Despite a solid effort, each of the three North Okanagan Legends squads was shut out of the medals at the B.C. Pee Wee Box Lacrosse Championships last weekend in Vernon and Armstrong.
Powerhouse teams from the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island proved a little too much for the host Legends, who had a three-week layoff before the tourney began.
The Nor-Val/Hi-Pro A2 Legends salvaged a 10-6 win against Abbotsford Saturday after dropping their first two Friday round-robin games.
Brady Marzocco (4+1), Jayden Hunter (2), Game MVP Conor Webb (1+3), Stephane Richard (1+2), Jake Pelletier (1+2) and Niklas Luttmerding handled the attack.
Cole Martin chipped in with a helper.
“With the way the A2 division games went it was a bit of a surprise how things unfolded. All the favoured A2 teams struggled to contend,” noted A2 Legends’ head coach Harold Mann.
Langley iced Richmond 12-6 to pocket A2 gold in Sunday’s medal round. Surrey took bronze after stuffing Nanaimo 10-6.
In the A1 division, Coquitlam secured gold by shading runners-up Ridge Meadows 7-4 in the championship game, and New Westminster pocketed bronze with an 11-6 win over Juan de Fuca.
In B division play, Coquitlam outlasted Campbell River 8-2 to collect gold, and Shuswap shaded North Shore 6-5 for bronze.
In the C class, it was Delta doubling Penticton 10-5 for gold, and Juan de Fuca stopping Mission 8-4 for bronze.
In Saturday play, the North Okanagan C squad bowed 8-5 to Delta to finish with a 1-2 record, and the B Legends fell 10-4 to Juan de Fuca to end at 0-3.
“The tournament was a huge success for the association, and on behalf of the A2 squad we would like to thank all the volunteers that put in a major amount of hours preparing and pulling off a tournament of this capacity with no issues,” said Mann.
“The host convenors, Lolly Barr and Amy Drabuik, lived at the rinks everyday from opening in the morning till after the last people left home at night.
“All three teams had lead people that worked to organize their teams, parents and volunteers – thank you to all of them. From the A2 team, Trenna Luttmerding was rock-solid.”
At Saturday’s recognition ceremonies, Marzocco was named to the A2 All-Star Team, Spencer King received the A2 Legends’ Fair Play Award and Mann was voted the Fair Play Coach.
“Overall it was a really great season. We went unbeaten in our own league this year, won a gold medal in Penticton and won a silver medal at home,” said Mann, thanking assistant coach Rob Seaton for his efforts.
