Grant Jr. hits milestone in 1st place-clinching win

COBOURG – John Grant Jr. reached a career milestone while the Peterborough Century 21 Lakers clinched first place in the MSL Sunday night. Grant had nine points to pass the 1,600-point milestone in his senior lacrosse career in leading the Lakers past the Kodiaks 12-7 before Cobourg’s largest crowd of the season of 1,524 at the Cobourg Community Centre. The Lakers improved to 13-3-1 clinching first place and home-floor advantage throughout the playoffs. Their first-round playoff opponent is yet to be decided. They’ll finish their regular season schedule 8 p.m. Thursday when they host Cobourg (1-15-1) at the PMC. Grant had three goals and six assists giving him 766 career goals, 838 assists and 1,604 points in regular season, playoff and Mann Cup play. He ranks 11th on the all-time list. Cory Vitarelli scored a hat trick for Peterborough while Josh Currier had two goals and four assists, Adam Jones two goals and two assists and Chad Tutton added two markers. Holden Cattoni and Turner Evans had two assists with singles to Jake Withers and Brad Self. Peterborough native Matt Crough led Cobourg with two goals and three assists. Luke Laszkiewicz scored twice with singles to Peterborough native Pete Rennie, Eric Gulltinan and John St. John. The Lakers were missing their top two scorers Shawn Evans, Mark Steenhuis and captain Scott Self who were all given the night off for maintenance. Lakers’ GM Paul Day said it’s likely the Lakers will start their playoff series Aug. 2 at home with the PMC unavailable Aug. 3-6 due to the Peterborough Exhibition. It might force the club to play games two and three of the best-of-seven series on the road. The series must be completed by Aug. 13. No dates have been finalized.