Athletics capture U17 championship
The St. Catharines Athletics went into the Ontario Field Lacrosse U17 A championships in Brampton as underdogs and came out as champions.
The A’s defeated Toronto Beaches 8-7 in the championship final, rallying from a three-goal deficit in the final quarter.
“I think kind of what makes it nice — don’t get me wrong it’s nice to win at any point, whether you’re the favourite or whether you’re the underdog — but we were ranked fourth out of four teams coming in,” A’s coach Dan Pilon said. “As a coach, you always believe that that you have a chance and I knew we were there, but we’re kind of the opposite of some of the other teams.”
The U17 A’s entered the tournament versus the other three teams with an underwhelming 0-4-2 record, including an 0-3 mark versus Beaches.
“We didn’t have a single win versus any of those teams,” said Pilon, who as assisted by Chris Williams and Mick Calder. “We didn’t have the results on the scoreboard but we knew we had the talent and were getting better with every weekend.”
Pilon was proud how the A’s put their past struggles versus Beaches aside for the finals.
“Obviously we hadn’t been able to get it done in the other three games,” Pilon said. “Heading into the fourth quarter of the game we were we were down 7-4.”
The A’s then went to work and outscored Beaches 4-0 in the final minutes, including the winner on a power-play with about a minute-and-half remaining.
“It was really nice (to win) in that spot,” Pilon said. “I think for pretty much every single one of these boys, I’m not sure that there’s a single one of them who’s ever won an A championship in lacrosse before.”
The A’s edged Brampton 10-8 to advance to the finals of the round-robin tournament following the regular season which was moved from the spring to the fall due to the COVID pandemic.
“It’s a bit of a war of attrition to at this stage,” Pilon said. “Kids have to work and then this weekend kids have an injury or kids have another sport or a hockey tryout so it’s a bit of a mix and match. Each weekend, you’re showing up having to mix and match what we have.”
Pilon said the team was made up of a 50/50 mix of minor and majors.
“That can be a tough thing often. Most of the teams we played against didn’t have that, they were mostly majors and that makes a difference,” he said.
Members of the team are: Kaleb Taylor, Jack Parker, Mitchell Pearson, Trent Mooradian, Carter Mooradian, Levi Roest, Joe Young, Owen Cooper, Cody MacNeil, Cam Eke, Ari Steenhuis, Seth Ozog, Josh Calder, Aidan Sartor, Liam Gatt, Sutter Pilon, Marcus Harris, Hayden Longboat, Lochlan Belliveau, Dawson Battersby, Aaron Gross and Ethan Williams.
“There were some great individual performances, some standout performances from the goalies to the attack, and then we had the benefit of having some really incredible depth,” Pilon said. “We could match anyone with three lines.”
The St. Catharines Athletics U15 and U13 teams also won their respective division championships. Their stories will appear in the coming days on BPSN.
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