Lost in the recent hoopla of Colin Doyle’s pursuit of 1,000 National Lacrosse League (NLL) points was the performance of Blaine Manning.

The Rock forward has quietly gone about the business of scoring goals and this year business is good.

Manning scored five goals and added five assists as the Toronto Rock defeated the Edmonton Rush 16-7 in front of 10,052 at the Air Canada Centre on Friday night.

With his performance on Friday, Manning now leads the NLL in goals with 20, two ahead of Rock rookie Garrett Billings.

Manning is quick to praise his teammates as a key ingredient for his success this year.

“I’m just getting open and Colin and everyone in the offence is just finding me,” Manning told NLL.com. “I’ll take them when I can get them, that’s for sure.”

Toronto leads the NLL in scoring with 99 goals and that is represented with four players in the top five in points.

After a six-point performance on Friday, Doyle leads with 46, two ahead of Manning and three in front of Billings and Toronto’s other impact rookie, Stephan Leblanc.

Leblanc (4), Kasey Beirnes (2), Doyle (2), Rob Marshall, Brendon Doran and Billings scored the other goals for Toronto (6-1). The Rock are off to their best start in franchise history and have an unblemished 4-0 record at home. They are first in the East Conference, 1-½ games ahead of the Orlando Titans.

Bob Watson turned aside 27 shots for his fifth win of the year.

Scott Stewart (2), Gavin Prout (2), Andy Secore (2) and Brodie Merrill scored for the Rush (3-3). After a 3-1 start, Edmonton have now lost two consecutive but remain in second place in the West Conference, three games behind the 6-0 Washington Stealth.

Matt Disher lost his second of the year, allowing 10 goals on 30 shots in 35 minutes of action and Brandon Atherton stopped 15 of 21 in mop-up duty.

The Rock and the NLL honoured Doyle for becoming the third person in league history (after John Tavares and Gary Gait) to score 1,000 points.

Up next for the Rock is a Valentine Day match up in Calgary against the Roughnecks.