Host Oakville Rock Hands Brooklin Another Loss

By Sam Laskaris

The Brooklin Lacrosse Club finds itself in a bit of a slump.

Brooklin is still winless this season after dropping its sixth straight Major Series Lacrosse (MSL) game on Monday night. The host Oakville Rock extended Brooklin’s losing streak by downing the visitors 11-5. 

The Rock never looked back after taking a 4-0 lead into the second period of the contest, which was held at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre in Oakville.

Brad MacArthur, who doubles as Brooklin’s head coach and general manager, was upset with his charges’ start.

“We didn’t have an effective warmup at all,” he said. “And (Oakville) came out and scored on their first possession of the game.”

MacArthur said he didn’t have much to say to the Brooklin players after the match. 

“I let the vets do a bit of the talking, even though we don’t have too many of those on the team,” he said.

Captain Derek Suddons and John Lafontaine addressed their teammates.

MacArthur said it was not a players-only meeting but he was not keen to disclose what was said behind closed doors.

“That message is best left in the dressing room right now,” he said. 

With the win, the Rock improved its record to 4-3. Brooklin, with its 0-6 mark is occupying last place in the six-team MSL, four points behind the fifth-place Brampton Excelsiors.

Though Oakville extended its lead to 5-0 in the middle frame, Brooklin appeared to be making things interesting by scoring the next three goals, two from Connor Kearnan and one from Jake Gilmour.

But the Rock scored four unanswered goals, including a natural hat trick from Matt Van Galen, to take a 9-3 lead into the final 20 minutes of action.

Early on in the third Brooklin looked poised to rally once again. Goals from Jake Fox and Curtis Knight cut Oakville’s lead to four goals (9-5). 

But the Rock sealed the victory by netting the final two goals of the match.

“We had a decent third,” MacArthur said. “We had 44 shots in the game which was good. And we started doing things of offence which we hadn’t done in the last couple of games.”

Brooklin returns to action this Wednesday chasing that elusive first victory as it will host the Six Nations Chiefs. The opening faceoff for this contest, which will be held at the Iroquois Park Sports Centre in Whitby, is scheduled for 8 p.m.