Jesse is King for a week.
If he continues this pace, he would be King for the summer and that would be just fine by Victoria Shamrocks fans.
Jesse King scored 13 points in two Western Lacrosse Association victories over the weekend at The Q Centre to be named WLA player of the week Monday.
The 15-10 win over New Westminster Salmonbellies was followed by Sunday evening’s 9-6 victory over the league-leading Maple Ridge Burrards (6-2) before 1,739 fans.
The Shamrocks were the talk of the league to start the season, but for all the wrong reasons. But they have won three of their last four games to move to 3-4 and appear to have put the distractions of the 0-3 start behind them.
“We’re focusing on us,” said King, following the New Westminster game. “This is a good step in the right direction.”
It continued Sunday for the Shamrocks and King. The former NCAA Big Ten field lacrosse star with the Ohio State Buckeyes returned to the Shamrocks after helping lead the Calgary Roughnecks to the pro National Lacrosse League title this spring.
“These were big games, in terms of confidence, to get two wins against top-level teams,” said Shamrocks head coach Bob Heyes.
South African-born WLA rookie Chris Boushy, an NLL Rochester Knighthawks pro out of Ontiario Junior A with the Burlington Chiefs, continued his strong early-season play for Victoria with three goals and two assists against Maple Ridge.
“Boushy has played in the pro league [NLL] and is getting better and better every game,” said Heyes.
King had two goals and two assists Sunday, Chris Wardle two goals, Steve Priolo one goal and assist and Dallas Wade one goal.
Travis Cornwall and Riley Loewen scored twice each for Maple Ridge.
Cody Hagedorn made 35 saves for Victoria. Frank Scigliano made 36 stops for Maple Ridge.
The Shamrocks received some bad news on the weekend, however, with a season-ending injury to scoring star Rhys Duch, who this spring scored the overtime winner against the Buffalo Bandits to give Calgary the NLL title.
Duch was seen after the New Westminster game Friday with his left foot in a walking boot. The Shamrocks refused to divulge the nature of the injury.
“It’s serious and finishes his 2019 season,” said Victoria GM Chris Welch.
