Two bitter rivals, loud crowd, back-and-forth scoring, up-and-down action, one more regular season meeting.
And there’s always the chance the Vernon Sun Valley Source For Sports and Armstrong Shamrocks could meet in the first round of the Thompson Okanagan Junior Lacrosse League playoffs in less than a month.
The Tigers improved to 11-0 Wednesday with a hard-fought 9-8 win over the Shamrocks at Armstrong’s Nor-Val Sports Centre in front of a boisterous pro-Irish crowd.
It was Vernon’s third win in as many games with their arch-rivals this season, and snapped 4-7 Armstrong’s modest two-game winning streak.
The final regular season meeting will be Saturday, June 27, at Kal Tire Place. Both teams have five games remaining.
“It was a great game, the boys really stepped up to play,” said Tigers’ head coach Chris Scabar, back after a three-game absence. “I’m proud of the whole team. They really showed up and everybody played great.”
The Tigers jumped out to a 3-0 lead and held that edge through 20 minutes.
Armstrong woke up in the middle frame and scored four unanswered to take a 4-3 lead, three of them coming from leading scorer Owen Barker, who picked up a fifth minor penalty midway through the second period, resulting in an automatic game expulsion.
Vernon led 6-5 after two periods, but trailed 7-6 with eight minutes remaining before rattling off three consecutive goals for a 9-7 lead.
Armstrong scored late and could not get the equalizer.
“We were right there with them,” said Shamrocks assistant coach Chad Pieper. “We scored a short-handed goal to get to within one, and had a great chance for the equalizer with 10 or 15 seconds left but it just didn’t go in. We played well and we’re getting better.”
Steele Pelletier led the Tigers with 2+2, while Ryan Sarazin had two goals. Singles went to Jordy Barr, Jay Seaton, Quintin Harrish, Liam MacPhee and Jordan Orr.
Sam Hanley and Brayden Hoggart each had two goals for the Shamrocks while Marlon Forrest added one. Liam Drabiuk had three assists.
Aaron Jensen made 33 saves for Vernon while Cole Macfarlane stopped 41 shots for the Irish, who also lost forward Colby Erickson to a match penalty midway through the third period.
The Shamrocks took 48 minutes in penalties compared to 18 for Vernon.
“It’s something we’re working on and talking to the kids about,” said Pieper of the penalty issues that have plagued the Shamrocks this season. “We played probably the last half of the third period shorthanded.”
The Tigers host the third-place Kamloops Venom (4-4-1) Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Kal Tire Place. A win would clinch the regular season title for Vernon.
The Shamrocks are one point back of the Venom although Kamloops has two games in hand. Armstrong visits the South Okanagan Flames Monday night.
