The Burnaby Lakers dropped another peg on the B.C. Junior Lacrosse League ladder following a 14-8 loss in Victoria on Saturday.
The junior A Lakers failed to score on their Vancouver Island hosts until just eight seconds left in the opening period, but by that time most the damage was already done.
Burnaby trailed 6-1 after one period and 9-3 after two before sharing 10 goals evenly with the junior Shamrocks in the final frame.
Danny Spagnuolo, who led the Lakers with two goals and a single assist, broke the first-period shutout with an unassisted even-strength marker at 19:52 of the period.
Jesse Gastaldo, who was picked up for future considerations in a trade with New Westminster last week, got his first goal with Burnaby late in the second period. Anthony Quatrano also scored an unassisted tally in the final minute of the middle frame.
The loss was Burnaby’s sixth in a row and dropped its record to 1-8-0 in the eight-team loop.
Victoria keeper Charles Claxton, who currently leads the league in goals against average, save percentage and wins, allowed just one goal in almost half the game, giving way to backup Liam Reid with the score 9-1 in the Shamrocks’ favour after 29 minutes.
Lakers Cam Hudspeth, Aidan Milburn, with his league-topping 21st goal of the season, and Mitch McDole also garnered three-point games for Burnaby.
Victoria’s Cole Pickup, Jake Cullen, Max Fredrickson and Ryan Lewis all tallied hat tricks for the Shamrocks. Pickup led all scorers with nine points.
Burnaby plays the Port Coquitlam Saints in a battle of the bottoms at the PoCo rec centre this Friday at 8 p.m.
