The home misery continues for the Buffalo Bandits.

Despite a season-best crowd of 11,020, the Bandits lost for the fourth time in five games at Marine Midland Arena, bowing 17-11 to the Rochester Knighthawks.

Losing at home to Rochester is nothing new. The Knighthawks have won four of five games in Buffalo during their history.

Rochester (6-3) is tied for first with Baltimore and now holds it's National Lacrosse League playoff hopes in its own hands with three games remaining, all in the Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial.

The Bandits (4-5) are now tied with the Philadelphia Wings for fourth place. Only the top four teams make the playoffs and if the season ended today, the Bandits would be out because the Wings own the season-series goal total tie-breaker during a season split against Buffalo.

Duane Jacobs had three goals for the Knighthawks, Craig Stevenson scored three times for Buffalo and John Tavares and Travis Kilgour each tallied twice. Ex-Bandit Pat O'Toole stopped 40 shots in goal for Rochester.

John Rosa got Buffalo within 16-11 on a short-handed goal with 5:09 left but Chris Driscoll answered 51 seconds later for Rochester on a power play to make it 17-11.

Rochester's third goal in a span on 2:34 established the first six-goal advantage of the game, at 16-10. Josh Sanderson got it with 10:46 left.

Travis Kilgour cut Buffalo's deficit to 13-10 just 1:31 into the fourth quarter when he scored on a power play but Rochester restored its four-goal cushion just nine seconds later on a goal by Kevin Dance.

Rochester increased its lead to 13-9 entering the fourth quarter.

Ted Dowling, Cory Bomberry, Kruger and Tim Soudan had the scores for the Knighthawks in the third quarter, when Rochester led by as much as five.

Cam Bomberry, Tavares and Stevenson had the goals for Buffalo. Bomberry's came on a two-man power play just 24 seconds into the second half.

The Knighthawks led 9-6, at half-time and it could have been worse for Buffalo. Two Rochester goals were disallowed, one because of a moving pick and the other on a crease violation, in the first quarter.

Still, Rochester out shot Buffalo 32-25, in the half and led by as much as 8-3. The Knighthawks scored twice on power plays and once while short-handed in the first half. Jacobs scored three goals in the half.

The Bandits got within three at intermission by scoring the final three goals of the second quarter. Rich Kilgour, Travis Kilgour and Stevenson had the scores for Buffalo during the final 9:27, when all Rochester could muster was a score by Dan Teat.

The Knighthawks forged their 8-3 lead thanks to three straight goals by Kruger, Dowling and Jacobs.

Cory Bomberry, Jacobs and Curt Malawsky tallied the final scores of the first quarter, which ended with Rochester ahead, 5-2.

Buffalo played without two of their top scorers. Forward Darris Kilgour did not make it back from New York for the game. Kilgour is an assistant coach with Canisius College and the Griffs opened their season Saturday afternoon in Manhattan. Chris Panos, who had 12 goals and 13 assists, was a healthy scratch.

The Bandits host the Toronto Rock (5-3) next Saturday in the final home game of the regular season.

Before Saturday night's game, there was a ceremony to honor late Orchard Park lacrosse coach Tom Gardner. Bandits forward Chris Clark, who played on Gardner's junior varsity team at OP, presented Gardner's parents with a framed No. 34 Bandits jersey. Gardner was killed in a car accident last year.

BOX SUMMARY
                                  1  2  3  4     TOT
Rochester Knighthawks (6-3)       5  4  4  4  --  17
Buffalo Bandits (4-5)             2  4  3  2  --  11

ROCHESTER KNIGHTHAWKS         BUFFALO BANDITS
               G - A   PTS                   G - A   PTS
Dowling        2 - 3     5    Tavares        2 - 3     5
Jacobs         3 - 1     4    Stevenson      3 - 1     4
Kruger         3 - 0     3    R Kilgour      1 - 2     3
Bomberry       2 - 1     3    Rosa           1 - 2     3
Driscoll       1 - 2     3    T Kilgour      2 - 0     2
Powell         0 - 3     3    Bomberry       1 - 1     2
Soudan         2 - 0     2    Santos         1 - 0     1
Dance          1 - 1     2    Batley         0 - 1     1
Malawsky       1 - 1     2    Cordingley     0 - 1     1
Sanderson      1 - 1     2    O'Neill        0 - 1     1
Teat           1 - 1     2    Steinwald      0 - 1     1
Hollenbeck     0 - 1     1
MacArthur      0 - 1     1
O'Toole        0 - 1     1

Shots on goal           55    Shots on goal           51
Saves made by (GA)      40    Saves made by (GA)      38
   O'Toole (11)      40          Disher (16)       28
                                 O'Neill (1)       10
Loose Balls             94    Loose Balls            103

*** STATS OFFICIAL BY VERIFY WITH KNIGHTHAWKS WEB SITE ***

Thanks to Bandit for providing the game stats.