Marauders get into the win column
The A.N. Myer Marauders wrapped up their Niagara Region High School Athletic Association varsity boys field lacrosse schedule with their first win of the season, an 11-10 triumph over the E.L. Crossley Cyclone Thursday at Sir Winston Churchill.
“It does feel good to get it out of the way,” Myer coach Trent Hunter said. “Took a while, last game of the season, but we end on a high note and hopefully keep it going into playoffs.”
Dylan Devries paced the Marauders with three goals and earned high praise from Hunter.
“He brings lot of energy,” Hunter said of Devries. “He can do it all — attack, defence, face offs. He’s always bringing the energy every game.”
Hunter also praised Devries’ leadership abilities.
“He’s a good role model,” he said. “Him and Jack Parker are big leaders. Even Dylan last year when he was in Grade 9 still had the same role and he’s doing the same thing this year.
“He’s keeping his head cool this year and is being a great player for us.”
Devries, a 16-year-old, Grade 10 student, isn’t intimidated despite being one of the younger players on the squad.
“You just have to get it out of your mindset,” he said. “Everyone’s big, everyone’s strong at this level. It doesn’t matter how big you are. You have to know your strengths and weaknesses and play to that.”
Devries enjoys being a go-to player on offence.
“I have big trust in our D guys so being in that offensive role helps me a lot just focusing on putting the ball in the net,” he said. “It’s pretty difficult to get open and have that opportunity but once you figure it out as a team, I have a lot of good guys around me, putting the ball in the net isn’t too hard.”
Devries used to play box, but gave up the indoor game to concentrate on field lacrosse.
“I feel like field gives you more opportunity,” he said. “More space, more time to show who you really are. Box is a lot more aggressive, a lot tighter space. You don’t have a lot of room to move so cutting and using your feet and shooting on a box goalie helps a lot here.”
The Cyclone are hoping to qualify for the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championships in Peterborough the first weekend of June.
“We have the second bid to OFSAA. If Simcoe wins straight out we’re going to OFSAA so our goal is to prepare them for that mentally with the effort, making the right play every time,” Crossley coach Kim Yallup said.
The Cyclone had a huge turnout for the team this season.
“I have 33 guys this year, which is crazy,” Yallup said. “Trying to get to get guys playing — my goal is it always grow the game. We want everybody to play, everyone wants to play.”
Playoffs will be staged next week followed by the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association (SOSSA) championships at Simcoe May 25.
Adam Bignucolo also scored three times for Myer while Keenan Bateman and Jack Parker added two each and Cole Bateman one.
Reed Ozog had four goals, Adam Repar three and Josh Patterson had two for Crossley. One goal scorer was incorrectly identified with a number not on the official scoresheet.
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