The Penticton Heat celebrate their victory in the gold-medal game at the 2024 BCLA Minor Box Lacrosse Provincial U17 Championships at Langley Events Centre on July 28. Gary Ahuja photo
A thrilling one-goal game wrapped up four days of provincial championship lacrosse.
Twenty-one teams were competing in three U17 divisions (A1, A2 and B) as part of the BC Lacrosse Association Minor Box Lacrosse U17 Provincial Championships. The event was hosted by Langley Minor Lacrosse at both Langley Events Centre and the Aldergrove Community Centre.
Langley Events Centre hosted all three gold-medal games on Sunday, including the host Langley Thunder edging the Coquitlam Adanacs 6-5 in the final game for the A1 championship.
The other two finals saw Delta/Surrey defeat the Port Moody Thunder 8-3 and in the B championship, it was the Penticton Heat prevailing 8-5 over the Peninsula Warriors.
For full tournament scores and more information, please click here.
A1 Final: Langley Thunder 6 Coquitlam Adanacs 5
Logan Claxton’s second goal of the game stood as the winner as the Langley Thunder held off the Coquitlam Adanacs 6-5 in a thrilling A1 championship final.
The Thunder never trailed in the game, leading by two goals after both the first and second periods, although the Adanacs had tied the score at three early in the middle frame.
But despite playing with a short-handed roster, the Thunder – led by both game MVP and tournament MVP goaltender Marcus Khan – were able to hold off the Adanacs.
Reece Bryde, Mason Eastgate and Claxton had given the Thunder a 3-0 lead 10 minutes in before the Adanacs’ Isak Hanson got his team on the board.
Trailing by two entering the middle frame, Declan Quinn and Malcolm Richardson tallied less than two minutes early in the second to knot the score. Grayson Pinchin and Koji Okuyama restored the two-goal advantage ahead of the intermission and it remained 5-3 until late in the third when Claxton potted his second with 4:44 to play. And that proved crucial as with 37 seconds left, Matty Dane made it 6-5.
But Eastgate would win possession for Langley on the ensuing face-off and the Thunder were successfully able to drain the clock down.
Claxton (2-0), Bryde (1-1) and Jackson Read (0-2) each had two-point games for Langley with Khan making 39 saves as his team was outshot 44-35. Coquitlam’s Trygg Cook was his team’s game MVP.
It wrapped up an impressive four days for Langley as the team went 4-0 in the round robin to win the five-team pool and then defeat the Port Coquitlam Saints 5-2 in the semi-final. Coquitlam went 2-2 in pool play – including an 11-4 loss to the Thunder -- before beating the Ridge Meadows Burrards 7-1 in the other semi-final.
A2 Final: Delta/Surrey 8 Port Moody Thunder 3
Delta/Surrey silenced the Port Moody Thunder over the final 51 minutes, hold their opponent to a single goal over that span. The Thunder were ahead 2-1 at that point, but the Delta/Surrey squad dominated the rest of the way for an 8-3 win in the A2 gold-medal game.
Logan Lawrence led his team with a hat trick in the victory while Levi Sadlo chipped in with a goal and three assists. Jerome Raine, Jacob Glass, Cypress Fiessel and Spencer McEvoy each scored once with Glass also chipping in a pair of assists.
Shots on goal were 46-34 for Delta/Surrey.
The Thunder’s Thomas Goodsell had a pair of goals with Parker Doyle adding the other. Doyle was also named the A2 Tournament MVP while Goodsell and Glass earned their team’s respective Game MVP awards.
Both teams went 3-0 during pool play with Delta/Surrey defeating the Langley Thunder 8-3 in one semi-final while Port Moody was a 7-4 winner over the Coquitlam Adanacs in the other.
B Final: Penticton Heat 8 Peninsula Warriors 5
A hat trick from Elias Hunt combined with a 45-save performance from goaltender Owen Byers led the Penticton Heat to an 8-5 gold-medal win over the Peninsula Warriors.
Byers earned the Tournament MVP award for his efforts.
With Byers turning aside every shot in the opening 20 minutes, the Heat opened a 3-0 lead and when the Warriors did finally solve the goaltender to make the score 4-1 with just over half the game to play, the Heat responded less than a minute later. Penticton was up 7-2 after 20 periods and while the Warriors would get to within two goals with 3:04 to play, they could get no closer.
Elias Hein, Landon Peterman, Nash Sereda and Samuel Babakaiff had the other Penticton goals while Travis Pelkey led the Warriors with two goals with Cash Breton, Chaz Senior and Cameron Simpson scored a goal apiece.
Daxton Ford (Penticton) and Tyler Underwood (Peninsula) earned the game MVP awards for their respective teams.
The victory avenged the Heat’s 5-3 loss during round-robin play to the Warriors as they went 2-1 in pool play before defeating the Saanich Tigers 6-3 in the semi-finals.
Peninsula was 3-0 and won their semi-final game 11-8 over the Abbotsford Warriors.
-30-
Comments