Defence delivered the gold to Team B.C.’s female midget box lacrosse team last month in Coquitlam.
As hosts of the national championships, B.C. had the perks of familiarity, but what put them over the top, capped by a powerful 8-0 triumph over chief rival Ontario, was its diligence without the ball.
For those who were part of the team last year, when Ontario took the hardware, nothing could have been sweeter.
“It was three years of silver, so to finally win gold was poetic justice,” remarked coach Matthew Black. “When they stepped out of the dressing room onto the floor they looked more eager and more prepared than (they did) the whole tournament. It was evident that we weren’t going to be denied.”
Netminders Ainslee Rushton and Leona Sinclair shared in the rare shutout, with Rushton, a Prince George native, playing the first two periods when the squad had groomed a 5-0 lead.
The defence made sure that the netminders’ workload was not too taxing.
“Our goal was to work cohesively and consistently on defence. Our players played a uniformed defence that really limited (Ontario’s) chances,” coach Black said.
Seven different players potted goals in the final.
B.C.’s roster included Burnaby’s Ava Regan, who added a goal and an assist, and Emily Kuhn, and New West natives Teagan Ng, who scored once and drew an assist in the final, Layla Gould, Taylor Lee, and captain Lauren Black, who chalked up a pair of assists.
Black finished the tourney with five goals and four assists, while Ng racked up six goals and six assists. Kuhn contributed two goals and three assists.
Six members of the team, including Black, Kuhn and Regan, were part of B.C.’s team that competed at the under-19 field lacrosse national tournament earlier in August.
On the boys side, B.C. was a finalist in all three divisions but settled for silver each time.
The bantam squad fell to Ontario 8-3 in the final, after falling behind 5-0 midway through the second period.New West’s Reid Hinds-MacDonald netted two goals and an assist in the final, and finished the tourney with six goals and five assists.
Burnaby’s Ryden Evers counted a pair of goals and five assists over the seven games, while Jeremy Launt, also of Burnaby, netted a goal and three helpers.
B.C.’s midget boys marched all the way to the final before getting knocked off 12-7 by the visiting Ontario team. Captained by Burnaby’s Jordan Gabriele and with netminder Marc Russell-Rippberger, the squad posted an unbeaten record all the way until the showdown with Ontario.
In pool play, the two teams battled to a 6-6 draw, with Gabriele chipping in a goal and an assist. He would finish the tourney with six goals and three assists.
B.C. also fell 10-3 to Ontario in the peewee final.
