By virtue of their 15-13 win in Albany this past Saturday night, the final weekend of the National Lacrosse League’s third regular season, the Buffalo Bandits have claimed the inaugural New York Lottery Cup. The victory over the Attack gave Buffalo a 5-1 record against other NLL teams from the Empire State. They had entered the game tied with Albany for the lead in those standings, which took into account games played this season involving two NLL teams from New York State. Prior to the start of the season, two games had been eliminated so that all season long, the five teams (Albany, Buffalo, New York, Rochester, and Syracuse) would be competing in the same number of games for the trophy which will be presented to the Bandits at their playoff home game tomorrow night.

Throughout the season, fans were able to sign up their school at New York Lottery tables at NLL games in the arenas of these five teams. Prior to Buffalo’s final regular season home game, Maryvale High School was the lucky institution chosen in a random drawing of all the entries filled out during the season at games at HSBC Arena. Maryvale will now receive $5,000.00 in computer equipment from the New York State Lottery.

By virtue of the tiebreaker implemented for this challenge, the Rochester Knighthawks finished second at 4-2 (because their goal total in these New York Lottery Cup games was higher than Albany’s), and a school in the Flower City will receive $2,500.00 in computer equipment as a result. An Albany school will receive $1,500.00 in equipment and a school in both Long Island and Syracuse will each receive $500.00 in computer equipment.

A New York State Lottery representative will present the Lottery Cup at halftime of tonight’s game between the Bandits and Knighthawks, which gets underway at 8:00 PM at HSBC Arena.