A’s fall to Chiefs
Kealan Pilon figures to be an important piece of the puzzle for the St. Catharines Athletics this season.
The 20-year-old St. Catharines native had a solid rookie season with the A’s last year and is expecting even bigger things from himself this summer.
“My individual goal was just to improve on my point total from last year,” Pilon said Saturday before the A’s dropped a 9-6 overtime decision to the Burlington Chiefs in Ontario Lacrosse Association junior A action at Jack Gatecliff Arena.
Pilon collected a goal and an assist Saturday and already has four goals and 13 points in just four games this season.
“He’s a shooter. We like when he comes around the corner and lets it rip,” A’s general manager Jeff Chcoski said. “He plays the inside game and he works hard.
“The thing with Kealan is he never stops impressing me. Game in and game out, he’s getting better and better.”
Chcoski penciled in Pilon as a key contributor on offence before the season even started.
“Definitely coming into this year he was at the top of our left side,” Chcoski said. “He was a one-two guy for us 100 per cent. We expected things out of Kealan and so far you’re starting to see that already.”
The A’s are loaded up front with talented scorers, but Pilon said there are enough balls to go around.
“The good thing about all the talent we have up front, the kind of guys we are, nobody really cares who scores,” Pilon said. “We know we can all put the ball in the net, but it doesn’t matter who gets it, as long as we get the win.
“We’re lucky like that. A lot of teams don’t have that.”
The A’s haven’t quite their stride offensively yet — they are still missing key pieces Alex Simmons, Riley Curtis and Brett Erskine — but Pilon isn’t concerned.
“We have free rein on offence to do what we want and other teams know how dangerous we are,” he said.
Pilon, a graduate of Governor Simcoe, began playing lacrosse at three years of age for his father, Dan Pilon, a well-known local coach.
He worked his way up to the junior B Spartans where he spent a couple of seasons before making the move to the A’s.
“The two years with the Spartans I thought was good for me. I learned a lot. I don’t regret anything about playing for the Spartans,” he said.
Pilon is only in his second season with the A’s, but said he feels a tight bond with the players.
“I’ve been on a lot of good teams in my life, but I came here last year and already the guys in the room are like family. We work together with each other and it’s great.”
Pilon recently returned from his sophomore season at Queens University of Charlotte, a Division 2 school, where he is majoring in communications.
“I’ve had a good time there. We have a good team,” he said.
The A’s fell to 4-1 with the loss. Burlington jumped out to a 4-0 lead before the A’s rallied to tie the game at 5-5 and send it into overtime. The Braves outscored the A’s 4-1 in the extra period.
“We’re breaking it down to four games at time. We’re right around where we thought we would be,” Chcoski said of the A’s start the season. “I think we have a place in our head where we think we should be for the season, but we’re not going to say too much about that.”
Tyler Brown paced the As with three goals while Pilon, Kyler Kilgour and Owen Friesen added singles. Carter Zavitz chipped in with four assists.
Matt Anderson led the Chiefs, who improved to 3-0, with three goals and four assists.
The A’s are in Whitby Tuesday and home to Oakville Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
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