The Ridge Meadows Burrards Midget A1 lacrosse team are provincial champions after beating Saanich 7-2 in the gold medal final in Coquitlam on Sunday.
However, the game was much closer than the score suggests.
At the end of the first period, the Burrards held a narrow 3-1 lead, only to have Saanich pull within one.
Ridge Meadows led 3-2 with only eight minutes remaining in the game when the flood gates opened for the Burrards.
Captain Jesse Gillespie and Brett Kujala each had a pair of goals, while goalie Connor David was solid in net to help seal the win.
“Every single member of this team was a major part of the championship success this team achieved,” said coach Doug McQuarrie. “From our goalie to our face off crew to loose balls to our goal scorers to our defensive play. This team did not have one leader, it had 18 leaders.”
The Burrards beat Delta, Saanich and Port Coquitlam before losses to Burnaby and Coquitlam to finish the round robin at three wins, two losses.
“I truly believe that in order to reach the pinnacle of your abilities, you must learn to face some adversity and those 2 losses were our adversities,” McQuarrie said. “We went undefeated in league play this season over the 20 game schedule, so we needed to feel what a loss or two feels like, and my players sure felt it and learned from it immediately.”
That education served the team well as they faced Coquitlam in In the semi-finals, who had beaten them just 24 hours earlier in round robin play.
However, this time the Burrards were in control, winning 7-2 thanks to strong efforts by Joe Olson, Andrew Gresham, Kyle Heiling, Mitch McDole, and Kujala.
Matt Olson, Brad Bruneau, Brody Glemnitz, Brad Rowbotham, Craig Burnett, Travis Froelich, Jacob Teifisher, Tyson Walker, Adam Stanbury, Mitch Abercrombie and Jesse Gillespie also had strong performances throughout the tournament.
“We also had a major part of our team missing from the floor but always in our hearts and mind, and that is Riley Glemnitz,” said McQuarrie.
“Riley tore his ACL in June in a game and had surgery last week and had to miss these provincials. [He] would have dominated like the rest of his team and made us even stronger.... but he was at every practice and game supporting his team mates.”
Goalie Connor David was selected to the provincial all-star team and Matt Olson was awarded the Warrior Sports Fair Play Award for his season long dedication to fair play, commitment, leadership and integrity of the game. Captain Jesse Gillespie was awarded the gold medal game MVP.
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