Athletics oust Arrows to advance
The St. Catharines Athletics finished off the Six Nations Arrows in definitive fashion Monday night.
The Athletics defeated the Arrows 12-4 to take the best-of-five Ontario Lacrosse Association junior A quarter-final playoff series 3-1.
The teams split the first two games before the A’s outscored the Arrows 24-11 in Games 3 and 4 to take the series.
“I have to be honest with you, it probably wasn’t the way I thought the game was going to be,” A’s general manager Jeff Chcoski said. “I thought it was going to be a little tighter than it was.
“As a coaching staff, we believed we had to keep them to five goals and under just because we didn’t know how much offence we would be able to produce.”
Chcoski said it was a total team win.
“It was a team effort from the coaching staff, to the trainers, from the defence, right through to the offence.”
The A’s led 4-2 after one period and 9-4 after two.
Jake McNabb and Brayden Mayea paced St. Catharines with three goals each while Sam LeClair added two. Singles came off the sticks of Carter Zavitz, Tyler Brown, Liam Mcdonald and Mason Kamminga.
Jeremy Bomberry, Chase Scanlan, Jamie Dilks and Travis Longboat replied for the Arrows.
Nick Damude made 45 saves in goal for the win.
“Nick was incredible,” Chcoski said.
The A’s now advance to a best-of-seven semifinal versus the Burlington Chiefs. Game 1 will go Wednesday in Burlington at 8 p.m. with Game 2 Sunday in St. Catharines at 7 p.m.
“As far as the coaching staff goes, as soon as that buzzer went it clicks right on to the Burlington Chiefs,” Chcoski said. “We sat in the room and started talking about the players on the team and what we think we have to do to get through the next round.”
The A’s were without sniper Alex Simmons, who suffered an upper body injury in Game 3 in the first period and did not return. He is scheduled for an MRI this week.
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