Trent Excalibur edged in double OT of lacrosse final
In sports terms it might be the epitome of a heartbreaking loss.
With five seconds left in double-overtime, just 19 seconds after tying the game, the Trent Excalibur’s hopes of a first Baggataway Cup championship vanished on Saturday.
Campbell Parker’s goal with five seconds left lifted the Brock Badgers to a 12-11 win over Trent in the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association semifinal at University of Toronto’s Varsity Stadium.
The Excalibur’s best finish was a silver medal in 2015 but after going 10-1 this season and finishing first in CUFLA’s East Division, Trent players and staff thought this might be their year.
They fought from behind all game trailing 4-1 early before rallying to tie it 4-4 after the first quarter. They trailed 7-4 at halftime and 8-5 heading into the fourth quarter before ending regulation time on a three-goal run to tie it 9-9 and force overtime on Adam Perroni’s goal with 2:30 left.
In overtime. Brock twice led and the Excalibur twice replied to tie it 11-11 on captain Cole McWilliams’ fourth goal of the game with 24 seconds left. He also added an assist for five points and was named Trent’s player-of-thegame.
“It was a hart-breaker,” said Excalibur first-year head coach Mark Farthing. “We got ourselves into penalty trouble so we were kind of playing catch-up throughout the game. The heart our team showed was unbelievable. We could have packed our bags so many times. It was an unbelievable display of tenacity and heart. At the end of the day, they scored the last goal.”
Jeff Fernandes scored two goals and an assist for Trent while Nick Chaykowsky scored twice, Perroni had a goal and assist and Curtis Romanchych and Cam Garlin also scored.
“It’s unfortunate we’re not playing today,” Farthing said, on Sunday. “We obviously thought we had the team to do it. We only lost two games all year. We won all our games at home. We won the East Division. Our goal was to win and we didn’t win so that will be our goal again next year.”
While the team will lose its share of veteran players to graduation, Farthing says Trent’s program has come a long way over the past five years.
“The guys we are losing have brought this program an unbelievable distance since they played their first game with us. They are definitely leaving it in a better place than when they came into it,” he said.
“We’ll have lots of good, key returning players. We’ll be a force to be reckoned with for sure next year. Our recruiting has been going well so far, too. The players who are leaving have made this program kind of a beast and a force to be reckoned with. I’m really proud of those guys.”
The Western Mustangs, the top seed in the West Division, beat the East’s No. 2 seed McGill Redmen 10-6 in the other semifinal. Western beat Brock 9-8 in overtime to win the gold medal.