It was a blast from the past Saturday night at Hofstra's James M. Shuart Stadium as the Long Island Lizards (2-3) played host to the Toronto Nationals (0-5). The two teams have not met since the Nationals defeated the Lizards in overtime last year in the Major League Lacrosse (MLL) semifinal.

The Lizards, who came off an overtime thriller against the Chicago Machine, were hoping to grab another win in their showdown with the Nationals.

From the opening faceoff, the Lizards were looking to attack quickly, with midfielder Stephen Peyser scoring the first goal of the game at the 2:51 mark.

Immediately after, the Nationals scored a goal off of a won face-off by Geoff Snider, who pushed to even up the score.  

At the next face-off, Greg Gurenlian returned the favor and scored to make it a 2-1 lead for the Lizards at the 3:33 mark.

Corey Small, John Grant Jr. and Brett Bucktooth would respond by providing a three-goal run for the Nationals to end the first period with a 4-2 Toronto lead. 

The second period continued with fast break scoring by both teams, bringing the Lizards back in the game and down only by one point.

After Gurenlian’s goal, Peyser would respond by scoring a goal and forcing the Toronto Nationals to step up both their offense and defense. Corey Small finished the quarter for the Nationals with a series of runs and defensive stops. The Lizards went into recess with a 6-5 lead. 

Nationals attacker Kevin Huntley scored the game tying goal on the first faceoff of the third quarter. The Lizards' Nicky Polanco stormed right back by slinging a long pass to Zack Greer who assisted Tim Goettelman for his second goal of the night. 

The scoring by both teams would continue in the third quarter, which ended in an 8-8 tie. 

The Lizards opened the fourth quarter with momentum as Matt Danowski scored off a feed from Greer, giving them a 9-8 lead. Midfielder Shawn Williams tied the game for the Nationals with a score off the assist from attackman John Grant Jr., tying the game at 9-9. The Nationals would never look back as Corey Small and Brodie Merrill scored on the Lizards at the end of the fourth quarter to give the Toronto Nationals an 11-9 win in Hempstead.

The Nationals, now 1-5 at the half point of the season, look to make a run going into the second half of the season. “We’re just pumped to finally get one [a win], so I think we can make a run like we did last year, and I think that we’ll be okay,” said Nationals rookie and Wantagh native Scott Rogers.

The loss drops the Lizards to 2-4 for the season. The Lizards also hope to make a run during the second half of the season. “I think we need to regroup and I think that we need to let this settle in tonight and realize how much this hurts. [We need to] figure out what we did wrong and reevaluate ourselves and the tape and move on. Come Monday, it’s a new week. You move on, you brush it off your shoulder and you have to get better and focus on the next week,” said Lizards defenseman Nicholas Polanco.

The Lizards’ next game is the 26th in Boston against the Cannons.