Northmen take 2-0 series lead over A’s
Third-period comeback falls just short f or St. Catharines in road game
The effort was certainly there, but the final result was not.
The St. Catharines Jr. A Athletics dropped a 6-5 road decision to the Orangeville Northmen Tuesday night, and now trail a best-ofseven Ontario Junior A Lacrosse League semifinal series 2-0.
Game 3 was scheduled Wednesday night at Jack Gatecliff Arena in St. Catharines.
“We had a good talk before the game with the offence about off-ball stuff,” Athletics head coach Steve Toll said. “We had a good first period and a good third, but had a couple of tough calls against us in the third.
“I told the guys we still have to play with more want, and more urgency.”
Orangeville opened a 2-0 first-period lead and led 4-1 after 40 minutes. That lead increased to 5-2 and 6-3 before the A’s made things interesting.
St. Catharines captain Latrell Harris, playing his first playoff game of 2018, scored on a breakaway with 5:18 left in regulation time to make it 6-4, and just more than two minutes later Carter Zavitz’s second goal of the game — this one on the power play — made it a one-goal game, but that was all the Athletics could muster after throwing 50 shots on league MVP Rylan Hartley.
The A’s outshot the Northmen 50-45.
“I don’t know if we were think-
ing too much, but he (Hartley) made a lot of really nice saves again,” said Toll.
The Athletics made four changes to their lineup from Game 1 as Harris, Jake McNabb and Liam Ham returned, while Trevor Stacey made his St. Catharines debut.
Stacey was acquired in a trade with the Six Nations Arrows in June and is known for his physical play.
“Latrell played great, Ham played very well and Stacey did his job,” Toll said.
“He (Stacey) played well defensively — he was big presence out there for sure — and they (Orangeville) definitely knew he was on the floor.
“To beat a team like Orangeville, you have to bring it for the full 60 minutes,” Toll said. “You can’t take a shift off, and we took too many shifts off (Wednesday).”
A’s Acorns: Latrell Harris returned to the A’s lineup after missing four playoff games while with Team Canada’s World Field Lacrosse team in Israel … Kyler Kilgour, Jacob Johnson and Gavin McGregor did not dress for the Athletics.