The Oceanside Buccaneers U-16 lacrosse team has returned from snowy provincials in Burnaby with a bronze medal.
Anticipating two tough games on Sunday, the Bucs were prepared to do battle but Mother Nature had other ideas. The conditions weren’t allowing the tournament to continue and the Buccaneers ended up with a bronze medal, which was based on how each team did in the three-game, round-robin portion of the tournament.
Having just 11 players suited up at the provincials, with most teams having anywhere from 16 to 20, the Bucs took it to a team out of Vancouver on Friday morning by a score of 9–5.
Vancouver held the lead 5–4 at the half but thanks to five unanswered goals in the second half, the Buccaneers walked away with the win. Jory Clermont led the way with four goals and an assist, while Ian Whibley picked up a hat trick as well. Whibley ended up winning the game’s MVP award.
The second match for the Buccaneers came Friday evening as they took on North Okanagan, thumping them 12-5. Stirling McCullough and Eric Thompson scored some highlight reel goals while Whibley was at it again, scoring six times.
Clermont was awarded the game MVP for some dominant play, winning faceoffs and loose balls, as well as pitching in with another four-goal performance.
Saturday saw the Buccaneers taking on the Coquitlam Adnacs Two, who they were tied for first, with one game remaining in the round robin.
The snow started to fall on what turned out to be the most important game of the provincials thanks to Sunday’s games not being played out.
With visibility at a minimum and both teams wearing yellow jerseys, (the referees opted not to have one team wear pinnies) the conditions were only made that much tougher.
The Buccaneers came out strong in the first half, taking a 5–3 lead over the Adnacs thanks to two goals a piece from Whibley and Clermont, with Jesse Chiste rounding out the scoring.
The Adnacs came out and double teamed the Buccaneers top two scorers in the second half and took advantage of some power play situations to score five unanswered goals to take the game 8-5 and first place in the round robin pool.
The Buccaneers were disappointed that they were not given the opportunity to play their two final games on Sunday which they were confident would have upgraded their medal but took the bronze despite not having a chance to play out the rest of the tournament.
The Buccaneers as a team were awarded the Most Sportsmanlike Team award and Eric Thompson was awarded the Buccaneers “Warrior Fair Play” award.
