The Armstrong Shamrocks fought their hardest but lost the Thompson Okanagan Senior Lacrosse League championship to the Kelowna Raiders.
The Raiders stopped the Shamrocks 10-6 Friday night at the Nor-Val Sports Centre. The Raiders swept the Shamrocks in the best-of-three league final.
“We played with a lot of heart, however, we lost to the best team tonight. Congratulations goes to the Kelowna Raiders as they were the better team in the finals,” said Shamrocks’ goaltender Chad Pieper. “Back to the drawing board I guess.”
Earlier in the week Pieper said that the two teams didn’t like each other and the two teams combined for 167 penalty minutes, including six fighting majors and three game misconducts.
The Rocks trailed 2-1 after the first despite wearing out a path to the box in the first period. Kriss Yargeau sniped the Rocks first goal.
Shamrocks’ runner Travis Lee went down swinging in front of a few hundred fans. Lee racked up 40 penalty minutes with a fight and three misconducts in the first.
The Raiders seized control in the second period with six goals. Jordan Innes sniped a pair in the period as Cody Evans, Joe Brown, Nick Evans and Patrick McMillan added singles. Brown later sniped two more for the hatty and Pho Heng added a single.
“They are a good team. We tried to key in on a few guys, but they spread the floor well and they have several guys who can score. That always makes it tough,” said Pieper.
Jarrett Medhurst sniped a hatty for the Irish and Kas Boudreau and Rob Rintoul added singles.
Rintoul fought off a few checks in the corner, rolled out to the front of the net and found the top corner after a few nifty moves for the nicest goal of the night.
“We just got stuck in our own end too much in the second,” said Pieper who made 37 stops.
Added Shamrocks’ coach Chad Pounder, “we started to turn it around in the third but it was just too little too late.”
The Raiders finished first in the regular season with a 8-2 record. They also won the season series with the Shamrocks 4-1
“We would like to thank all the fans that supported us this year, along with the volunteers that make lacrosse happen in Armstrong. Without them it would be impossible for us to play,” said Pieper.
