Brad Parker in no way resembles screen actor Sidney Poitier, but the task ahead for the second-year Burnaby Lakers junior A lacrosse club resembles a scene right out of the movie To Sir, With Love.
Burnaby’s 5-15-1 record was widely regarded as a B.C. Junior A league success story last season after the once storied franchise came dead-last, mustering just one win in all of 2013.
But, this year will likely be less about building on last season’s succcess and more about finding their way again following two straight losses to start the Jr. A summer season.
Burnaby fell 12-6 in its season opener against the Delta Islanders at the Ladner Arena on Saturday.
The Lakers then dropped their home opener at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre on Sunday by a 10-9 score to the Port Coquitlam Saints.
“I knew going in it was going to be tough,” said Parker after Sunday’s near comeback.
With eight players missing from the Burnaby lineup and key leaders graduated from last season’s squad, Parker knows he must start again from square 1.
While Parker maintains the team is further ahead from where the team was last season, there is still a long road ahead for this year’s Lakers if they hope to reach the team goal of a spot in the playoffs in 2015.
In Ladner, Aiden Yorke made 48 stops, including 21 in the middle period as Delta rained 60 shots on the Burnaby goalie.
Scott Petursson opened the scoring for the Lakers this season.
First star Aidan Milburn scored the first two of his game-high four counters later in the period to draw Burnaby level with the Islanders after the first interval.
But first overall pick in the Jr. A entry draft, Tre Leclaire, counted four of his game-best seven points for Delta in the pivotal second period to lead all scorers.
At home, Burnaby gave up the first two goals of the game and played catchup against PoCo the rest of the way, except for a one-minute stretch late in the opening period, when Petursson tallied his second of the year on a power play.
But the turning point came early in the middle frame, when the Saints counted three consecutive shorthanded markers and held that advantage until Burnaby managed a late third-period surge that fell a single goal short of a comeback.
While the junior Lakers looked tired and mistake-prone in the final 10 minutes of the game, PoCo appeared equally willing to give up its hard earned lead.
Trailing 10-6 late in the game, Burnaby chopped the deficit to two goals on back-to-back markers by Milburn.
Danny Spagnuolo made it a one-goal game in the final minute-and-a-half with his second of the game.
“I don’t know what it takes to get them fired up,” Parker said. “It’s hard to train lacrosse IQ, but we need to have it.”
Without last season’s rookie of the year Tyler Vogrig, who is currently on a field lacrosse scholarship at High Point University, Burnaby will have to learn their ABC’s quickly until the star righthander becomes available to the Lakers some time next month.
The Lakers take on Langley in a rare Friday night home game at the Copeland centre at 8 p.m.
