamilton on Friday and a 12-7 win in Halifax on Sunday.
The win means that the Rock are now tied with the Buffalo Bandits for the most National Lacrosse League (NLL) championships with seven.
The Rock’s last championship victory was in 2011.
The win also comes even though the Rock finished sixth in the 14-team league during the regular season.
It should be noted that the lacrosse team still 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.
The NLL playoffs were marked with multiple upsets.
The first-place Vancouver Warriors were eliminated in the quarterfinals by Halifax, who barely made the playoffs by finishing eighth.
Halifax then went on to beat the fourth-ranked Georgia Swarm in the semi-finals.
At the other end of the playoff bracket, the second-ranked Colorado Mammoth were defeated by the seventh-place San Diego Seals.
The Rock eliminated the third-place Saskatchewan Rush in the quarterfinals before knocking out the Seals in the semi-finals.
Last year, the Rock finished second last in the league.
It was the first championship for the entire Rock roster, with the exception of Mark Matthews and Steve Orleman.
Rookie Sam English was named the MVP of the NLL Finals after two goals and three assists in game one and one goal and one assist in game two of the series.
English also won 19 loose balls, caused two turnovers, and took zero penalties in the series.
Rock goaltender Nick Rose, 38, also won the first championship of his 16-year career.
Rose is the longest-serving member of the Rock and made 72 saves across the two games of the final series.
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.
