Visiting Lakers down Brooklin in its regular season home finale

By Sam Laskaris

Members of the Brooklin Lacrosse Club and Peterborough Lakers are going to become rather well acquainted in the coming days. The two Major Series Lacrosse (MSL) rivals met for the third time this season on Wednesday. The Lakers downed the host Brooklin squad 14-7 in its final regular season home match of the 2023 campaign, held at the Iroquois Park Sports Complex in Whitby.

The two clubs will be right back at it on Thursday in Peterborough for the Lakers’ last home contest of the regular season. The opening faceoff is set for 8 p.m. at the Peterborough Memorial Arena.

Following Thursday’s tilt, the final game for both squads before they commence playoff action, Brooklin and Peterborough will then prepare to square off a maximum of seven more times in the next little bit. That’s because the two clubs will end up meeting each other in an MSL best-of-seven semifinal series, which will begin next week. All of the dates for that series have yet to be confirmed. But the series will start Aug. 3 in Peterborough. Brooklin will then host Game 2 on Aug. 4. And
the Lakers will host Game 3 on Aug. 6. Dates for the remainder of the series will be finalized soon.

The Lakers, who improved their mark to 11-4-0 with Wednesday’s victory, are guaranteed of a second-place finish in the standings of the five-team MSL. And Brooklin, which saw its mark fall to 8-7-0, will end up in the third spot. As has been the case for many nights this season, Brooklin head coach Jason Crosbie had to play with a patched-up roster, including players from the organization’s Senior B affiliate Brooklin Merchants as well as various junior callups.

“I would like to have the right team to play them,” Crosbie said of the Lakers, the four-time defending national Mann Cup champions.

Crosbie is hoping the majority of the team’s better players are available for the post-season.

“I hope so,” he said. “I would think everybody would want to play in the playoffs.”

Crosbie added he was once again pleased with the efforts of the youthful roster Brooklin had on Wednesday.
“The kids tried hard,” he said. “But as I told them, you can’t make mistakes against a team like that because they will burn you every time.”

Jack Boyden netted two goals for Brooklin in Wednesday’s outing. Boyden was also credited with an assist. Also scoring for the hosts were Liam Osborne, Jordi Jones-Smith, Angus Rawding, Tanner Cook and Brady Kearnan. Though he didn’t score himself, Luke Pilcher had three assists for Brooklin. Kearnan also added three assists to end up with a four-point night.