Lakers lacrosse makes history

It was an eye-opening experience in more than one way for the Nipissing Lakers lacrosse team this past weekend, as they played their first two games in CUFLA.

The Lakers ended up with a split, losing to the Western Mustangs Saturday before earning their historic first victory Sunday morning against the McMaster Marauders.

Lakers head coach Jon Moore said there are things he’ll work on with his team, but the pair of home games was a good start for his squad.

“Overall, it was a great first weekend for our team as members of CUFLA after working so hard for almost three years to get to this point. We are looking to take our momentum from the game against McMaster into next weekend when we host Laurier on Saturday and Toronto on Sunday,” Moore said.

Playing a veteran Mustangs team Saturday, the Lakers knew it wouldn’t be an easy game and they would have to play a near perfect game, as well as get some luck to be successful.

And despite the score – 19-8 Western – Moore said he was happy with the way things went, seeing as it was the team’s first league game.

“Despite the score of the Western game I felt we played very well for three quarters of the game. We were dictating much of the play for the first quarter and a half as well as in the fourth quarter, playing Western even during that time,” Moore said, adding the Mustangs had a much larger bench which gave them an advantage. “We had a bit of a letdown in the third and start of the fourth, giving up a number of transition goals. We learned from the experience and are now a better team for it.”

Nick Chaykowsky led the Lakers attack Saturday, scoring three goals while Curtis Perry added two goals and an assist.

Broedie Birkhof, who scored the first ever Lakers goal, and Zach Kozlowski added the other tallies for the Lakers who were tied 2-2 after the first quarter and only trailed 7-4 at the half.

Moore said his team was slow out of the gates Sunday morning against McMaster, but once they got their legs under them, they dominated much of the play and broke out later in the game.

“The quick turnaround and playing so early the next day after a night game caused us to come out a little flat in the first quarter. During the intermission we regrouped, adjusted our defense, started getting loose balls in the second and played the best quarter the team has ever played in three years, outscoring McMaster 7-0,” Moore explained.

Down 5-2 after the first quarter, the Lakers outscored McMaster 12-6 the rest of the way, including 7-0 in the second quarter on their way to a 14-11 win.

Kozlowski had a monster game, scoring five goals and adding an assist.

Perry found the back of the net four times, Chaykowsky scored twice and Brad Burns, Pat Fitzgerald and Brayden Trace each added singles.

Moore said there was one shift that really turned the tide for his team and seemed to spark the entire group.

“One of the turning points in the game was a great shift by AJ Young who set a number of great picks and had a few cuts through the middle that set the tone for what we wanted our midfielders to do on offence,” Moore said. “Almost immediately after this shift, Pat Fitzgerald had a great cut to the net that resulted in his first goal as a Laker. The goal gave us our first lead of the day and created a lot of energy for the team that we carried for the rest of the game.”

After gaining a tonne of experience and their first win, the Lakers are now looking ahead to this weekend when they host Laurier Saturday night and Toronto Sunday afternoon.

Saturday night’s game is 8 p.m., while Sunday’s matchup is schedule for noon, both at Omischl Sports Complex.