The Westlock Junior Rock stayed undefeated after sweeping their two-game home stand at the Rotary Spirit Centre over the weekend.
In the front-end of the back-to-back games May 8, the Rock pulled off an incredible 6-5 come-from-behind win over the Edmonton Warriors.
Down 4-0 in the first period, the Rock slowly started to chip away at the Warrior lead, netting a power-play goal, followed by two quick ones in the last seconds of the first period to make it a one-goal game.
Coach Mike Ivey said it was not the start he wanted from his team, but liked their effort after falling behind.
“It was a good battle, it was tight throughout for sure,” Ivey said.
“It was tough going down early, but it was good that we stuck with it and got that win.”
A power-play goal mid-way through the third tied things 5-5, before a buzzer-beater by Jordan Boulerice with two seconds left won the game.
Ivey said he never doubted his squad’s ability to come back.
“As a group, we always know we can win a game and lacrosse can change so quick, you can score a couple of goals in a minute,” he said.
“We never doubt that we can come back and win, but it was tough going down that early, so big credit to our boys.”
Boulerice, who provided the late-game heroics, never doubted his team’s ability either.
“It was pretty good, we battled pretty hard,” Boulerice said.
“It was tough at first, but we came back. We know we can come back, it’s pretty easy in lacrosse to get a couple of goals.”
Ivey said he was proud of his players for finishing the game off in dramatic fashion.
“That was exciting, I was happy for the boys. They battled through a lot,” he said. “It was awesome to get one late like that. It feels good, you come all the way back like that and you want to seal it.”
Showing composure after taking some extra abuse was also a key to the victory.
“That’s something I always tell them, you put up with a battle and you face all that adversity and the win tastes that much better,” Ivey said.
Less than 24 hours after their dramatic victory on Friday night, the Rock were back in action Saturday afternoon taking on the Sherwood Park Titans. Despite again falling behind early, the Rock came back to score an 17-8 victory.
Down 4-0 to start the game, Ivey admitted, wasn’t his squad’s best showing.
“It wasn’t our best period, but we bounced back well in the second,” he said. “We kind of took over at that point.”
In the second the Rock scored five times and added another nine in the third.
“Our last two periods the boys were flying,” Ivey said.
“We came together as a team and we were really making it happen.”
Ivey said it was definitely a morale booster to handily defeat one of the league’s best teams.
“Sherwood Park is a really good team, we knew that coming in and we weren’t quite ready for what they had,” he said.
“Once we got into it we were flying. Sometimes you need that wake-up call to get going.”
While the team is off to a strong start and have yet to taste defeat, Ivey said there’s still a lot of work to be done.
“It’s a great start, but there’s a long way to go,” he said. “We’re going to take it one game at a time, but our ultimate goal is to win a championship, we want to do that every year. We believe we have the team to do it.”
The Rock play their next two games on the road in Sherwood Park and Edmonton, respectively, before returning home to host the Lakeland Heat at the Spirit Centre on May 30.
