Midget girls golden at nationals
Ten Peterborough Minor Lacrosse Association girls and two coaches are coming home with medals from the Canadian Girls Box Lacrosse Championships in Halifax.
Helping the Ontario midget girls team to a gold medal were players Taya Keast, Rachel King, Megan St. Thomas and Lora Vass while Bobby Keast served as an assistant coach and Sandra Ansell as manager.
The midgets posted a 4-2 overall record and defeated British Columbia 8-3 in the final. It avenged two round-robin loss of
8-3 and 6-3 to B.C.
“We were playing man-on-man defence throughout the tournament,” said Bobby Keast.
“We went to almost like a diamond-zone defence for the finals and that was 100 per cent of the difference.”
Keast said all four girls played well with King in a power-forward type role, Keast and St. Thomas playing in transition and Vass on defence.
Ontario’s bantam girls squad earned a bronze medal finishing 4-3.
PMLA members on the bantam team included Grace Dunn, Payton Crough, Ashtyn Hickey, Natalie Foster, Amy Richmond, Mackenzie Flannigan and assistant coach Matt Faulkner.
They beat Nova Scotia 6-0 in the bronze medal game while B.C. defeated Alberta for gold.
Seven of the girls drove straight from the airport in Toronto to Kitchener on Thursday to participate with Kawartha Women’s Field Lacrosse Club teams in provincial championships this week.
The PMLA will also be represented at the boys Canadian Box Lacrosse Championships next month. Mat Giles will coach the Ontario midgets with players Avery Cook and Nick Crowley Aug 12 to 18 in Calgary. Nick Roode will play for the Ontario bantams Aug. 9 to 14 in Saskatoon.