Matching bigs for bigs was a tall order for Burnaby against the visiting Victoria Shamrocks.
The senior A Lakers stood toe-to-toe with the as-yet unbeaten Victoria Shamrocks before surrendering a 13-10 decision to the Western Lacrosse Association league leaders at home last Friday.
The loss left Burnaby tightly bunched with the remainder of the seven-team league with a third-place 3-2-0 record.
The Lakers took an early 2-1 first-period lead on Ilija Gajic’s first of three goals in the game.
The two teams swapped the lead on five further occasions until Scott Jones tied the contest for the seventh time of the night 9-9 midway through the third period.
That appeared to be the spark that Victoria needed, as Rhys Duch collected the go-ahead tally with his fourth goal of the game and Scott Ranger increased the lead with his second of the game. Cory Small, who had a game-high 10 points for the visitors, was in on three of the counters.
The Shamrocks big three collected 23 points between them, including eight goals.
“They are three of the best players in the world. It’s a challenge for any team,” said Burnaby righthander Tyler Digby, who led the Lakers with four goals. “They were able to make a couple more plays. They beat us in that way. I don’t think we were disappointed in the way we played.”
Indeed, few could argue Digby’s assertion.
Burnaby held the lead three times in the first period and led 4-3 very late in the period before Duch tied it up with his second of the game.
In the middle frame, the Lakers came back from two one-goal deficits to take on a 7-6 lead on back-to-back markers two minutes apart by Digby.
The big righthander also brought Burnaby back to within a single goal late in the period on a power-play setup by fellow righty Alex Gajic, who had five assists in the game for the Lakers.
With the win, Victoria improved its record to 6-0-1, five points up on current runner-up Maple Ridge.
Burnaby was without two key starters Matt Beers and Robert Church.
“It shows that a lot of work has to be done. Every game is big in this league. It’s tough, it’s a lot about process, too,” Digby added.
On Sunday, the Lakers fell 12-8 in Maple Ridge. Junior callup Connor Goodwin potted a hat trick for the Burrards. Curtis Dickson led all scorers with three goals and three assists.
Burnaby is in Langley today (Wednesday), before returning home for a rematch with the Burrards on Friday at 7:45 p.m.
