Boston Cannons win Major League Lacrosse championship
John Uppgren scored five goals and Mark Cockerton had three to lead the Boston Cannons to a 13-10 victory over the Denver Outlaws in Sunday’s championship game of Major League Lacrosse’s pandemic-shortened season in Annapolis, Md..
MLL began its season on July 18 and concluded it just eight days later. A round-robin series of games was scheduled to be followed by elimination-style playoffs, but the Cannons and Outlaws advanced to the championship game after the Chesapeake Bayhawks and Connecticut Hammerheads withdrew Saturday following positive COVID-19 tests inside the MLL bubble.
The Cannons (4-2) built a 13-10 lead in the first three periods and then the teams played a scoreless fourth quarter. Cannons goalie Nick Marrocco had 10 saves.
Cannons midfielder Frank Brown also withdrew from the tournament Saturday, citing concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason he would not play in the league championship game Sunday.
“COVID-19 is terrifying,” Brown wrote on Twitter Sunday morning. “The thought that I could contract the virus or give it to someone else while not knowing is terrifying. That being said, I made the decision to leave Annapolis yesterday and not compete in today’s game.”
The Cannons were originally scheduled to face the top-seeded Denver Outlaws in the semifinals Saturday, but the game was postponed after an unidentified MLL player tested positive for COVID-19.
The league immediately placed all players on the four remaining teams into quarantine and tested all at-risk individuals Saturday morning.
Chesapeake and Connecticut, who originally were scheduled to face off in Saturday’s other semifinal, dropped out of the tournament after receiving results of tests conducted Saturday morning, meaning the Cannons would face Denver in the championship.
Globe correspondent Jenna Ciccotelli contributed to this report.
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