The long, harsh winter dashed Langley Secondary’s boys field lacrosse players’ hopes of playing a complete season.
But once the thaw finally arrived, the Saints marched to a provincial title.
The Saints defeated the Pitt Meadows Marauders 14-8 in the provincial final, held March 3 at Mercer Stadium in New Westminster.
LSS went undefeated at the provincial tournament, and en route to the gold medal game, defeated Victoria’s North Bay in the semifinal.
“From the beginning to the end they got better in every game,” we were only able to have, because of the weather, two regular season games, so the kids weren’t able to play a lot together.”
The Saints gelled quickly at the B.C. tournament and capped the provincials by beating a Pitt Meadows team that they barely defeated during the round robin.
“This was pretty exciting for the kids because most of them play club (field) lacrosse with the Langley Thunder and this year, provincial championships were cancelled in Victoria due to the weather , so they weren’t able to go to a provincial championship at all,” Gallant said. “They were biting at the bit.”
Weather did play a factor in the Saints game March 1 versus the Terry Fox Ravens at Dr. Charles Best Secondary in Coquitlam.
“The field was covered white in snow,” Gallant said. “It was snowing like silver dollar snowflakes. It started with no snow and ended with it snowing so hard, they were using clipboards to make the lines on the field.”
Gallant said overall, the “whole team played like all-stars.”
The B.C. champion Saints include Connor Watson, Gray Pennington, Dane Chard, Dylan Grove, Ethan Ohlman, Brendan Rayburn, Aydan Johnson, Kyle Brunsch, Cal Slade, Chayce Fryer, Chase Moore, Aidan Miller, Cole Radke, Jordan Daniel, Trevayne Hunter, Caleb Pearson, and Tynan Shatzko.
