The senior A Nanaimo Timbermen were one of the hottest teams down the stretch, but it wasn’t enough to to extend their lacrosse season.
The T-men defeated the Coquitlam Adanacs 8-5 on Sunday at Frank Crane Arena to conclude the Western Lacrosse Association regular season.
Nanaimo (7-10-1) won three of its last four, but finishes in fifth place, one spot out of the post-season.
“Every game to us is important. Us not making the playoffs, we still want to win that game and I still coach to win every game…” said Kaleb Toth, Timbermen coach. “I want to win and that’s just the competitive nature in me and that’s the competitive nature in those guys. They want to win every single game.”
Tyson Roe, Nanaimo defender, said the Timbermen were “improving every game near the end of the season, playing more as a team.”
Jake Cullen, T-men forward, said the winning results at the end of the year allow the team to be excited about how it ended things off.
“Of course not making the playoffs isn’t where we wanted to be, but we made some huge steps towards where we want to go,” he said.
In Sunday’s regular-season finale, Chase Fraser scored a hat trick, Mason Pynn tallied twice and Jordan Gilles and Brody Eastwood each had a goal and two assists. Cullen was the other scorer. Mike DeGirolamo finished with 47 saves for the win.
The night before, the Timbermen lost 12-9 to the Burnaby Lakers at Frank Crane Arena. Ryan Lee had two goals and five assists, Fraser had two and two and Eastwood also scored a pair. Roe, Kyle Dexter and Jon Phillips also tallied. Pete Dubenski and DiGirolamo shared time in the crease.
Look for a season-in-review in an upcoming issue of the News Bulletin.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com
