The Coquitlam Adanacs must have pulled the short straw when the Western Lacrosse Association drew up its 2017 schedule.
The Adanacs opened their campaign against the defending league champion Maple Ridge Burrards last Saturday at the Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex. They lost, 10-7.
Coquitlam trailed 4-2 after the first period and 8-5 after the second. But each team scored twice in the third and the home had a 15-14 advantage on the shot clock.
Ryan Johnson and Matt Symes each had three-point nights for the Adanacs, while Vinny Ricci scored a pair of goals. Keeper Dan Lewis stopped 38 of the 48 shots he faced, while Coquitlam fired 38 shots at Burrards goalie Frank Scigliano.
The Adanacs visit the Victoria Shamrocks at the Q Centre on Saturday, then host the New Westminster Salmonbellies on Sunday.
PoCo Saints bounce back big time
The BC Junior A Lacrosse League’s hottest team is… the Port Coquitlam Saints?
Well, nobody’s hotter than the Coquitlam Adanacs, who’ve won seven games in a row. But the Saints have won four of their past five games and climbed into fourth place in the league standings. Their only loss in that run came to the crosstown Adanacs on Friday, an 8-6 squeaker at the PoCo Rec Centre.
But the plucky Saints bounced back big time from that setback Sunday when they thumped the Victoria Shamrocks 17-9 in an afternoon game played at Planet Ice in Maple Ridge.
The Saints didn’t dwell on their loss to the Adanacs; they were up 2-0 on the Burrards before the game was a minute old. Gord Philips scored both goals. By midway through the opening period PoCo was up 5-1 and they led 8-3 at the intermission.
The Saints’ offence feasted on the Shamrocks all afternoon. Philips scored five times and added two assists, Dylan Foulds had six points including two goals, and Sam Degroot chipped in four goals and an assist. In fact, 14 players in the lineup registered at least one point.
The offensive barrage was a marked contrast to the tight, defensive game Friday against the Adanacs.
Coquitlam entered the game with only one loss in the past two years and seemed poised to run the home team out of the Rec Centre after they took a 4-1 lead halfway through the first period. Roland Rees sparked a three-goal run that got the Saints back on even terms less then five minutes into the second frame.
But goals by John Hofseth and Thomas Semple 10 seconds apart late in the period put the Adanacs back in front, this time for good.
The Saints will try to climb further in the standings, and put distance between them and the Shamrocks when they visit Victoria on Saturday. The Adanacs host the Langley Thunder on Friday.
