Burnaby’s junior A Lakers were the wrong team at the right time for the smarting Delta Islanders.
The Lakers, coming off only their second win of the B.C. Junior Lacrosse League season against Port Coquitlam last Sunday, were taken to the cleaners 22-8 by a Delta team that had dropped a 10-8 outing to the same Saints on Friday.
The timing could not have been worse for the Laker juniors who were badly in need of a further confidence boost after the thrilling comeback win last week.
But Delta scored early and often, with Spencer Bromley leading all scorers with five goals and five assists, while Delta’s rookie of the year hopeful Tre Leclaire had a nine-point night, including seven helpers to up his league-leading assists tally to 41.
Aidan Milburn led the Lakers with a five-point outing. Danny Spagnuolo also had a hat trick for the Lakers.
On Sunday, Burnaby was hoping for more Copeland centre magic, but fumbled away a six-goal comeback with a 13-12 loss to the Langley Thunder.
James Rahe was a hard man to stop, scoring six times, including the game winner off a turnover at mid-floor with the score tied and less than two minutes left to play.
Burnaby headed into the third period trailing Langley 9-6, but got a spark from Tyler Kirkby, who scored the first of three straight unassisted goals by the Lakers.
Later in the period, the Lakers fell behind by two goals on a couple of occasions down the stretch but managed to again pull even at 12-12 on markers by Justin Appels and Milburn, with his unassisted hat trick tally.
Head coach Brad Parker said while the players are still coming out and competing hard, the team must continue to work on possessing loose balls, refrain from stick checking on defence and playing tougher in the offensive zone.
“We got to possess the ball more. It’s been a struggle this year, … and we’re not there yet,” Parker said.
Burnaby has a week off until it meets up with the Nanaimo Timbermen at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre on Sunday at 5 p.m.
