Midget Cudas run their way to Floorbusters win

trying to prepare for. I think it paid off this weekend and they played well. When you’re tired, it’s high-emotion and you’re battling adversity. For 15-and 16-year-old boys, they handled the weekend very well.”

They now have a gold medal to show for their effort after past years of near-misses at the local tournament.

“It pushed us a lot, it was great to finally win it,” said Cudas captain Jaxson Geddes. “We’ve been here quite a few times and we’ve always gotten third so it’s nice to win it this year.”

In Sunday’s gold medal game, the Cudas snagged an 83 lead after 40 minutes thanks to seven second-period goals.

“It was pretty good, a lot of battle,” said Barracuda Mark Federkeil, who scored twice Sunday afternoon. “We had to push through some resistance, for sure, and get moving on offence to get the ball down the floor.”

Which, of course, is when the team’s conditioning came in handy.

“You have to make sure you’re eating well and getting lots of fluids between games (and) getting lots of sleep,” said Federkeil.

Eamon Berteotti scored the lone Lethbridge goal in the first period before Adam Kennedy, Federkeil, Conner Cook, Geddes and Josh Hrycuik put up second period goals.

With time winding down in the second stanza, Barracuda Thoran Malitowski added two more in the final 5:20 for a five-goal lead after two periods.

Federkeil and Kennedy each added their second goals of the game in the third to round out the scoring.

At the other end, Aiden Tait earned the win in goal.

“It definitely took a lot,” said Geddes. “We didn’t come prepared in the first and we weren’t focus. But in the second we regrouped as a team and all bought into our systems.”

The chance for a gold medal in front of the hometown crowd helps as well.

“It should, certainly,” said Andre. “You never want to lose at home. There’s a lot of pride associated with taking home a home tournament and a lot going the other way, losing it at home.”

The gold medal adds to what’s been a solid season thus far for the Cudas.

“We’re having a great year,” said Andre. “We’re limited with our house league stuff because it’s a small league. But the majority of the season we’ve been playing a lot of Aball throughout the year. There has been a lot of lacrosse so far, but we’ve found a lot of success. This is our first gold medal. Hopefully we have a few more coming up.

“We have about four more tournaments in the next six or seven weeks, so a lot of lacrosse coming up.”

In the bantam final earlier Sunday afternoon, the Cudas came away with the silver medal while the Regina Rush went home with the gold medal.

The Calgary Axemen earned the bronze.

Lethbridge earned another medal in the novice division as the Cudas 1 won silver, while Brooks took the gold.

Winning the bronze medal was the Red Deer Chiefs 3.

The Olds Stingers 1 won the gold medal in the peewee division, while the Okotoks Raiders settled for silver and the Calgary Sabrecats won the bronze medal.

Game results can be viewed at the Lethbridge Lacrosse Floorbusters Memorial Tournament page www.facebook.com/FloorbustersLAX or on Twitter @YQLFloorbusters Follow @DWoodardHerald on Twitter.