Athletics rally to edge Chiefs
St. Catharines defender and face-off specialist Peyton McIntosh. Photo by: BILL POTRECZ.
Peyton McIntosh brings a unique combination of skills to the St. Catharines WMKL Athletics.
The 21-year-old Denis Morris graduate is not only a solid defender, but is also the A’s go-to player on face-offs.
“In bantam, we didn’t have a face-off guy. My coach threw me out to take face-offs and ever since I’ve stuck to it and gotten better at it,” McIntosh said.
The St. Catharines native said communication is key.
“It’s all about moving and communicating with my teammates, where I want them and where I want the ball and if I win it cleanly I know where to put it,” he said.
A’s head coach Steve Toll appreciates McIntosh’s contributions on both sides of the ball.
“He’s doing a great job on face-offs,” Toll said. “It used to be a guy on every line took face-offs but now every team has a face-off specialist. Most of the time the face-off specialist doesn’t play defence but he plays defence for us. He’s making improvements and listing to the coaching staff every day. He’s doing what he’s told and it’s showing on the floor.”
Toll said winning face-offs often goes unnoticed.
“To win the ball and get it on face-offs is a huge possession,” he said.
On defence, McIntosh is more that holding his own.
“Peyton has been playing well. Obviously, it’s a learning curve and playing this much and at this level compared to years past,” Toll said.
Toll insists his defenders communicate.
“There is so much going on back there you have to realize what’s going on at all times and just talk, talk, talk,” Toll said. “Peyton is doing a better job of that and if you want to stay in the lineup, communication is huge. If you’re not going to talk, you’re not going to play. I don’t care if you’re the best defender out there.”
McIntosh feels fortunate to be able to learn from Toll and assistants Kiel Maticz, Ian Rubel, Robby Taylor and Ken Millin.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling learning from all these NLL coaches and also learning from past experiences from our Ontario championship last year,” McIntosh said. “Looking up to those guys and seeing them get drafted to the NLL. That’s my goal, that’s where I want to end up. Being a better defender and learning from those guys was a very big thing.”
McIntosh began his junior career for the Spartan junior Bs.
“It was always the goal to be in Double Blue. Since Day 1. Now I’ve accomplished my goal and now we’re here to win a championship,” he said.
The Athletics topped the Burlington Chiefs 8-7 Wednesday night at Canada Games Park to run their Ontario Junior Lacrosse League record to 7-2.
“Credit the boys. Our schedule hasn’t been super hard and we have taken advantage of teams when we’ve needed to take advantage of teams so we’re just going to keep working hard,” Toll said. “We’ve won the games we needed to win, which is good.
“Realistically, if you would have said at the end of the year we would finish 9-11, 8-12, 10-10, I think we would have taken that all day, every day, (after) losing 18 of 20 guys from last year’s team.”
A’s acorns: Austin Paddy made 41 saves for the win . . . The A’s exploded for five goals in the third to secure the win.
STATS PACK
A’s 8 Chiefs 7
WMKL Player of the Game: St. Catharines’ Clay Scanlon with five goals.
St. Catharines Athletics: Scanlon 5; Keaton Zavitz, Jackson Webster; Gavin Howard.
Burlington Chiefs: Braedon Saris 3; Coltrane Tyson 2; Jack Travassos, Teharonhiorens McComber.
Up next: The A’s are at Oakville Saturday and home to Six Nations next Wednesday.
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