Finally, the Irish found some luck.
The Armstrong Shamrocks scored nine times in the first period and cruised to a 16-9 win over the Kelowna Raiders in their final Thompson Okanagan Junior Lacrosse League regular season home game Friday at Nor-Val Sports Centre.
“That might have been our best period of lacrosse all year,” said Armstrong assistant coach Chad Pieper, of the offensive outburst in the opening 20 minutes.
“Everybody was playing well and we finally got some bounces going our way. We took some shots that seemed to find some holes or the ball bounced in over the line.”
Joel Castle and Justin Backus each had seven-point nights for the 5-8 Shamrocks, who sit in fourth place, one point behind the 5-7-1 Kamloops Venom (each team has three games remaining).
Castle had 5+2, Backus 4+3, Nich Yadernuck added 2+4 and Mykl Drabiuk also had two goals for Armstrong, who stretched their lead to 14-6 after 40 minutes.
Singles went to Shane Minnis, Kaden Sagh and Sam Hanley.
Armstrong goalies Cole Macfarlane and Francois Leroux combined to make 27 saves as the ‘Rocks outshot the winless Raiders 63-36. Leroux made three saves playing the final seven minutes as he made his Armstrong debut.
The Shamrocks played without leading scorer Owen Barker, who was on a B.C. Junior A League call-up with the New Westminster Salmonbellies. Barker had no points and one minor penalty in New West’s 11-4 win over the Port Coquitlam Saints (Vernon’s Tyler Landry was the back-up goalie for New West Friday).
Armstrong plays its final three league games on the road, starting Saturday with a match against arch-rivals Vernon Sun Valley Source For Sports Tigers (13-0) at Kal Tire Place. Face-off is 7:30 p.m.
n Barker has one goal in two games with the Salmonbellies; former Shamrock Brett Hawrys has 22-29-51 with the sixth-place Nanaimo Timbermen of the BCJALL (5-9-1); Landry has put up impressive numbers with the ‘Bellies. He is third in the league in goals against average (8.46), fourth in wins (five) and fifth in save percentage (.801). New West is fourth in the eight-team league at 9-6.
