The Nanaimo DBL Timbermen were tasked with taking on two of the league’s best teams, back to back, and nearly beat them both.
The city’s senior B lacrosse team defeated the Port Moody Thunder 15-5 on Saturday at the Nanaimo Ice Centre after losing to the Valley Rebels Friday on the road, 10-9.
The Thunder came to Nanaimo without a full roster and the home team showed the visitors no mercy, storming to a 10-1 first-period lead.
“We came out and blitzed them right away…” said Mike Maughan, T-men coach. “They knew they had a short bench so they tried a couple plays where they had one guy kind of seagulling down the far end of the floor…We played five-on-four and we punished them that way.”
Joe Fendick scored four goals, Jon Diplock had three goals and four assists and Ryan Forslund had three goals and two assists. Other scorers were Ryan Dietterle, Rick Fields, Nick Agius, Shawn Swanson and Isaac Thomas. Ray Hodgkinson earned the win in goal.
The night before, Nanaimo’s attempts to come back in the third period fell just short.
“We battled pretty hard against a good team and we kind of felt that we deserved a better fate,” said Maughan.
Diplock’s four goals led the way, Russell Thomas and Fendick had two goals each and Alex McDougall also scored.
After strong showings against the first-placed Rebels (11-2) and the fourth-placed Thunder (8-6-0-1), Nanaimo (7-7) hosts the West Coast Senior Lacrosse Association’s last-placed North Shore Indians (0-11-0-1) on Thursday (June 28) at the NIC.
“They did play us pretty tight when we played them over there,” said Maughan. “We’ll work on the things that we need to work on and hopefully get the result and carry it on from there.”
GAME ON … The T-men and Indians play Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets, $7 each, will be available at the door.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com
