Oakville Rock are earning the respect of the Lakers
Rock coach urging players to be at their best for opportunity to tie series in Game 4 tonight
The Oakville Rock may not yet be the rival the Six Nations Chiefs have been in recent years but they’ve got the Peterborough Century 21 Lakers respect.
The Rock’s semifinal victory over the Chiefs broke a string of four consecutive meetings between the Lakers and Chiefs in the Major Series Lacrosse final.
Three games into their first meeting in a final, the Lakers and Rock have pushed each other to the limit in each game. The home team has won each game giving Peterborough a 2-1 lead as the best-of-seven series heads to Oakville’s Toronto Rock Athletic Centre on Tuesday at 8 p.m.
“We don’t have that pre-hate, I guess you’d say, in a series but it’s getting there,” said Lakers defender Ian Llord.
“It’s good for the league to have something a little different. They’re a very deserving team to be here. This is the final. I don’t know if people thought our name bars were going to win us the series right away but they’re proving they are a very good lacrosse team. This is a fun challenge. “I’m not surprised,” Llord said. “They might not have Evans or Vinc on the back of their jersey but those kids are very talented. They are up and coming.”
“They’re a good team,” said Cory Vitarelli. “To beat Six Nations they deserve to be here and we can’t take them lightly.
“It’s a little bit different in that the intensity doesn’t quite match in that Six Nations plays a bit more physical but we have to adjust our game plan. They’re going to keep coming and if we let off the gas they are going to beat us like they did in Game 2.”
It took sudden-death overtime for the Lakers to win Game 1. The Rock took Game 2 by scoring two goals in the final 3:11 to break a tied game. In Game 3, Oakville rallied from an 8-5 deficit to tie it 9-9 six minutes into the third before the Lakers scored four unanswered goals to win 13-9.
“Initially, I don’t want to say there was less hype but it was definitely different,” said Lakers assistant coach Bobby Keast.
“I think the guys have settled in and we know we’re in a great series.”
Rock coach Matt Sawyer’s message to his team after Game 3 was simple.
“We know we need to be at our best to beat Peterborough,” Sawyer said.
“We weren’t (Sunday) but, having said that, we still gave ourselves an opportunity. We feel If we can bring our best game and put it all together we have a very good chance to win. I’m sure they feel the same.”
It’s hard to know how good Oakville might be if they weren’t missing three of their top players to injury. Brett Hickey broke his foot in the first game of the season, Ryan Benesch was injured late in the regular season and hasn’t returned. Wes Berg was hurt in the Major League Lacrosse field lacrosse playoffs.
Sawyer said last week Benesch and Hickey were not expected to return this season and Berg might possibly see action in this series. Berg has not taken a pregame warm-up this series, sometimes an indication a player is nearing return, but Hickey has warmed up the past two games.
“(Hickey) is getting closer but if he was available he’d be playing,” Sawyer said.
Game 5 is back in Peterborough at 8 p.m. Thursday. The MSL champion will host the Western Lacrosse Association champion Maple Ridge Burrards, featuring former Laker Curtis Dickson, for the Mann Cup starting Sept. 7.