The Armstrong Shamrocks wore a rut to the penalty box and giftwrapped a 9-6 win for the Kamloops Rattlers in Thompson Okanagan Senior Lacrosse League play Friday night at Nor-Val Sports Centre.
The Rattlers jumped out to a two-goal lead on tallies by Travis Joseph and Nate Woldum. Armstrong answered with a goal by Jarrett Medhurst, but Kamloops kept coming hard on the powerplay, with Mark Jurista and JJ Woldum netting goals. Singles by Armstrong’s Braydon Sanders and Brett Heitman made it 4-3 Kamloops at the break.
The Shamrocks earned 16 of their 51 total penalty minutes (the Rattlers had just 14 minutes total) in the second frame, and the Rattlers converted three times on the powerplay, two from Jurista and one by Nate Woldum. The Shamrocks responded with a shorthanded goal by Sanders.
Said Armstrong head coach Glenn (Stumpy) Mitchell: “We were outplayed mentally tonight. They sucked us into penalties, and we got caught hook, line and sinker. We have to be able to control our emotions and play hard if we want to succeed.”
Trailing by three heading into the third frame, the Shamrocks got a little momentum from Medhurst’s second of the night, however more penalty trouble for the Rocks led to powerplay goals by Jurista and Lee Black. Sanders scored once more for the Rocks.
In other TOSLL action, the Kelowna Raiders overpowered the Vernon Tigers 13-4 in their Friday match-up at Wesbild Centre.
Trevor McEachnie paced Vernon with a pair of goals. Jacob Illichmann (5+4), Chris Phillips (3+2) and Joe Brown (2+1) were the main threats for Kelowna.
Despite the outcome, Tigers’ head coach Lawrie Skolrood is seeing positive signs in his team’s play.
“The score was somewhat misrepresentative of the level of play,” he said. “We’ve definitely seen an improvement after a couple practices.”
The Tigers’ Robbie Short and Brennan Plante were ejected after a scuffle in front of the net.
Meanwhile, in Junior B lacrosse action Thursday night, the baby Shamrocks played the host Kelowna Raiders to a 10-10 draw at Memorial Arena.
The Shamrocks, short benched due to injuries and school commitments, carried the play as a result of countless undisciplined penalties by the Raiders, but were unable to capitalize.
Deadlocked 5-5 after two periods, Armstrong built a three-goal lead in the final frame, only to have Kelowna rally. Brett Hawrys, scoring his third goal of the night on a partial breakaway, gave the Shamrocks a lead with two minutes to play, but Kelowna equalized to salvage a point. Owen Barker (3), Willy Hanley (2), Cole Seidel and Daniel Peterson rounded out the Shamrock offence.
