Oct. 23: Guelph 9 – Western 7
The men's lacrosse team round
ed out their regular season tonight with a 9-7 come from behind win over Western. The win gives the team a 10-0 regular season record.
Guelph controlled the game early, playing a long stint at defense and eventually forcing a Western turnover and then quickly scoring soon after their first possession. Sean Thomson (Burlington, ON) took a feed from Braden Gallant (Burlington, ON) and the Gryphons were up 1-0. After another long Western possession, Guelph once again worked their offensive magic and this time, Connor Deuchars (Toronto, ON) buried one after Justin Wilson-Kirby (Oakville, ON) pass. On their last possession of the first quarter, Rookie midfielder Andrew Stoner (Orangeville, ON) turned his Western defender inside out and bounced and easy one past the defenseless Western goalie.
Seven minutes into the second quarter, the Gryphon defense finally cracked and allowed a goal. Guelph responded however, by winning the next face off and controlling the play until Rusty Poulton (Toronto, ON) beat his man one on one and scored on a low bounce shot to put Guelph up 4-1. Western responded at the 5:21 mark to get within 2.
As has been Guelph's challenge all season, the Gryphons were unable to maintain control of their sticks and took a rash of penalties late in the quarter. Western capitalized on their opportunity, scoring twice to tie the game. With seconds left in the quarter, Guelph won the face off and had possession but Gryphon Coach Sam Kosakowski made and ill fated request for a time out while the team had possession in their own end; a no-no in field lacrosse. Guelph lost possession of the ball to star the third quarter, with Western still on the power play.
The Gryphons managed to kill the remainder of Western's power play to start the 3rd quarter, but they were unable to stay out of the penalty box. They took a 30 second technical for delay of game and then a 2 minutes slashing penalty. Western added another power play tally to take the lead but could find no more as the Gryphon defense met the challenge head-on.
But Western still had some momentum and the Gryphons struggled to gain possession of the ball. Western added two more goals to take a commanding 7-4 lead.
Guelph had been scoreless for the last 7 minutes of the second quarter and all of the 3rd until late in the frame when Sean Thomson got his second of the night to bring the Gryphons to within 2. With less than 30 seconds remaining in the third, Thomson and Gallant teamed up on a tough ride as the Western defenders tried to clear the ball out of their own end. Their double team resulted in a ground ball that Thomson scooped up and found himself on a breakaway with. He made no mistake and the Gryphons were within 1.
The 4rth quarter was all Guelph. At the 14:35 mark, Andrew Stoner did another dance routine around a Western defender and buried another bounce shot to tie the game.
As what now seems to be customary with Western, they immediately called a stick following the goal. Given the wet weather conditions, it was likely that Stoner's pocket in his stick had stretched and the stick would be deemed illegal and the goal erased. The stick however, was legal and the goal stood.
Guelph was awarded automatic possession of the ball following Western's gamble and on the next possession, Stoner found himself once again one on one with the same defender. The Western defender, isolated with no support, was but a third time taught a lesson by Stoner who buried his third goal of the night, the team's 8th and winning goal.
To put an exclamation point on things, Guelph's kid line of rookies Jordan Critch (Orangeville, ON), Curtis Knight (Oshawa, ON) and Jordan Daradick (Welland, ON) played keep away from Western until Daradick eventually found Knight behind the net who then rolled the cage and scored the teams 9th of the evening.
"We struggled to maintain our composure tonight. We took too many unnecessary penalties", said Kosakowski after the win. "But to our credit, we had to fight to come back from behind and the boys did a great job of it".
And Kosakowski had good things to say about the team's defense. "Snider's goaltending, and the strong play of our long-stick and short-stick defense was the difference".
The Gryphons will have to focus on their discipline issues if they want to continue their run into the playoffs. They are slated to play the loser of the Brock vs McMaster game that goes tomorrow (Sunday). The quarterfinal game will take place next Sunday, October 31 at 1:00pm at Varsity Field.
