Skip to content

Midget Lakers set to defend A1 B.C. title

The Burnaby Lakers earned a berth into the B.C. provincial midget A1 lacrosse championships last week.

The Burnaby Lakers earned a berth into the B.C. provincial midget A1 lacrosse championships last week.

The midget A1 Lakers upset New Westminster 2-1 in the best-of-three playoff series, following a 7-2 victory over the second-place Salmonbellies on July 5.

Burnaby came back to tie the series 8-5 at home after dropping a 6-5 decision in overtime in the series opener.

Matthew Shannik scored Burnaby's opening two goals in the Game 3 win. Other markers were tallied by Keir Yonge, Mike Brletic, Anthony Quatrano, Aiden Milburn and Danny Spagnuolo.

Andrew Warren, Garret Bramall, Cody Rescky and Cory Tuddenham anchored a solid Burnaby defence, while Robert Spagnuolo won a majority of the faceoffs for the Lakers.

A core group of the midget Lakers have been together since 2005, when the team became the first Burnaby squad to win the Jack Crosby Memorial novice all-star tournament at the A1 level.

Since then, the Burnaby team earned a silver medal at the peewee level and a gold in the bantam division at the provincials.

The A1 Lakers are looking to defend last year's gold-medal win at midget.

Shannik and Danny Spagnuolo were also recently named to represent Burnaby on Team B.C. at the national midget championships in Whitby, Ont., beginning July 31.

For Shannik, it is his third national youth championship. Shannik helped B.C. win a bronze at the 2007 peewee championship and along with Spagnuolo won a silver at bantam in 2009.

The midget provincials will take place in Coquitlam from July 20 to 24.

If anyone would like to help sponsor the Burnaby players, please contact Barbara Shannik at 604-435-5055.