The Shooting Eagles Lacrosse Club led from start to finish, putting together a complete effort as they knocked off the first-place Sea Spray Lacrosse Club 13-10 on Saturday afternoon at Langley Events Centre.
“Massive. We wanted to come out and prove we could play defence, that is the thing we have kept preaching the last couple of weeks,” said coach Adam Smith. “‘These guys are the top-scoring team in the league and to keep them under eight goals until a few minutes left, that was fantastic. It was a huge statement game for us.”
The Shooting Eagles jumped out to a 7-0 lead, not allowing their first goal against until midway through the second quarter, improving to 3-4 through seven weeks of play in Arena Lacrosse League West Division action. The Sea Spray saw their record fall to 5-2, tied with the Grizzlies Lacrosse Club for top spot.
READ ALSO: Sea Spray continue to lead Langley-based west division of Arena Lacrosse League
Jake Foster was the game’s first star with four goals and eight points while goaltender Brody Harris was the second star following his 37-save performance.
“It showed the character of our offence … we were able to finish this game off and put the dagger in them and that’s what we did,” Foster said.
In addition to Foster’s eight-point game, Dean Fairall also had four goals to go along with seven points while Mark Yingling had one goal and four assists and Doug Porter scored twice. James Rahe – while an ALL rookie but a lacrosse veteran — also made his ALL debut with two goals and six assists.
Grizzlies take a bite out of Black Fish
Three goals in a span of 3:40 in the fourth quarter helped the Grizzlies Lacrosse Club break an 8-8 tie and return to the win column.
The Grizzlies faced the Black Fish Lacrosse Club on Saturday afternoon in week seven action of the Arena Lacrosse League West Division at Langley Events Centre, winning 11-9 to improve on the season to 5-2. The loss dropped the Black Fish to 1-6.
The lone Black Fish victory came at the expense of the Grizzlies back in week four.
“Most definitely, you can’t drop two to the same team,” said the Grizzlies’ Garrett Lewis on avenging the earlier defeat. “We just settled in and just played our game. We know the intensity we can play with and we know our identity and we want to play like Grizzlies every night.”
After surrendering the game’s first two goals, the Black Fish scored three straight to lead 3-2 after 15 minutes. The teams went to halftime tied at six and the third quarter saw neither team able to muster much offensively, scoring just a single goal apiece and setting the stage for a tense fourth quarter.
The teams each scored once in the first five minutes of the fourth quarter before Jacob Patterson tallied twice sandwiched around an Erik Maas goal to give the Grizzlies the lead for good. Evan Messenger cut the deficit back to two but only 72 seconds remained.
READ ALSO: Grizzlies cap off ‘thrilling’ comeback with OT victory
“There are growing pains. We are getting better with each game and it showed tonight: hard work is going to win the game. All the teams are evenly matched,” said Grizzlies coach Yul Baker.
The Black Fish remain the only one of the four teams to average less than 10 goals per game.
James Baker led the Grizzlies with a hat trick while Steve McKinlay set up four goals and Andrew Gresham had three helpers. Patterson, Maas and Andrew Joseph each scored twice while Garrett Lewis (one goal, two assists) and Brian Smith (one goal, one assist) had the other Grizzlies goals.
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