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Good crowd, good vibes greet pros
Pair of former U.Va. players stand out as 1,789 fans look on

By Rich Radford, The Virginian-Pilot – 6/21/2010

Virginia Beach – It was the equivalent of a test balloon.

But can Major League Lacrosse actually fly in Hampton Roads?

MLL commissioner David Gross thinks so, enough to bring one of his league’s regular-season games to the Virginia Beach Sportsplex on Sunday afternoon.

It was the second time in three years that the league has tested the market in this area. And with Warrior – a leading lacrosse equipment maker – sponsoring a youth tournament with approximately 60 teams here over the weekend, there was a built-in audience for such an event.

The result was a 19-11 victory by the Boston Cannons over the Chicago Machine.

Technically, the Machine was the home team. The franchise is playing its entire 2010 schedule on the road, using stops like Albany, N.Y., Pittsburgh and Cary, N.C., as home bases.

Realistically, the Cannons had the homefield advantage and discovered as much when the starting lineups were announced.

University of Virginia products Matt Poskay and Kip Turner earned the largest cheers. It caught Poskay off guard for a splitsecond. “I thought it was weird, then I remembered, ‘Oh yeah, we’re back in Virginia,’ ” said Poskay, a 2006 graduate. “Actually, it was pretty neat.’ ”

Poskay and Turner then delivered.

Poskay scored the game’s only two-point goal – the MLL awards two points for shots taken from beyond a 16-yard arc – and finished with three points, tying Joe Smith for the team lead on the afternoon.

Meanwhile, Turner stopped everything the Machine threw at him for nearly 18 minutes of the second half as the Cannons went on a 9-0 run that broke a 9-9 deadlock early in the second half and put the game out of reach.

Turner was the goalie for Virginia’s national championship team in 2006.

Oddly, the Annapolis-born Turner has some Virginia Beach ties.

He lived just off Great Neck Road a few years ago while working for a commercial real estate firm.

“I still have a 757 area code for my cell phone,” he quipped.

The Cannons moved into a first-place tie at 4-2, while Chicago fell to 3-3.

But that wasn’t the important aspect of Sunday’s action for most of the 1,789 fans on hand.

“This is great just for our local youth players just to get a look at this game,” said Ron Tieskoetter, who coaches the Chesapeake Bandits, a U-9 team, and has two sons who play.

“What you see in the stands today is a small sample of what Hampton Roads Lacrosse can bring. This sport is rapidly growing here.”

The weather for the game was unpredictable: The game-time temperature was 97 degrees, and about 15 degrees hotter on the playing surface. Then midway through the second quarter, the skies opened ... while the sun kept shining.

“A lot of the fans were hanging out beneath the under-hang to stay in the shade,” Poskay said. “Then when I looked up and it was raining, even more were there trying to stay dry.”

Just the fact that there was a healthy crowd thrilled Turner, who was the game’s most valuable player.

“There was some enthusiasm in that crowd and enthusiasm is something that can build,” Turner said.

“I think pro lacrosse can fly down here. I think there’s enough going on and that the people here can appreciate a good product on the field when they see it.”

Gross pointed to the league’s Denver outpost as an example of what can happen when the league finds the right mix and the right fans.

“Denver’s not considered a lacrosse hotbed,” Gross said. “But it’s not always about hotbeds. It’s about entertaining people and having good synergy.”

Rich Radford, (757) 446-2463, rich.radford@pilotonline.com