The Langley Thunder, with a core of skilled scorers and a decent defence, are not to be taken lightly in the Western Lacrosse Association. They came into Friday night’s game at The Q Centre on a three-game winning run.
The trouble is they met a Victoria Shamrocks squad (10-2) that won its 10th consecutive game with an 11-6 decision over the Thunder before 2,092 fans.
The Thunder feature six-foot-four Athan Iannucci out of NCAA Hofstra field lacrosse and the pro NLL Colorado Mammoth, former Shamrocks star Lewis Ratcliff and Patrick Saunders of the NLL New England Black Wolves. Ratcliff scored three times and Iannucci twice as Langley (5-6) played Victoria tight in the final two periods, but could not overcome a 5-0 first-period deficit against what is evolving into an outstanding Shamrocks team.
“We’ve corrected and answered well those two early losses,” said Victoria’s Cory Conway, named game first star with a goal and four assists.
Two-way player Tyler Hass, a former University of Victoria Vikes basketball player, celebrated the birth of his daughter the night before by opening the scoring. That began the deluge with two goals by Jesse King and others by Daryl Veltman and Scott Ranger staking the Shamrocks to that five-goal first-period lead.
Veltman and Duch finished with two goals to match King. Jon Harnett also scored. Cory Conway had a five-point night and Corey Small added three assists.
“The game last night [13-8 victory in New Westminster] took a lot out of us but we handled it well and made a few roster substitutions, and goaltender change [Cody Hagedorn with a 31-save performance], and played good lacrosse,” said Victoria coach Bob Heyes.
The bench boss pointed to the unsung defensive tenacity of Chris Wardle.
The Thunder didn’t get on the board until Iannucci final solved the Victoria defensive riddle at 5:43 of the second period. The goal came on the man advantage, which isn’t surprising considering Langley entered the game with a power-play conversion rate of 45 per cent, second only to Victoria’s conversion rate of 47 per cent. That keyed a three-goal Thunder spurt that pulled them to within two before Duch and Tyler Burton eased Victoria back into a 7-3 lead. The Thunder again got back to within two but could never quite squeeze the gap further.
Meanwhile, Saunders (fourth with 44 points) is the only gate-crasher in the WLA top-five scoring dominated by Shamrocks Duch (50), Small (49), Conway (47) and King (43).
Ohio State Buckeyes field-lacrosse grad King leads second-place Saunders 23- 21 atop the WLA goals parade.
Victoria is at Burnaby on Tuesday to take on the Lakers before returning to face the Coquitlam Adanacs next Friday at The Q Centre.
