Bayhawks give pro lacrosse a shot at the Naval Academy | Maryland Gazette (HometownGlenBurnie.com)

For head coach Jared Testa and the Washington Bayhawks, "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" has been anything but childhood fairy tale over the past seven years as the team has bounced from stadium to stadium in search of pro lacrosse fans.

Tonight, the Bayhawks will test one more staple of the Baltimore/Washington Metropolitan Area, as they travel to Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium to take on the Boston Cannons at 7 p.m.

"I know from working with camps in the area and from firsthand experience with Anne Arundel lacrosse that coming down to Annapolis has a lot of potential," Testa said. "I don't know what the marketing efforts have been up north, but the passion here tells me that it's going to be great."

While the one-game move will undoubtedly draw interest in the Bayhawks from the Anne Arundel County area, tomorrow night provides the organization with an opportunity to rebuild any bridges burnt when the team moved from Baltimore to D.C. two seasons ago.

"What we really wanted to do was reach out to the fans that are in Baltimore and in the area who have not been able to come out to the games and show them that we still want them as fans," Bayhawks Director of Marketing Katherine Kennedy said. "We still want them to be involved."

With a roster so heavily studded with local talent, the Bayhawks trip to Annapolis will give a number of players the chance to play in front of a number of fans who have supported them since their adolescent and high school playing years.

"The guys are very excited," Testa said. "Navy is a great venue and they are excited to get out and compete in front of their home crowd."

Embracing the Naval Academy's support, the Bayhawks will partner with America Supports You to host Military Appreciation Night. With 20 percent of all profit from ticket sales to be donated to the Wounded Warriors Project, each branch of the military will be honored in the pre-game ceremony.

"Anytime that anybody, especially athletes, can honor the military in terms of what it is doing for us to preserve our way of being is a positive," Testa said. "We're glad and excited to be a part of it."

It's been a strange seven-year journey for the Bayhawks.

Testing their surroundings in Baltimore for the league's inaugural season in 2001, the Bayhawks dominated Major League Lacrosse's Eastern Conference.

Capturing league titles in 2002 and 2005, the Bayhawks found themselves in the championship game in four out of their first five seasons.

Despite their unmatched success, however, interest in the program throughout the Baltimore area proved to be colder than expected.

Struggling to out-shade M&T Bank Stadium's purple seats with light blue in 2002, the Bayhawks bounced from venue to venue, tagging both Johns Hopkins University and Towson's Johnny Unitas Stadium in search of a new, more influential home turf.

By the end of 2006, the Bayhawks recorded a total attendance of 17,841, good enough for third-to-last out of the 10 MLL programs. While their average 2,973 per game did little more than litter Towson University with fans, Baltimore managed only to edge the Chicago Machine and Philadelphia Barrage by year's end.

With the spectator well all but dry in the greater Baltimore area, the Bayhawks stretched their wings across district lines before their 2007 campaign.

Looking to entice the northern Virginia demographic, the Bayhawks publicly announced that the team would bring Major League Lacrosse to Washington on Nov. 14, 2006.

Exactly one half of a year later, Major League Lacrosse Commissioner David Gross turned the page on the Bayhawks Baltimore chapter, opening their 2007 campaign at George Mason University.

Welcoming in the Boston Cannons, the league's perennial attendance winners, the Bayhawks drew just more than 4,000 fans to George Mason Stadium.

Falling three goals short of their first victory representing the nation's Capital, the Bayhawks seemed to have found their bowl and chair "just right."

But with the agreement that the rest of Washington's home games be played at Georgetown University's Multi-Sport Field, the May 12th promising crowd of 4,227 became more of a weekly goal than an actuality.

Recording nearly two-thousand less fans to each of the final five contests, the Bayhawks rounded out 2007 in the bottom of the league's attendance figures again.

However, with Maryland and Virginia natives monopolizing the Bayhawks roster, namely Kyle Dixon, Brendan Healy and Chris Garrity, interest in the 2008 campaign has risen so far this season.

Starting the year with more than 4,000 fans on hand again for opening day, the Bayhawks numbers have continued to rise after watching 2,942 walk through George Mason's turn styles in their second home game of the year.

Regardless of tonight's outcome, the Bayhawks will be one step farther from being strangers in their own home.