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Scott Evans had a hat trick to lead
Peterborough over Brooklin.
(Photo: Tim Prothero)
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In a battle between the top two teams
in Major Series Lacrosse Wednesday night, the Peterborough Lakers had
to overcome a slow start to take away a 12-9 win over the Brooklin
Redmen. Brooklin jumped out to a 5-1 lead, largely because they
outworked the Lakers and won pretty much every loose ball battle all
over the floor in the first half of the first period. After John
Lafontaine scored back to back transition goals for Brooklin, the
second at 11:40, Peterborough pulled starter Tyler Carlson and
put in Davide DiRuscio. The change seemed to awaken the
Lakers, who played much better defence and worked harder in both ends
in front of the replacement.
Redmen captain Shawn Williams,
who led all scorers with a goal and 5 assists, acknowledged that it
wasn't the goalie's fault that Brooklin took an early lead, but
making the change made a big difference. “I think once we got
Carlson out of the game they woke up and said 'That's on us, that's
not on him.' Good teams battle back through that and they did,”
Williams said.
Kiel Matisz scored 3 goals and 2
assists for Brooklin. Scott Evans led the Lakers with a hat
trick and an assist. Mark Steenhuis had 2 goals for
Peterborough, which got 2 or more points from 11 different players.
The Lakers turned the momentum around after falling behind thanks to
some hard work from Robert Hope, Nick Weiss and Chad
Culp, all of whom led the charge. The whole team seemed to
respond in the second half of the first period and throughout the
rest of the game. Peterborough was particularly strong in the third
period, in which they outscored the Redmen 5-1 to pull away for the
win.
DiRuscio said the team picked up its
game in front of him. “The D was struggling a little bit, Brooklin
were getting some good looks, but the D managed to pick it up through
the game and really help us win,” DiRuscio said. “There was a ton
of guys...it was a team effort. You can't just show up and expect to
win. We had to battle back a bit but everyone put in a solid effort.”
Lakers Head Coach Joe Sullivan
was pleased with the effort his team gave once they got going,
especially late. “Come the third period I think we had something
left to give,” Sullivan said. “We started off terribly slowly,
slower than we wanted, but even that was only 5-3 then they came out
and scored right off the bat in the second to make it 6-3 and we
still managed to answer back. It was on the back of our young guys.
If you look at our draw team it was Eric Shewell, Pete
Rennie and Nick Weiss. It was great to see those guys rise
to the occasion and really take advantage of the opportunity. That's
what we're priding ourselves on this year is our depth and it came
through huge for us.”
The Lakers were missing seven regulars
from their lineup with players either away at the world field
lacrosse championships or with injuries. They will need everyone to
step up again as they're right back at it tonight when they face the
Kitchener-Waterloo Kodiaks at home. In tonight's other game, the
Oakville Rock visit the Excelsiors at the Memorial Arena in Brampton.
Both games are at 8 pm.
