Rebels Drop Season Opener to Hartford

The James Connolly Albany Rebels dropped their season opener to Hartford on Sunday, losing 4-10 (22 points) to 1-8 (11 points). The loss, and margin, put the Rebels in a tough spot entering the second leg of the Greenwood Cup with Hartford. Albany must now win by more than 11 points at Hartford on May 12 to win the inaugural Greenwood Cup.

Albany started the match strong, scoring the first point of the match off the leg of Cillian Flavin. Rookie Brandon McEvoy scored a goal later in the first half to open up a bigger lead and Mark Adam nearly widened the gap when he drilled a shot off the crossbar. But some late scores by Hartford pulled them within a point at halftime, including a huge penalty converted by Rory McGloin.

Albany struggled on kickouts in the second half and was troubled by turnovers all over the field. Three Hartford goals, two of them off sloppy plays, created an insurmountable deficit.

The Rebels did show some fight in the latter stages with some good build up play, but the execution was lacking on point attempts and they couldn’t make up the difference.

The Rebels were led in scoring by McEvoy, Flavin (2 points), Adam (2 points) and Ryan Moloney (2 points).

Albany returns to training on Tuesday from 6:00-7:30 p.m. at Lincoln Park.