For anyone who follows lacrosse, it’s always tough to win in someone else’s barn. Even tougher is winning when that barn is more than 4,000 kilometres to the east.
The pee wee, bantam, and midget Team B.C. squads made the trip to Whitby, Ontario for the Canadian National Box Lacrosse Championships Saturday in hopes of upending the home province. However, the road to gold came up short for each team as all three squads lost to the hosts in the finals.
The pee wee squad, which featured Ridge Meadows Burrards players Dylan McCormick and Aidan Murphy scratched and clawed their way to the finals before dropping a 5-1 decision to Team Ontario.
The pee wee squad went 6-2 in round-robin play, including beating Team Quebec 20-0 and Team Newfoundland 23-0.
In the semi-finals, Team B.C. avenged an earlier 6-3 defeat at the hands of Team Alberta, this time coming out on top 7-3.
Team B.C. also lost to Team Ontario 5-2 in round-robin play.
• In bantam play, Team B.C. dropped a hard-fought 8-4 decision to Team Ontario in the gold medal game.
Mackenzie Rope of the Ridge Meadows Burrards was part of the Team B.C. squad.
Team B.C. went 4-2 in round-robin play, winning their first four games. However, the provincial squad dropped two straight games to host Iroquois, 4-3, and Team Ontario 5-1.. Team B.C. entered the playoffs in third and found themselves in a rematch with Iroquois .
The back and forth affair went in favour of Team B.C. as they eked out a 5-4 win to reach the finals. Team B.C. had only given up 26 goals in seven games heading into the finals, but couldn’t stop the wave of Ontario success in the finals.
• Team B.C.’s midget squad were the third straight provincial team to fall to Team Ontario in the finals, losing 9-5.
Burrards’ Brody Glemnitz, Andrew Gresham, Mitchell McDole and Jacob Tiefisher also played for the Team B.C. midget squad, which went 6-1 in round-robin play. Team B.C. scored 77 goals in round-robin play while giving up 38.
Team B.C. finished second in the preliminary round and subsequently dropped Team Alberta 13-5 in the semi-finals.
However, the road team ran out of gas in the final, claiming the province’s third straight silver.