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Great Game In Maple Grove!!!

by Paul Whiteside (Login wamper23)

Terrific exhibition of Jr.B lacrosse Saturday night as the Green Gaels edged Akwesasne 10-7. The summary was posted below so I won't bore you with little details.

Good pace the first period. Lightning struck early but after that struggled against an aggressive Gaels defence. Clarington pulled ahead 3-1 before the visitors rallied late to tie.

Second period was very interesting. Akwesasne grabbed the lead early stayed in front most of the period thanks to great goaltending from Daylan Adams. Gaels started sneaking a player out of the defensive end early(why don't more coaches do this?) and they created numerous breakaways, which they couldn't cash in on. This made for a helter skelter pace to the game with frantic end to end action. Finally the Gaels cashed in thanks to Jimmy Mumford. He had a partial breakaway, however the Akwesasne defender was right with him and appeared to have his stick covered if he took a shot. Then Mumford cut in front of the defender and beat Adams as he drove across the goal mouth. The period ended 6-5 Akwesasne.

Third period was all Gaels. The teams started four on four and Colin Baker struck twice in one minute to turn the game on its head. Later Dustin Morrison scored a strange goal. Morrison was outstanding dominating the draws all night but goal scoring doesn't seem to come naturally to him. He did outrun three Lightning players down the floor but stumbled head first as he reached the goal. The ball somehow found its own way into the net. It was catchup the rest of the night for Akwesasne and they never could get close enough. On the Green Gaels lone power play of the period Michael Calnan scored. On the Lightnings' lone man advantage the Gaels scored shorthanded. 10-7 final.

Overall a very exciting game, however it was also very sloppy at times. It seemed the players were using tennis racquets as the ball control was so poor. Akwesasne's power play extremely disappointing. They have loads of individual talent but they never did more then baby passes, which had no hope of getting the goalie out of position, then finally someone would wind up and shoot. They love to wind up and shoot! Two keys for the Gaels was they played more like a team and, not to be forgotten, Akwesasne was playing after a long bus ride. Clarington definately had a step on them the second period and two steps in the third. It will be interesting to see a fresh Lightning squad in action Sunday.

A word on the officiating...outstanding! I was seeing Wiswell(I remembered his name!) for the third straight game but Robinson for the first time. They called a terrific game. With all the things going on it was not an easy assignment, yet they managed like old pros. I especially liked the third period as they decided to let practically everything go. And there was loads of cheap stuff which could have been called both ways. To have done so would have bogged the game down terribly. Instead the referees let it all go and the contest flowed majestically to the end. John Herd was in attendance and I hope he saw the same game I saw. There are good, young refs out there. We don't have to have a steady dose of Gary Martin all the time.

Posted on Jul 25, 2004, 12:24 AM

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Interesting Lighting play.... Tsitshoh, Jul 25, 2004, 10:02 AM

Agreed!. Paul Whiteside, Jul 25, 2004, 12:17 PM