Merchants Keep Season Alive With Road Victory In Oakville

July 27, 2019

By Sam Laskaris

Members of the Merchants Lacrosse Club will live to fight at least one more day this season.  The Merchants managed to keep their 2019 campaign alive on Saturday thank to a 6-4 victory over the host Oakville Titans in Game 3 of their opening-round playoff series. That low-scoring match was held at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre in Oakville.

The Merchants had their backs against the wall heading into Saturday as they were trailing their Ontario Series Lacrosse (OSL) best-of-five semi-final series 2-0. With their Game 3 triumph, the Merchants guaranteed themselves at least one more home contest.

But they won’t have much time to prepare for that outing. Game 4 in the series will be staged Sunday afternoon at Children’s Arena in Oshawa. The opening faceoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. Merchants’ general manager/coach Brad MacArthur was unwilling to state whether he likes the quick turnaround for Game 4.

“I like the fact we keep playing, whether it’s tomorrow or the next day is irrelevant,” he said. Should the Merchants also manage to win Sunday’s match, then the fifth and deciding contest of the series will be held Tuesday in Oakville, starting at 8 p.m.

The Merchants managed to extend the series on Saturday by outscoring the Titans 4-2 in the final 20 minutes.

Oakville had scored the only two goals of the first period. And then it was the Merchants who managed to keep the Titans off the scoreboard in the middle frame while tying the game with two goals of their own.

MacArthur said he didn’t have much to say to his charges heading into the final period. “What I had to say was more between the first and second periods,” he said. “And it wasn’t pleasant.”

MacArthur was upset with his charges early on as some undisciplined play cost the Merchants in the opening 20 minutes. Oakville scored both of its first-period goals on the power play. MacArthur was pleased how the Merchants responded following their tongue lashing. 

“It was nice to get a win,” he added. “Riley Hutchcraft played well for us in net and I thought our defence was superb. Both defences played well and both goalies played well. It’s what you’d expect from a playoff game. But I’m not sure I expected it to be as low as a 6-4 game.” 

The Merchants had six different goal scorers on the night. They were Liam Osborne, Jake Gilmour, Adam Perroni, Austin Murphy, Travis Getz and Dylan Riley. The winner of the Merchants/Titans series will square off in the OSL best-of-five championship final against the Six Nations Rivermen.

The Rivermen won their best-of-final semi-final series thanks to a 9-8 overtime victory victory against the host Owen Sound North Stars. With that win Six Nation took the series 3-1.