Perseverance and mental toughness were key reasons the Burnaby midget B Lakers found themselves in the thick of it last week at the B.C. Lacrosse midget B provincial championships in Langley.
Determination and teamwork got them the banner.
Burnaby capped a perfect tournament, winning all six games including a 5-3 win over PoCo in the B.C. final.
Led by goalie Carter Trevisan, the squad built up a solid lead in the championship showdown and bent, but didn’t break when PoCo pushed all their chips on to the table.
Up 4-1 after two periods, the Lakers witnessed a surging PoCo tally twice in the first three minutes of the third. But a stellar defence, which had surrendered just 11 goals over the previous five games, clamped down and Trevisan stood tall en route to earning a spot on the all-star team.
“We told the boys they were going to come hard at us,” head coach Tyrone Douglas noted in an email to the NOW. “The team solidified our defence and things settled down, (and) approximately 14 minutes into the period Kelon Bordeau cut through the middle and took a pass and scored his first goal of the year, giving us (some) well-needed breathing room.”
Also scoring for the Lakers were Zach Chan, Jeevan Sahota, Graham Armstrong and captain Matteo Fernandes.
To advance to the final, they stopped Prince George 7-2, with Chan scoring four times and setting up two others, and Daniel Cooper counting a pair.
Along the way, the team rolled through the competition with wins over PoCo (8-6), Shuswap (5-2), Alberni Valley (3-0) and West Kootenay (7-1), despite illness and fatigue taking its toll as the tourney went on.
When it came to the final, all those obstacles faded away as Burnaby prepared for its battle with PoCo.
“Our team played a zone defence all year, and PoCo was one team that had the ability to break our defence,” noted Douglas. “We advised the players to play tighter and to get up on their shooters as they were taking outside shots due to the zone.
“We had an excellent goalie in Carter Trevisan and if he can see the shot, he will stop it.”
With a core of 10 returning players, plus a boost from North Van of three players early in the year, the main stumbling block seemed cohesion. But Douglas said chemistry was never an issue as the Lakers got on a long winning streak before suffering a tough loss midway through the season.
“You always must worry about them fitting in with the team, but we were very lucky that it was a good transition and they all gelled together,” he said of the new players. “We had gone unbeaten for several games when we played Maple Ridge around midseason (and) ended up losing that game 6-3. ... We struggled for a few games after that but still won our games.”
Down the stretch on a season that ended 20-2-1 it appeared like the original target – the provincials – was right on course.
“Our team last year was one-game away from the semifinals during the provincials, so we felt we would have a good team this year especially when some of our second year players came back as better players.”
Picking up the Warrior Fair Play Award for the squad was Fernandes.
The Burnaby midget B Lakers are: Graham Armstrong, Chris Baker, Michael Beecroft, Matteo Bifulco, Kelon Bordeau, Jesse Cameron, Zach Chan, Anthony Chirico, Daniel Cooper, Ajay Dhinjal, Matteo Fernandes, Ashton Jensen, Dejan Krstic, Jeevan Sahota, Seth Sakamoto, Adrian Teague, Jackson Tough, Carter Trevisan, Blake White, coach Tyrone Douglas, assistants Owen Douglas, Matthew Lattimer, Andy Wong and manager Renata Teague.
