Athletics take first game of series over Arrows
10-7 win was a big one in best-of-five first-round play
Last night the St. Catharines Athletics hit the road hoping momentum from a come-frombehind win would help them push the Six Nations Arrows to the brink of elimination in the first round of the Ontario Lacrosse Association junior A playoffs.
The third-seeded Athletics opened the best-of-five quarterfinal Wednesday night at Jack Gatecliff Arena in St. Catharines where they came back to defeat the No. 6 seed Arrows 10-7.
The come-from-behind victory — the A’s trailed 6-3 at one point — extended the Double Blue’s regular season and playoff win streak against the Arrows to seven games. Coming into last night’s game, Six Nations hadn’t defeated St. Catharines since July 5, 2017, when it completed a
sweep of the season series with a 13-8 victory on the road on the way to a national championship.
In Wednesday’s series opener, goals were scored in waves with the A’s answering a five-goal run by the Arrows with three of their own to knot the score at six-all after two periods of play.
Six Nations went up 7-6 on Tehoka Nanticoke’s third goal of the night 7:18 into the third period.
Saul Van Der Zalm’s goal less than a minute later tied the game sparking a four-goal run. It was straight A’s on the scoreboard after that.
Alex Simmons paced St. Catharines in points with three goals and three assists. Jake McNabb scored two goals, team captain Latrell Harris, Liam McDonald, Kealan Pilon and Carter Zavitz one each as the Athletics extended their playoff streak versus Six Nations to four games.
Travis Longboat, with two goals; Jamie Dilks and Jackson Reid rounded out the scoring for the Arrows who outshot their hosts 41-33.
Nick Damude stopped 34 shots to earn the win in net for the A’s.
St. Catharines went 2-for-5 on the power play and scored a shorthanded goal. Six Nations finished the game 2-for-6 with a man advantage.
The series is a rematch of last year’s quarter-final, which was won by the A’s in a three-game sweep.
And, as was the case in 2018, the Athletic entered the playoffs as the higher seed after sweeping a home-and-home with Six Nations during the regular season. St. Catharines downed the Arrows 9-5 May 20 in Ohsweken and 13-6 June 12 at Jack Gatecliff Arena on the way to a record of 15-5 in league play, a two-win improvement over last season.
Six Nations went 11-9 in league play for the second year in a row.
Game 3 is 7 p.m. Sunday back at The Jack.
A fourth game, if necessary, would be played 8 p.m. Monday in Hagersville.
A deciding game, also only if needed, would take place 8 p.m. next Wednesday in St. Catharines.
The two teams have combined to capture 11 Minto Cup Canadian junior A lacrosse championships. St. Catharines has won six, the last one in 2003; Six Nations, five, the most recent in 2017.