Sudbury lacrosse crowns top teams

It’s been said in the past, on more than one occasion, that summer time in Sudbury provides the chance for local sports reporters to take a step back, relax just a bit and catch their breath in anticipation of another hectic winter.

Well, it seems that someone has forgotten to pass the message along to the thousands of area youngsters who are keeping the local sports scene hopping for those of us who try to keep you up to date.

With that in mind, I had a chance to catch up with a couple of groups who are not always privy to the spotlight. The Greater Sudbury Lacrosse Association runs the house league portion of its schedule from early April through to late June, with the rep Rockhounds continuing play through to provincials in August.

This past weekend would see winners crowned in five different age groupings, starting with the midget clan on Friday night at Carmichael. It’s safe to say that the elder statesmen of the GSLA really set the tone for three days of incredible lacrosse action.

With healthy bodies at a premium, the last thing the midget B final needed was to be extended just a touch. But that’s exactly what happened as Charles Furchner netted his fourth goal of the game in the shootout to lift Team B (Orange) past Team D (Blue) by a final score of 9-8.

Eric St-Denis added a hat trick for the victors, with Brad Schroeder netting the remaining two goals. Kieran Peltier scored three times in a losing cause, Joel Charlebois added two more, with singles coming courtesy of Jacob Lachapelle, Tyler Critchley and Dylan Laakso.

No overtime was required for the A final, but that didn’t make the margin of victory any greater as Laberge, Venne and Partners opened up a 5-2 lead and hang on for a 5-4 win over Team C (Red).

Eric Gelinas and Johnny Duhamel paced the attack with two-goal efforts, with Curtis Bennett rounding out the scoring for LV & P while Brad Durigon answered with a pair of goals for Team C — solo markers came from Connor Newson and Mike Randa.

A last minute change of venue on Sunday, forced by a power outage in Coniston, did little to detract from the excitement as an upset was in the making in the bantam division. The White Avalanche accomplished what no other team had done all season long, beating Auto Depot Black 5-3 in the final encounter of the afternoon.

Nick Marion led the way for the winners, not only sacrificing his body on several occasions after much taller opponents, but also found time to chip in with a pair of goals as well.

Jason Bednarski matched that total for the Avalanche, while Eric Fraser converted from outside the house. Aiden Ingriselli, David Moorhouse and Connor Mick replied for Auto Depot in a game that had the Carmichael Arena crowd rocking throughout 36 minutes of up-tempo lacrosse action.

A dominating effort in the peewee gold medal match as Nicholas Chokan and Camilo Rodrigue-Melo each registered a hat trick as the White Lightning Rockhounds upended the Yellow Stingers 7-1.

Bailey Henri (Lightning) and Bryceton Lalonde (Stingers) accounted for the remaining scoring in the game, which saw the Lightning hold period leads of 3-1 and 4-1 en route to their convincing victory.

Plenty of scoring in the novice final as Jamie Wahamaa found the back of the net on four occasions, lifting novice G past novice D 8-5. Phillippe Larochelle (2), Dylan Dumontelle and Dylan Will provided additional support to the novice G offense, while Mathieu Dokis-Dupuis (2), Riley Dube, Mathieu Desormeaux and Cyrus Ghorbani handlee the scoring for the D team.

Finally, Max McCue provided the scoring heroics, netting four goals as the White Lightning Tykes dumped the Green Eagles 6-2 in the tyke grand finale. Carter Will and Skyer St. Pierre added one goal apiece, with Cole Kennedy and Ben Cacciotti replying for the Eagles.

Finally, congratulations go out to coach Peter Zeman and the Panhellenic Spitfire U-15 boys, who played host to Richmond Hill, Burlington and North York in Ontario Cup Tier II playdowns on Saturday and Sunday.

The Spitfire put together very solid performances in five of the six halves of soccer they played over the weekend, but it wasn’t enough to advance. Needing to finish first in the round robin affair in order to move on to the semifinals in late August, Sudbury Panhellenic opened with a 2-2 tie with the Richmond Hill Raiders, as Dominic Girard scored twice for the winners.

Needing a win in their second game against North York Armour (who were coming off a win), the Spitfire looked strong in the opening half, holding the Armour scoreless for the first 30 minutes or so.

But the Armour finally broke through, scoring late in the first half and the Spitfire struggled to recover in the second half, eventually dropping a 5-0 decision.

There was no quit in this group, however, which responded Sunday with an all-around team effort, blanking the Burlington Warriors 1-0 as Girard picked up goal number three. North York went on to capture the event.

Randy Pascal is the founder of SudburySports.com.