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Game Commentary

by tricolour (Login tricolour)

PORT DALHOUSIE – The St. Catharines Major Athletics opened the league’s regular season on May 13th with the first of three games in four nights and on this late July night they close out the league’s regular season with the last of three games in four nights. A St. Catharines win tonight means they would move past Akwesasne in the standings and then play 4th place Brampton in the opening round of the playoffs (and perhaps carry some level of confidence of having won 2 out of 3 times against the strong BE club). A Brampton win would mean they would play Akwesasne and the A’s would then play the Six Nations Chiefs.

St. Catharines would open the scoring about 5 minutes into this one as big Tony Henderson would take advantage of a useful Ken Millin screen to break in from the right side and deposit the ball behind Brampton goalie Brandon Miller.

Miller would later engineer a nice down-floor pass to a fast-breaking Bobby McBride and the good looking rookie would beat A’s goalie Matt Vinc to tie it a one about 13 minutes in period one.

St. Catharines would regain the lead about 3 minutes later as Mark Steenhuis would find cutter Aaron Wilson open and feed him for a bounce shot goal.

First period would end win the A’s up by a narrow 2 to 1 margin.

St. Catharines would play some energetic and confident lacrosse in going on a 5-goal scoring run through the first half of the second period. Just over the 2-minute mark, an errant Mike Hominuk pass would elude Steenhuis but the talented A’s attacker would corral the rebound off the side boards and beat his check and then goalie Miller to make it 3 to 1. Mike Daley would add another about a half minute later before Vinc would make a couple of outstanding saves on Steve Penny on a breakaway and on Casey Zaph setup on the doorstep.

Brampton late season addition Ian Rubel would get nabbed for a minor infraction at 6:42 and on the power-play Hominuk would deliver a long bounce-shot marker at 7:44 after a feed out from creaseman Chris Mackie. Less than a minute later Wilson would get his second of the night after some good work by Sean Holmes to come down with a rebound jump-ball in a crowd before Matt Skinner lugged it down-floor to set up the Toronto Rock star. BE hard-nose Tim O’Brien would get a roughing penalty after the goal for an upper-cut that narrowly missed Skinner but not the notice of referee Nurse.

On the subsequent A’s power-play, Vinc would be forced to make a good save on a BE Luc Forget breakaway before ex-Niagara Falls Gambler Tony Henderson would roll a shot under Miller to give the home-side a 7 to 1 lead.

Miller would make a couple of outstanding saves on the ever-dangerous Wilson about mid-way through the period, while at the other end, Vinc’s good play would be assisted by some fat goal-posts as Aime Caines, Blaine Manning and Dan Dawson all hit iron.

Brampton would finally get their second with about a minute left in the period. Manning would back-peddle in the attacking zone and notice Beaches grad McBride left unchecked. A quick shout of “Bob” alerted the unaware rookie for the upcoming pass which he then converted for his second of the night and 21st of the season.

A good period for the A’s as they headed into the second intermission up by a score of 7 to 2.

Early in the third, BE’s Dan Dawson would take the ball in his own end and begin a down-floor charge as the A’s switched on the run to their defensive unit. Somehow the big man went unnoticed and moved unmolested into a good shooting position before feeding Badger Sandy Chapman at the doorstep to make the score 7 to 3 in the 1st minute of period 3.

Vinc would make some exception saves on Phil Sanderson and Steve Penny in close before the next BE marker came near the 11-minute mark. A BE screen was setup on the left side and I believe it was Chapman who made the hard shot to get the visitors to 3 goals down. For the second game in a row, the absence of any PA announcements at the Bill Burgoyne Arena made confirmation of goals and assists difficult. I’m actually beginning to miss the effervescent Mr. Paisley’s voice cry out “and for the intermission entertainment, the Vienna Boys Choir.”

The last goal of the night would come off the reliable stick of Mark Landriault as he broke free of Chris Driscoll and took a Steenhuis feed to make it 4 goal A’s lead with just over 7 minutes remaining.

Final score: St. Catharines Major Athletics 8, Brampton Excelsiors 4

No shows for the A’s included: Pat McCready, Drew Candy, Rob Taylor.

No shows for the Excelsiors included: Josh Sanderson, Colin Doyle, Dan Teat, Jon Harasym

Not a great deal at stake for either team as BE was assured of finishing fourth but St. Catharines could claim the 5th spot over Akwesasne with a win. The positive take-aways for the A’s on this night is they have now put together real solid efforts in the last two home outings (including the Brooklin last Thursday) and seemed to be headed into the playoffs on a high and playing their best ball of the season. There were also three new 3 faces in their lineup in the defensive end. Two I didn’t recognize but the third was solid veteran Darren Mutch who offers ample leadership and stability. All three “newcomers’ played well.

The St. Catharines Major Athletics open up the playoffs on the road against these same Brampton Excelsiors. After starting the season with a 7 – 0 start, BE went a surprising 4 –7 over their last 13 games. A big factor in that would be the absence of team leader Josh Sanderson. Regardless of the regular season performance, any team loaded with this much talent and coached by Terry Sanderson must be considered a serious contender. St. Catharines meanwhile showed improvement as the season drew down and at times flashes of brilliance. This could be an interesting series.


Posted on Jul 25, 2004, 10:30 PM

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