Junior B Athletics complete sweep
The St. Catharines WMKL Junior B Athletics permitted themselves a few minutes to celebrate a 13-8 win over the Hamilton Bengals Tuesday night before quickly getting back to business.
The victory completed the sweep of the Ontario Lacrosse Association best-of-five Western Conference semifinal but the A’s feel the job is far from done.
“It’s just a step in the process,” A’s captain Jaden Patterson said. “We’re definitely happy with our performance. We battled adversity and it’s another step toward our goal.”
The A’s made it to the Western Conference finals last year before being eliminated by Six Nations, a memory which still haunts the club.
“We just mentioned that in the room. The work is never finished. We’re always working toward that goal and it’s a sour taste in our mouths from last year,” Patterson said. “We preach staying in the moment and it really helped.”
A’s head coach Alec Tamas agreed.
“We’ve preached a lot about having a standard here that’s higher than any other team in this league. Going to the third round last year we expect to get better every year,” Tamas said. “This was just taking care of business and now we’re on to the next round and we have bigger and better things ahead of us.”
The A’s swept the Bengals but not without some adversity along the way.
After rallying to win Game 1 10-9 in overtime, the A’s fell behind 8-2 in the first period of Game 2 before bouncing back for a 12-9 win.
“I’m just really proud of the way we battled through adversity in that series,” Tamas said. “We dug ourselves a couple of pretty big holes but, like always, we were able to find a way to dig down and take care of business and get the job done.”
Tamas said the A’s veteran leadership really came though in the series.
“A couple of times we were down in the series, the coaches didn’t have to say much,” he said. “They knew the job they had to do and they know how to bear down and get the job done and that’s from the experience of last year.
“We’re an older team with a lot of veterans and that makes our lives a lot easier.”
The A’s now await the winner of the Elora/Cambridge series. Elora leads that best-of-five set 2-0 with Game 3 Wednesday.
“Elora is looking really good on the other side,” Tamas said.
The A’s and Mohawks tied 8-8 April 24 in their only meeting of the regular season.
STATS PACK
A’s 13 Bengals 6
WMKL Player of the Game: A’s Trent Mooradian with five points.
St. Catharines Athletics: Mooradian 2; Jack Parker 3; Ian Kohut 2; Notah Hopkins 2; Ben Smellie, Cody McNeil, Adam Ponting, Levi Roest.
Hamilton Bengals: Reed Allen 2; Curtis Ward 2; Blake Booth, Cooper Joyce.
Up next: The A’s advance to the Western Conference finals versus the winner of Elora/Cambridge. Elora leads that best-of-five series 2-0 with Game 3 Wednesday.
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