It wasn’t the colour they set out for, but the Langley Intermediate Thunder capped off their season with a victory.
The Thunder defeated Coquitlam 16-8 in Monday’s bronze-medal game at the B.C. intermediate provincial lacrosse championships at the Langley Events Centre.
“They battled all year and they wanted to finish with a win,” said Langley coach Matt Leveque.
“The nerves were gone, the boys came ready to play and to win.”
“We just played like we normally would play. Definitely the first couple of games, we didn’t play our game.”
The Thunder went 0-3 in the four-team round-robin.
During the regular season, Langley had a habit of pulling off come-from-behind victories but could not duplicate that at provincials.
They lost their first game 15-14 to Victoria and 13-12 to Coquitlam. Needing a win and some help in their final game, the Thunder lost 11-6 to Maple Ridge, eliminating any chance of a shot at the gold.
The Thunder’s Connor Watson — the leading scorer during the regular season — led all players with 29 points at provincials to pick up the top scorer award. He was also named an all-star and the tournament’s most sportsmanlike player.
Langley’s Tyler Ewen finished with 19 points while Chase Moore had 18.
Leveque said the team set their sights on gold at the start of the season, and while they didn’t accomplish that, it was still a successful 2017.
“When you make the provincials and win a medal, it is still a good season,” he said.
And the future looks promising as well as the Thunder will only lose five or six players from a squad which went 13-7 during the regular season.
“We had a very young team and the core will be back,” Leveque said.
The Thunder’s Kevin Mykle, was also the recipient of the league’s Commissioner’s Award, presented to the BCILL’s top manager.
Congratulations to @iamkevv on winning the BC Intermediate A Lacrosse League Commissioner's Award this season! pic.twitter.com/7jc52lc2VO
— LangleyEventsCentre (@LangleyEvents) August 7, 2017
Junior Thunder executive honoured
The Langley Thunder management team — Ken Buchan, Rob Buchan, Ryan Williams, Kevin Hill, Kevin Mykle and Nauja Winkler — were awarded the Harry Ferguson Memorial Award.
The award is presented by the BC Junior A Lacrosse League.
“The Langley Thunder executive exemplify all of what this award is about.
“Langley continues to build an organization that prides itself on being known as a classy organization with a culture that breeds success,” the league wrote in a press release.
“That is embodied in the coaches and players that represent the Black and Blue, and all of that is owed to the work done behind the scenes by a great group of people.
“The BCJALL couldn’t be more pleased to give this award to a well-deserving team and of all the others teams in the league who work to make things happen all year round.”