Thunderhawks soar back to .500
Welland falls to 1-8, St. Catharines still winless in junior B lacrosse
The Niagara Thunderhawks moved back to the .500 mark on the Ontario Junior B Lacrosse Association season with a pair of wins.
The Welland Generals are still looking for their second win of the campaign, while the St. Catharines Spartans remain winless as the three teams approach the one-month mark of their regular seasons.
The Thunderhawks, 4-4, improved to 3-1 at home with a 12-9 win over the Owen Sound North Stars Sunday.
John Wagner recorded the hat trick for the Thunderhawks, while Zach Luis added two goals and two assists.
Dan Kritkausky chipped in with four assists, and Saul Vanderzalm three helpers.
Michael Wilson, one goal and two assists, while Chris Weier, Matt Mines and Malcolm Vanderzalm had the other goals for Niagara.
Friday night on the road, the T’Hawks dropped an 18-7 decision to the undefeated Six Nations Rebels, 10-0.
Aidan Buis led the way in the loss with two goals and one assist.
Connor Watson, Luis, Weier and Coby Albone also found the back of the net for Niagara.
And last Wednesday in Welland, the Thunderhawks edged the Generals 13-12 as Evan Miller scored six points on one goal and five helpers.
Saul Vanderzalm and Kellen Pulera each added two goals and two assists, while Quinn Hill picked up the first win of his junior B career making 23 saves in relief of starting goaltender Keelan Buis.
Weier chipped in with two goals and one helper, Kent Baker-Printup and Mines one goal and two assists each, as Connor Watson, Luis and Nate Maloney also bulged the twine in the victory.
Welland winless at home
The Welland Generals, 1-8, are still looking to taste victory on their home floor in 2018.
In Wednesday’s 13-12 loss to Niagara, Talon Badawey did everything he could scoring five goals and adding four assists.
Bailey Fournier-Higgins notched the hat trick, and added three helpers, while Tanner Main put up five points on one goal and four assists.
Peter Hyrniuk scored once and added three assists, while Jack Miller scored twice to go along with two helpers as the Generals were a very productive 4-for-6 on the power play.
Saturday, the visiting Wallaceburg Red Devils were too much for Welland in a 15-8 defeat in a game that featured 169 penalty minutes.
Fournier-Higgins scored four goals and added three assists in the loss. Badawey had two goals and two helpers, and Hyrniuk two goals and one assist as the Red Devils outshot the Generals 62-38 overall.
Spartans still winless
The good news: St. Catharines has played the least amount of games in the junior B Western Conference.
The bad news: they’re still looking for their first win.
The Spartans travelled to Windsor on Saturday and were stopped 13-5.
Connor Aquanno scored twice in defeat as Adam Kirchmayer added three assists.
Jacob McMillan, Sam LeClair and Mario Caito also scored for the Spartans, who was outshot 61-41 overall.