The Boston Cannons defeated the Denver Outlaws 13-10 to win the 2020 Major League Lacrosse Championship. It is the second MLL title in the history of the Cannons franchise.
Boston commanded this entire game, outscoring the Outlaws in each quarter. Leading the way for the Cannons was Jonathan Uppgren, who scored a game-high five goals and tacked on an assist for a game-high six points. Right behind him was Mark Cockerton with three goals of his own. Nick Marrocco was nails in net as well, making 10 saves on 19 shots for a .526 save percentage.
“Our guys just did a great job today,” said Cannons head coach Sean Quirk, a Nahant resident who is currently the Associate Athletic Director at Endicott College. “They played a complete game.”
Major League Lacrosse began its season on July 18 and played for only eight days before closing out the championship. 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 were originally scheduled to face the top-seeded Denver Outlaws in the semifinals, but the game was postponed after an unidentified MLL player tested positive for COVID-19. The league placed all players on the four remaining teams into quarantine and tested all at-risk individuals Saturday morning.
After the other semifinal teams dropped out of the tournament after receiving results of tests conducted Saturday morning, the Cannons were matched up with Denver in the championship.
The Cannons weren’t without COVID-related issues of their own, as five Boston players — midfielder Franky Brown and four other unidentified players — withdrew from the championship game.
Quirk said the lineup changes forced a number of edits to the championship gameplan.
“Honestly, I give these guys a lot of credit,” said Quirk, who previously coached the Endicott men’s lacrosse team from 1998-2015. “We didn’t have three starters, essentially, but these guys bought in. They bought in and grinded it out. I’ve been coaching a long time, and for these guys to do it the way they did, it made me extremely proud.”
