Burnaby got New Westminster off to a “Rocky” start before dropping its third game in a row.
Ross “Rocky” Bowman gave up five goals on his first 10 shots, but was stellar the rest of the way, leading the junior A Salmonbellies to a 16-8 win over Burnaby at Queen’s Park Arena on Tuesday.
The junior Lakers led 5-3 after the opening period, but Bowman found his game, blanking the visitors in an unanswered six-goal middle period as New West took complete control.
At the other end of the floor, Burnaby’s David Mather was arguably the busiest player of the game, facing 66 Salmonbellie shots before being given a well-deserved breather with eight minutes left in the contest.
Backup Aiden Yorke came on in relief of Mather and played well, giving up just two goals while stopping a dozen more chances as New West poured a total of 78 shots at the Burnaby goal.
The B.C. Junior Lacrosse League’s player of the week, Aidan Milburn, led all scorers with four goals, including Burnaby’s first three goals of the opening period.
Milburn currently leads the league with 21 goals, five hat tricks and three shorthanded markers.
But New West was relentless on the attack, finally taking a 6-5 lead midway through the second period on Luke Gillespie’s first of two goals in the game.
“We were getting our chances, for sure,” said second-year righthander Jeremy Bosher, who led the ’Bellie attack with three goals and five points. “You have to keep going until the balls start falling in.”
And fall they did.
After scoring just three times on 22 shots in the opening frame, New West tallied six more on 25 chances after 40 minutes. The Fishmen then rained a further 31 shots at the Burnaby goal in the final stanza.
“Confident teams find ways to win games, and we’re not at that stage yet,” said Burnaby assistant coach Jason Della Valle. “We want to see improvement after every game. The players are ready to do it. It’s there.”
New Westminster got multi-point games from seven other players, including league scoring leader Connor Robinson, who garnered his fourth hat trick of the campaign.
Transition defender Alex Bohl also counted a pair of goals, upping his on-goal shooting average to a whopping 42.86 per cent.
While the Laker cagers are fielding a season’s worth of rubber early in the season, the work rate and effort is there, Della Valle said.
“We have to outwork teams to be successful – stay focused and loose balls. Overall, we’re trying to improve every aspect of the game,” he added. “They see the commitment in the coaching staff, and we have full commitment from all the guys. We want to keep on building practice after practice.”
Burnaby is in Nanaimo this weekend for a return tilt against the Timbermen, while New West must wait a full week before its next game – a much anticipated matchup with the Coquitlam Adanacs, which are currently ahead of them in the weekly LacrosseTalk national poll.
“I can’t wait. We have such a good rivalry (with Coquitlam). Both teams will be ready to go – on fire,” said Bosher.
