ORANGEVILLE- Even with second place clinched and several players missing from their lineup the Northmen continued their winning ways. They dealt K-W's third place bid a mortal blow with a 7-5 victory Sunday evening. A six goal opening period was key as Orangevile rode that to the win.
The opening period was classic Northmen lacrosse. Take care of things at the defensive end first and take advantage of the offensive opportunities when they arise. Both clubs exchanged goals to begin. Then Jeff Hobbs set up Chad Culp on a neat pick n roll. The two combined later to make the score 4-1. Mike Poulin was caught out of his net on the fifth marker. Total domination by the home side, 6-2 after 20 minutes.
The score sat at 7-2 for much of an uneventful second period. Scott Patterson had replaced Josh Agar in the Orangeville goal and shutout the Braves for 16 minutes. Sean Pollock brought the Brown Shirts to life with his second marker of the night. Ryan Benesch followed on the power play as the Braves' offense finally showed a little life. Patterson came up with a big stop on Joel Wilson in the last minute of the period. 7-4 after two.
Agar returned for the finale and was immediately blitzed. For the opening two minutes the visitors played with a desperation they never showed the rest of the contest. Benesch cut the lead to 7-5 in the opening minute. One of those rare occasions a Brave slipped by the Northmen defence. Benesch is a challenge to check one on one and containing him with a crosscheck is like keeping Harry Houdini chained in a box. Alas the league's leading scorer and his teammates only had 2 minutes of umph! in their offence. After that it was mostly sloppy, ineffective play.
Orangeville would not score in the period. Their best chance came 5 minutes in when Lindsay Sanderson pulled his goalie for a sixth attacker. Nathan Sanderson flew into the offensive zone unnoticed, took a pass and rang a shot off the post. It was a play which deserved a goal. The Braves countered by pulling their goalie several times after that. On no occasion did they surprise the Northmen and each time another player was running for the bench before the player coming on could do anything so they really didn't create any advantage at all. The home team came close again late, with another shot off the post. This one was even closer to going in as it hit the post, then the back of Poulin then rolled towards the goal line. Falling down Poulin reached back to trap it with his goal stick but didn't get it cleanly and knocked it right to the line. He stopped it the second time right on the white strip. In a one goal period one must take these high moments of drama and relish them.
Another great win for the dauntless Black Shirts as they keep rolling along. We can no longer call them the most pleasant surprise in the league because such surprises are now expected. The sky appears to be the limit for this young squad.
What good things can we say about the Braves? They played great defence the last two periods. That was sort of like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted thanks to that 6-2 beginning. Greg Juniper had a terrific night at face offs. On a number of those draws he won the ball cleanly but right to Orangeville's Anthony Lackey(who was all over the floor all night). Makes one wonder if Brad MacDonald sometimes lost the face off on purpose. One other good thing, Corey Hallman is definitely the best dressed coach in Jr.A!