July 7, 2007

NEWS OUT OF THE EAST

What a wild and crazy week in the MSL as several gargantuan upsets took place as well as a number of trades as teams enter the stretch run with only 4 weeks remaining in the regular season. The unthinkable happened last week as the star-studded defending Mann Cup Champs Peterborough Lakers suffered their first defeat of the season, losing a shocker to the Six Nations Chiefs 13-12. Just when you thought the Lakers would run the table and go undefeated this year, the underachieving Chiefs beat the defending Canadian Champs on their own floor in deserving fashion. Buffalo Bandits young gun Delby Powless was the star of the night with a 3 goal, 3 assist performance while Scott Stewart, Tom Montour and Gewas Schindler each banged home 2 goals. Peterborough’s Scott Evans and Dan Carey each had a 3 goal night in a losing cause, however, scoring sensation John Grant was held goalless by the tough Chiefs defense which was certainly a key to their victory. Despite the loss, Peterborough continue to sit atop the standings with a 9-1-1 record and are a very good bet to stay in first the remainder of the season. The 2nd place Brampton Excelsiors are struggling to find their form as they have lost 2 out of their last 3 games and are a mere 1 point ahead of the surging Barrie Lakeshores. On June 23rd, Josh Sanderson, Blaine Manning and company traveled to Cornwall to play back to back games against the St. Regis Indians and it was Darris Kilgour’s St. Regis squad winning the first game in OT 8-7 but were clobbered the next night 13-4. In the first game, Brampton tied the game late at 7-7 when Pat McCready scored on a breakaway to send the game to overtime and in the OT stanza the lone goal was scored by Andrew Lazore, his third of the game giving St. Regis the surprise victory. The next night, Brampton found payback as they whipped the Indians 13-4 behind 4 goals from Mike Hominuck and a 6 point outing by both Josh Sanderson and Dan Teat. Brampton’s inconsistent week got worse as they hosted the underrated Barrie Lakeshores on June 28th and were spanked 7-3 by the blue and white brigade from Barrie. Young guns Luke Wiles and Sean Greenhalgh each potted 2 goals while transition phenom Mark “ whose house “ Steenhuis had a goal and 3 assists in a winning cause. Anthony Cosmo took the loss between the pipes for Brampton and an interesting tidbit from the contest was that Toronto Rock sniper Blaine Manning was amazingly held pointless by the stingy Lakeshore defense. With 6 games left for both teams, the race for 2nd spot between Barrie and Brampton will go right down to the wire. The Brooklin Redmen are the most disappointing team this season out east as high expectations were placed on the team from Whitby. With an abundance of NLL stars such as Gavin Prout, Shawn Williams, Jeff Zywicki, Steve Toll and Mike Accursi, the Redmen have underachieved bigtime and sit in 2nd to last spot with an abysmal 2-9-1 record. Goaltending has been the weak link for Brooklin as both of their goalies Gee Nash and Chugger Dietrich have yet to play a game due to injuries. To address their goaltending situation, the Redmen traded the versatile Chris Driscoll and goalie Mike Atwood to Barrie in exchange for veteran goalie Matt Roik, Lindsay Plunkett and Tyler Perry. In a separate deal, Brooklin traded defender Brock Boyle to Brampton in exchange for Bobby McBride, Luke Forget and a 2008 1st round draft pick – a steal for Brooklin – Brampton just got fleeced. The Redmen just have too much talent not be a force come playoff time – despite their record they are a very dangerous club that nobody would want to face in a 7 game playoff series. With most teams having played 12 games thus far, for some bizarre reason St. Regis has played only 8 and sit in 4th place with a 5-2-1 record. With four games in hand its possible that they can finish ahead of Brampton and Barrie for 2nd spot when its all said and done – this year’s dark horse team out east is the St.Regis Indians.

TONIGHTS OPPONENT – BURNABY LAKERS

The surprising 2nd place Burnaby Lakers come to Coquitlam tonight fresh off of a huge win in Victoria Tuesday night 13-11 in overtime. This is the 2nd meeting between the two clubs with the Lakers winning the first tilt 13-10 back on May 25th, the Adanacs season opener. Offensively the Lakers are led by the talented and underrated Cam Sedgewick who is 4th in league scoring as well as righties Kevin Olson and Kevin Hanson. Coquitlam enters tonight’s tilt on a 3 game winning streak and can come within a single point of 2nd place Burnaby with a win tonight. With the Adanacs chasing Burnaby for 2nd spot this game should be a real beauty.

2 MINUTES IN THE BOX WITH ANDY SECORE

Most memorable moment in your career – First Jr. A game
In my spare time I like to – Golf, fish, play hockey
Favorite midnight snack – Pizza
Favorite TV show – Survivor
Hardest hitter in the game today – Bruce Murray
Funniest teammate you ever had – Jimmy Quinlan
Favorite vacation spot – BC
Best goalie in lacrosse today – Dallas Eliuk
Favorite sport besides lacrosse – Hockey
CD in your car – Country mix
Biggest influence in your lacrosse career – Edi Comeau / Ron Chataline
Favorite rock band – Trooper
Most talented offensive player in the game today – John Grant Jr
Eating M&M’s or listening to Eminem – listening to Eminem
Favorite road arena in the NLL – ACC
Your most overused saying – Bud

I’M OUT…….