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| John Grant was passing up a storm Thursday night. He had 9 assists to go with his 3 goals. (Photo: Tim Prothero) |
A week ago, John Grant Jr.
looked like an old lacrosse player. Thursday night, he looked like
the old John Grant.
The 41-year-old Grant took a few games looking for his
rhythm when he returned to the Peterborough Lakers after a summer
spent primarily playing professional field lacrosse. It's safe to say
he's found it. With the Lakers already having clinched first place
before their game against Cobourg Thursday, Grant put on a passing
display for the 3,238 fans at the Memorial Centre as the Lakers dumped
the Kodiaks 19-9 in the final game of the Major Series Lacrosse
regular season. Six Nations downed Brampton 10-4 in the other game
Thursday.
Grant had 3 goals and 9 assists,
picking apart even small seams in the Kodiaks defence the way he has
for years en route to being one of the highest-scoring and most
exciting players in the game. He earned 4 assists on goals by Cory
Vitarelli alone. Grant also sprinted back to break up a breakaway
chance by Cobourg transition player Chad Cummings late in the
fourth quarter with the win well in hand.
Vitarelli had a big night as well,
scoring 6 goals. The final one elicited one well-prepared fan to toss
a pair of socks onto the floor to celebrate Vitarelli's sock trick.
Adam Jones chipped in 3 goals and 3 assists and Mark
Steenhuis 2 goals and 4 assists for Peterborough.
Peterborough native and former Laker
Matt Crough led the Kodiaks with 4 goals. His last one was
reminiscent of a Grant play. Shorthanded, Crough snapped up a pass
that had been tipped by a defender en route to him atop the crease,
threw a crazy dangle at the defender who picked him up and eventually
fired a fancy underhand past Matt Vinc.
Cobourg actually kept things close for
the first period, trailing just 4-3 at the intermission. They had
some chances to tie things up as they started the second on the power
play. Instead, the Lakers grabbed control of the game by scoring 7
straight goals.
The third period was a fan's dream and
a coach's nightmare. Both teams threw caution to the wind and they
combined for 13 goals, 8 of them by Peterborough.
Cobourg heads into the off-season with
lots of work to do but some signs that they may be on track to
building a strong team. The Kodiaks kept working and had their
chances. Lapses that are typical of a young team cost them against a
talented and experienced Lakers squad that was ready to exploit them.
Definitely the best news for Cobourg
Thursday was the return of Craig England to the floor. England
suffered a detached retina on a hit in his first game of the season.
He was told he may never play again and had to undergo two surgeries.
The smile on his face at the end of the game was evidence of how
happy he was to be back.
“I just wanted to come back,
especially after that injury, to get back on the floor. You just want
to play the game and it's always nice coming to play in Peterborough,
that's for sure,” England said. “It was scary when they tell you
something like that, but you've just got to stay positive with
everything. I have great support from my family and friends and they
helped me a lot through that. Just being positive and having their
support was huge through that whole process.”
England played a solid game, even going
horizontal in efforts to strip Peterborough players of the ball a
couple of times and generally banging around. In other words, he
looked like his old self.
“Every time I get out there, I just
try to work hard, as much as I can. I made sure that everything was
okay by the doctors and made sure that my body was good, because this
is a pretty tough sport to just come back into and a tough team to
play against, as well,” he said. “I just wanted to get back there
and play how I do, just bump and grind. Unfortunately, I couldn't get
a ball in the net there but it was fun to be back out.”
As for the Kodiaks' future, England was
impressed by how hard his teammates worked even though they only won
one game this season and were trailing substantially through much of
Thursday's game.
“I wasn't around the team too, too
much this year but just from what I saw being around them and coming
to watch a few times, this team's young but the willingness to
compete is there to show up and compete every night despite the
record. It says a lot about each guy in that locker room, that's for
sure.”
Peterborough opens their MSL semifinal
series against the Oakville Rock next Tuesday at home. The Brooklin
Redmen play host to the Six Nations Chiefs in Game 1 of the other
semifinal next Wednesday.
