Gill, a University of Virginia product, is just happy to be able to play professionally. “It is nice to have this option and still compete in the summer,” Gill said.

“I got drafted to Boston and I love playing up there,” said Gill, a St. Paul?s School graduate.

“It is always fun to come home though,” he added about playing the Baltimore Bayhawks this past Saturday.

“I did the same thing when I was at Virginia and people would ask me what it was like to come to Hopkins and play,” Gill said. “It is fun to play in front of your friends and family.”

Bayhawks head coach Scott Hiller was the coach of the Cannons when Gill was drafted in 2002. “He is having as a good a year as he did in 2004,” Hiller said, referring to the year when Gill was named the league MVP.

Gill and the first-place Cannons faced Hiller for the first time as an opposing coach in the Saturday victory for Baltimore. Baltimore?s rookie goalie Matt Russell pointed out the difficulty in playing against Gill.

“I struggled with Conor Gill at the beginning of the game because he is so relaxed and he is so accurate,” Russell said. “He knows exactly what he is doing and he knows where the net is at all times.”

“Shawn Nadelen did a phenomenal job [covering] him,” Hiller said. “He made it very difficult for him to get the ball; when he did get the ball he was all over him.”

“We have known each other from playing in college and he is just phenomenal,” Nadelen said. “He can do everything as far as feeding, scoring if he was open, dodging to go to the hoop or dodging to feed.”

THE GILL FILE

Position: Attack

Height: 6-foot-2

Weight: 195 lbs.

Team: Boston Cannons

College: U.Va., 2002

High School: St. Paul?s, 1998

Did you know? Conor Gill is averaging five points a game this year and had three goals in Baltimore on Saturday. Gill was ranked 6th all-time in points in the MLL with 220 at the beginning of the 2006 season. He currently has 151 assists and 106 goals in his career.