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| Oakville will try to move into first place alone, for at least one night, when they face Brooklin Wednesday night at 8 pm. |
The Oakville Rock, at least for the moment sit tied for first place in the Major Series Lacrosse League standings after stunning league supporters with a 13-5 win over the favoured Brooklin Redmen and scooping up a pair of back-to-back wins over the Brampton Excelsiors. So, what's the significance of a first place team after only 7 games? Some will say the season is still young, which is true, but this is a huge stepping stone for the Rock, who have never sat higher than last season's third place finish. Ever.
After year's of struggling in Ajax-Pickering, the Rock franchise re-located to Oakville in 2013. After two summers of sub-par lacrosse, the Rock have built their team with a core of young talent and are quietly making noise as a league contender. Since Matt Sawyer took over the team (exactly one year ago to the day), the Rock have a record of 13-6 and had their first playoff appearnace last season. His approach has been to take care of their own house and not be too overly concerned with matchups and their opponents. He wants his team to come prepared to play.
Last night at home in Oakville, the Rock rode stellar netminding from Nick Rose, who shut the door for the last 45 minutes to earn a 7-3 win. The teams traded the first 3 goals until Wesley Berg scored a shorthanded goal to give the Rock their first lead.
Mitch Desnoo, Alex Crepinsek, Jeremy Noble and Bryan Cole added insurance markers. Stephan Leblanc (0G-3A), Rob Hellyer (1G-2A) and Dan Lomas (1G-2A) led the way for the Rock offensively.
On Wednesday, the Rock head to Brooklin to take on the Redmen and will look to make it 4 straight. They return home next Monday, June 26th at 8PM where they will take on the Cobourg Kodiaks.
