Brooklin Responds to Loss at the ILA with a Home Win Over Brampton

By Mark Stehlin

The Brooklin Lacrosse Club (BLC) left the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena with an 11-3 loss to the Six Nations Chiefs on Tuesday night, less than 24 hours later they hosted the Brampton Excelsiors at Iroquois Park Sports Centre (IPSC). These teams last met at Brampton’s Memorial Arena on May 22 when BLC escaped with a thrilling 12-11 overtime win. The Excelsiors starting goalie, Riley Hutchcraft made a return to a familiar rink although he was in the visitors locker room for this game after an off-season trade. BLC welcomed Ryan Barnable back to the line-up for his first game of the year.

- photo courtesy of Sam Hossack 

Prior to the game, BLC were happy to introduce and recognize the Whitby Warriors U-11-2 team that won the field provincials recently. The young players and their families stayed for the game and took part in the Great Canadian Meat Frisbee Toss during the first intermission.

The home side got off to a good start rattling off three straight to jump out to an early lead. Brampton did get two of their own late in the opening frame and it was 3-2 for BLC after the first twenty minutes.

“I thought we started well, getting up 3-0 was good but at times I thought we lacked a little intensity. Between the first and second the message to the guys was to be consistent, work harder and take better care of the ball after giving it away a couple of times,” said head coach Joel Johnson after the game.

“The message that we gave early on is that communication is important as the game is so fast, and I think that message is sinking in. I like what we have out there, and I like where we are as a group as we approach the middle of the season,” added Johnson.

The teams battled hard for the first half of the second period with neither side registering a goal on the scoreboard. Brampton eventually broke through to tie the game at 3-3. Tanner Cook answered with a nice shot after cutting from right to left in front of the net. With one second on the clock, rookie Will MacLeod scored for the home side with an important goal to make it 5-3 after forty minutes.

- photo courtesy of Sam Hossack 

It turned out that MacLeod’s goal would be the winner as he and Cook scored again at the start of the third period to open a 7-3 gap that Brampton couldn’t bridge. Bowie Horsman did manage one for the Excelsiors but BLC locked down their defense and netminder Steven Orleman made some key saves to give Brooklin the 7-4 win good for a 4-2 record.

Next up for BLC is a home game on Wednesday June 11 at 8 pm when the Oakville Rock are in town.

Scoring  - MacLeod (2,0) Keenan (0,2) T Cook (3,0) Clark (0,1) Boushy (1,4) Wills (0,1) Darlison (0,1) C Kearnan (1,4) B Kearnan (0,1)