Jul
25
Written by:
News Editor
Sunday, July 25, 2010 5:06 PM
By Roxanne Hooper
It was a battle from the beginning to end, as two evenly matched teams battled for bronze in the field lacrosse finals at the BC Summer Games Sunday.
Boys from the Fraser River-Delta squeaked out the victory.
The final score was 7-6 for the Zone 4 team, barely beating out their rivals from the Thompson-Okanagan Zone 2 team in early morning play.
In reflection, both coaches agreed it was an incredibly tight game and one all the boys should be proud of.
“It was close start to finish, it could have gone either way,” said Dan Chetner, assistant coach for Thompson-Okanagan.
“(His players) had a couple opportunities in the last minute to tie it up and take it to overtime,” he explained. “There were a couple close plays, good shots on net, but their (Zone 4) goalie had some good plays at the end too,” and the Interior team couldn¹t pull it out.
“The weekend was great. The boys competed at a high level of lacrosse, and they had a great time,” Chetner added. ”A good competitive game from beginning to end, where they can play intense, that’s a great game, and that’s what this was -- It sucks to loose, but it¹s great to play a good game.”
There was a one-goal difference between the two teams throughout much of the game, and that¹s the kind of constantly competitive play that Zone 4 head coach Darren Alexander and his boys like to play In their dorms at R.C. Garnett Elementary Saturday night, the Ladner coach told the boys: “This is your last game together. Just go out and leave everything one the field. Whether we win or lose, we’ll know we did everything we could,” the coach recounted.
That’s exactly what Lower Mainland team did.
Alexander said his boys were feeling great following their victory.
His players came from Richmond, New Westminster, Delta, and Burnaby, and Alexander said with only three practices he was impressed how they came together and worked so well as a team.
He had no regrets about picking any of the 19 (our of 45 who tried out) be brought to the Summer Games.
There wasn’t any one player who did most of the work. It was very much a team effort, and Alexander commended the entire group for playing hard and playing well together.
Fifteen-year-old Ryan Donahoe, of New Westminster, has been playing since he was five years old, felt the team¹s defence was strong all weekend.
“Actually, it was excellent defence,” but the big sick defenceman noted the team turned over the ball a little too much.
“That’s what killed us in the semi-finals against Fraser Valley (Saturday afternoon),” he said, noting that it knocked them out of gold contention.
Speaking of the game that earned Zone 4 a bronze, Donahoe said: “We would have liked to score more goals, but what can you do?” he said. “It’s still a win.”
Interior¹s goalie Ryan Emery, a 15-year-old Rayleigh boy, was hailed as his teams unofficial most valuable player.
“He’s got a great attitude for the game, a very competitive spirit, and plays hard for the entire game,” Chetner said.
In his first year in goal, but third as a field lacrosse players, Emery commended all his buddies for playing great throughout weekend.
“Our passing wasn¹t the greatest today,” he said immediately following the game. “Our biggest downfall was passing and catching. But it was a good, competitive game -- It was fun.”