A Victorious Home Coming for the Merchants

By Mark Stehlin

The last time the Brooklin Merchants took the floor at Luther Vipond was June 23 in a penalty-filled 11-6 loss to Six Nations. On Sunday night they hosted the Owen Sound North Stars in Ontario Series Lacrosse action at the Luther Vipond Memorial Arena.  It was a hot night in the area and the humid conditions could be felt in the old barn on Winchester.  

The home team struck first on the night as Christian Watts took the ball down the floor and deposited his first of three on the night behind North Stars netminder Craig Wende. Owen Sound tied the contest before special teams took over for the Merchants with two power play goals and one short-handed to give them a 4-1 lead after 20 minutes.

- photo by Mark Stehlin

Watts and Parker Pipher with two, extended the lead for the home side to start the middle frame and the Merchants were up 10-3 with one period remaining. The third period saw no scoring from either team but did feature a steady stream of players to the penalty box, with five minors to the visitors and four to the Merchants in that frame alone. The Merchants took the 10-3 win to improve to 12-2 good for a first place tie in the standings with Six Nations and drop the North Stars to 4-9-1.

- photo by Dean Link 

Assistant Coach Mark Debrone said "this was the first game with our 25-man roster (July 1 league deadline), we were happy to see our decisions to select this group of guys to go with was the right one." He added, "we had some really tough choices to make and lost a couple of guys who played really well for us all season."

Head Coach Ryan Degerdon chimed in "I felt that the team had plateaued the last couple of games and so I was really happy with the effort that the guys put out tonight."  He added "I felt a good vibe on the bench tonight and the guys understand it's time to get going with the playoffs set to begin very soon."

- photo by Mark Stehlin

Degerdon said "with two games left I want to hit the ground running and be prepared for the playoffs with the right amount of intensity".

Scoring for Brooklin - Renaud (1,1) Carrigan (0,3) Watts (3,1) Goodchild (0,1) D Pipher (0,5) Perroni (0,1) P Pipher (6,1) taking the win in net was Deacon Knott.

Next up for the Merchants they host Hamilton on Friday at 8 pm and travel to Clearview on Saturday for a 7 pm date with the Crushers. Stay tuned to social media channels for information on first round playoff opponent and schedule.

- photo by Mark Stehlin