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| Cory Vitarelli (left) had a critical goal to help the Lakers jump out to a 1-0 lead in the MSL finals. |
by Commissioner Jim Brady
The season-long waited for battle between the two top teams in the major series league commenced tonight Tuesday in the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena in Six Nations.
The game was preceded by the presentation of trophies to Chiefs goaltenders Dillon Ward and Brandon Miller, who ended up the season with two less goals against than the Peterborough crew of Matt Vinc and Evan Kirk. This was followed by the presentation of the leading scorer award in Major Series Lacrosse for 2015 to Dhane Smith, who ended up winning by one point over Peterborough’s Shawn Evans.
Six Nations were the league champions, edging out Peterborough by two points. Everything pointed towards exciting games and a long series.
The game itself was everything it promised to be. Both teams played great defense ran the ball like crazy and had ample opportunity to win the game.
However, offensive stars ran into superlative goaltending from Vinc and Ward and goals were hard to come by. The Chiefs had their best crowd of the year and gave them an effort to cheer for. They never allowed more than two goals in any one period and would have one most games in such a manner. But Peterborough was even tougher on them and held them to the four-goal total.
Peterborough held on to their second-period lead which they had gained by outshooting the Chiefs in the first two periods. Two quick goals at the start of the third by Curtis Dickon and Cory Vitarelli gave Peterborough a three-goal lead. The Nations took over play and had several opportunities to score goals and close the gap.
Vinc was under considerable pressure for the rest of the game but for one great effort by Ryan Benesch he closed the door for the balance of the game.
The second game in this series will be in the Peterborough Memorial Centre on Thursday evening and the third game back in the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena.
Amazing lacrose
