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| This picture of Cory Vitarelli shooting on Zack Higgins is from two years ago, but the view was similar last night as Vitarelli scored 3 goals, all on quick releases, to lead Peterborough to a 9-5 win. (Photo: Tim Prothero) |
It was a battle for 60 minutes, but the
difference in the Thursday night's Major Series Lacrosse game at the
Peterborough Memorial Centre came down to 96 seconds.
The score was tied 3-3 nearing the
final five minutes of the second period. The Brooklin Redmen were
putting pressure on the Lakers, forcing
turnovers at both ends of the floor with an aggressive forecheck and
backcheck. The tide of the game seemed to be turning in the visitors'
favour.
Then the Lakers struck for three quick
goals and never led by less than that margin again as they took a 9-5
win that puts them solidly in control of first place in the
standings.
The Lakers' run built on an outstanding
penalty kill rag by Mark Steenhuis. Under heavy pressure from
the king of caused turnovers, Kyle Rubisch, as well as a
rotating cast of double team defenders, Steenhuis moved around the
floor and controlled the ball through the final half minute or more
of Brooklin's man advantage.
Towards the end of the ensuing
Peterborough possession, Chad Culp fed Shawn Evans. The
league's runaway scoring leader had been kept in check to that point,
but Evans loaded up a dead overhand that found its way through Zack
Higgins to put the Lakers ahead at 14:54.
Rookie transition standout Zach
Currier had had chances all night. He'd been called for being in
the crease when he put a ball in on a dive earlier (replays showed it
was very close but it appears that referee Blair Ferguson probably
got the call right) and had rung a shot off the crossbar. Now he
broke down the floor using his blazing speed to create just enough
separation to accept a perfectly placed pass from Brad Self
over his shoulder.
Adrian Sorichetti can move, too, though
and he closed on Currier as the Laker caught the ball and hauled him
down to the floor. There would be no need for a penalty call, though,
as Currier still managed to sweep the ball into the corner for a
two-goal lead.
Goalie Matt Vinc started a
breakout off a save moments later, hitting Evans coming off the
bench. He threw it across to Cory Vitarelli, who ripped home
his second of three goals that probably spent a combined total of
about a second and a half in his stick en route to the back of the
net. The time of the goal was 16:30.
Brooklin worked hard to try to come
back. The previous night's battle against Six Nations in the Iroquois
Park sweatbox surely didn't do the Redmen's legs any favours in the
third period. Plenty of credit has to go to the Peterborough defence
and Vinc, though. They were resolute in playing solid team D to hold
Brooklin in check.
Josh Currier, Zach's older
brother and an increasingly likely candidate to go high in the first
round of this fall's National Lacrosse League Entry Draft, scored a
pair of third-period goals to maintain the Peterborough lead. He
added a pair of assists while Vitarelli finished with 3 goals and a
helper and Evans with a goal and 4 assists. Five different Redmen
scored with Dan Lintner and Ryan Keenan adding 2
assists each to their goal to lead the team.
Zach Currier was pleased to bury his
critical goal in the game. He's starting to make good on the promise
his magnificent athleticism provided as he gets used to the senior
game. He said it took him a while this season to feel comfortable at
his level of lacrosse.
“There's always a transition period.
I don't know if it was obvious, but those first couple of games I was
so nervous playing with all these guys I've looked up to my whole
life,” Currier said. “Now I've started to find my groove and
started to be more calm and play my game.”
The key for him is to worry about his
own end first then let his gift for covering a lot of ground in a
short time take over. “That's the one thing that [defensive] coach
Bob Keast always tells me. Take care of defence and transition
will take care of itself,” Currier emphasized. “I've just been
trying to stay in our end and focus on that as much as I can. But if
I see the ball on the ground I'm running after it cause that's the
only thing I've got on these guys. I'm not bigger or stronger, I'm
just a little bit faster.”
The game was intense, as games between
these rivals tend to be. “They're close to us [geographically],
we've played them a couple of times in playoffs over the years,”
said Vitarelli. “Everybody wants that edge and the games are mostly
like that.”
The important thing is to find the
right level of aggression. Vitarelli feels like the Lakers are doing
a good job of that lately. “I think there's that fine line you want
to walk where you can be a little too aggressive or not quite
aggressive enough. We've been able to find our groove lately. We just
want to continue to build and keep that going.”
For their part, Brooklin defender Steve
Priolo felt like the Redmen may have gone just a bit over that line
and it hampered their ability to get back into the game.
“There was a swing there where we got
a couple of penalties and the crowd kind of got into it and swayed
it,” Priolo said. “We got down by three and were chasing it the
rest of the way. Against a team like Peterborough, it's tough to come
back. It gets a little chippy and we both got off our games and we
forgot about scoring and playing defence and a lot of the stuff that
lacrosse is.”
The win gives Peterborough a huge
advantage towards finishing first in the league and securing home
floor advantage throughout the playoffs. They have a four-point lead
over second-place Oakville, who throttled the Brampton Excelsiors
11-4 Thursday night. Since the Lakers swept the season series over
the Rock, if Peterborough wins its final two games of the season
against the Cobourg Kodiaks as they'll be heavily favoured to, they
will clinch first place regardless of the outcome of their next two
contests (against Brooklin and Six Nations next week).
The Redmen, sitting in fourth place six
points back of Peterborough but only two behind Oakville, aren't
giving up on the regular season, though. They still want to get a
possible first-round Game 7 back in Whitby.
“It's a huge deal. We're kind of
chasing right now, but it's still possible,” Priolo said. “This
league is so tight. It's all about making playoffs. That's our first
goal. Home field advantage is going to be our next goal and we'll
take it from there. So we're just going to keep trying to win. We've
got Cobourg on Sunday so those are points that we can't really give
up to catch these guys.”
That game in Cobourg is Brooklin's next
outing. Then these two teams will reconvene on Brooklin's concrete
pad next Wednesday.
