This past weekend, Ryan Candy and Caden Peters, of the Shuswap bantam Outlaws, played in the Calgary Canada Lacrosse Tournament with the Junior Vancouver Stealth Bantam A team.
This four-day tournament is the largest of its kind in western North America.
More than 100 teams from across western Canada and the United States took part in the tournament.
The Junior Stealth are the junior club of the Vancouver Stealth, the National Lacrosse League’s representative team of B.C.
Peters was invited to join the Stealth shortly after his tryout for Team BC in May.
The Stealth still had a few remaining spots on their roster so Peter’s teammate, Candy was invited to join the Vancouver-based club.
The Stealth opened up their tournament against a Calgary side on Thursday.
The closely contested battle saw the Stealth hold off the Calgary Hornets’ sting in the last few minutes to win 4-2.
In the next game of the tournament, the Stealth scored early and often on their way to a commanding 9-2 win over the Southern Alberta Lacrosse Association.
On Saturday morning, it was a battle between two B.C. clubs as the Stealth faced off against the Kelowna Kodiaks.
The game was a back-and-forth affair, which left spectators on the edge of their seats.
Ultimately, the Kodiaks prevailed downing the Stealth 7-6 in the crowd-pleasing game.
The Stealth rounded out their last game in group play on Saturday evening against the Denver Elite, from Colorado.
Sure fire offence and stingy defence lead to a 4-1 win for the Stealth, ending the round robin play with a 3-1 record.
Following the win over Denver, the Stealth were seeded in fifth position and would not have the chance to play in the medal round.
Fortunately, for the Stealth the second placed Kamloops side suffered and unexpected loss, which resulted in the Stealth moving up into fourth place and a shot for the bronze medal.
Sunday morning dawned with a surprised group of players eager to fight for the bronze medal against Team Saskatchewan.
The Stealth came out strong in the first period with two goals.
Saskatchewan’s goaltender shut the door after that and the next two periods favoured Team Saskatchewan as they scored three goals to narrowly win the bronze medal 3-2.
The Stealth coaching staff and players were very happy with the outcome as this was the first tournament these players have played together as a team.
Peters’ summer lacrosse season will not end there. He will be heading to California with the Stealth for the USBOXLA Tournament in early August and the Junior NLL Tournament in Toronto at the end of August.
