In your face
Victoria Shamrock Daniel Smith gets up close and personal with the Langley Thunder’s Cole Shafer in WLA action at The Q Centre on Friday. Victoria won the game 13-11.
Forget Casey at the bat. Just put a lacrosse stick in his hands and he rarely strikes out around the crease.
Casey Jackson scored four goals to help lead the Victoria Shamrocks to a 13-11 WLA victory over the Langley Thunder before 1,845 fans Friday night at the Q Centre.
Jackson is second in league goals with 32 behind Maple Ridge sniper Curtis Dickson’s 37.
Also scoring four times for Victoria was former NCAA Big Ten Ohio State Buckeyes fieldlacrosse star Jesse King. Both Jackson and King had seven points on the night, as King took the league lead in points with 62, versus Dickson’s 61. Jackson moved into a third place tie with 58 points.
“It’s a credit to my teammates,” King said.
“The guys were flying around tonight. [Scoring] all depends on who is feeling the touch.”
Right back at you, said Jackson: “[King] is a big body who opens up a lot of space for us. I would play alongside him any day of the week.”
While the gilt-edged scorers were humming Friday, the Shamrocks’ engine room was compromised with Steve Priolo and Ben McCullough missing.
“Those guys are big pieces of our team, but the young guys stepped up big time tonight,” said Jackson.
King concurred: “We relied on the young guys stepping up.”
That included Zac Christianson, who scored his first career WLA goal with a floor-length dash.
“Guys were stepping in,” said Victoria coach Bob Heyes.
“Sometimes, you have to manufacture wins, which is what we did tonight.”
Rhys Duch had two goals and four points for Victoria while Alec Molander scored twice.
The third-place Shamrocks moved to 7-4 while the sixth-place Thunder, a young team rebuilding through several top-end draft picks the last two years, fell to 4-7-1.
However, this Langley team is going to be an elite squad once it matures.
Dane Dobbie, of the few Thunder veterans and the all-time leading scorer for the NLL pro Calgary Roughnecks, led Langley with two goals and seven points.
Rookie goaltender Jake Sundar, the difference in Langley’s recent 9-7 upset of the league-leading New Westminster Salmonbellies, was again very good and made 50 saves. Cody Hagedorn was there when needed in blocking 38 shots for Victoria.
The Thunder head up the Trans-Canada to play the Nanaimo Timbermen (4-6-1) tonight in Frank Crane while the Shamrocks are in Maple Ridge on Sunday to face the second-place Burrards (7-3-1) at Cam Neely Arena.