The Westlock Junior Rock finished off their home schedule with two big weekend home wins over the Grande Prairie Junior Thrashers.
On Saturday night at the Spirit Centre the Rock scored a 17-4 victory over the Thrashers, before putting up another 17-goal performance less than 24 hours later to take the second half of the back-to-back series 17-6 on Sunday afternoon.
Coach Mike Ivey liked the Rock’s performances against a formidable opponent.
“Grande Prairie has some good players, they’re well-coached, they’re a classy team, and they’re fun to play against,” Ivey said. “It was good to see the boys get going offensively.”
While the team showed strong efforts in both halves of the series, Saturday’s game was the better showing, Ivey said.
“We came together as a team. We were getting goals from everybody. It was awesome,” he said. “In lacrosse you have to be well-rounded in that way. It was nice to see everybody contributing, defensively and offensively.”
Back-up goalie Cole Medcke got the nod in both games and his solid performances impressed his coach.
“He played unbelievable in my opinion, he’s getting confident,” Ivey said. “He only gave up 10 goals in two games and that’s very good.”
While the Rock managed to walk away with a second victory on Sunday, Ivey would have liked to have seen a more rounded performance. The Rock had a 6-2 lead in the second and saw it chipped down to 7-6 midway through the second, before scoring the final 10 goals of the game.
“I wasn’t happy with our overall performance until the third. I thought we came out good in the third,” Ivey said. “I was happy with how the boys responded in the third, but we have to make sure we’re sharp going into playoffs.”
Rock shooter Dayne Wingrove, who recorded one goal and two assists in the contest, echoed his coach’s comments.
“We didn’t come out as strong as we wanted,” Wingrove said. “We knew they are a weaker team and we kind of played down to their level. We regrouped between the second and the third and we played our game.”
With the regular season’s home schedule now in the books, and playoffs in sight, Wingrove said the Rock are focused.
“We’re looking to take back what’s ours from Fort Saskatchewan. We had a rough finals with them last year and they’re not going to get off that easy this year. We want to win.”
The Rock enjoy a 10-day break before finishing off their regular season on the road against the Lakeland Heat and the Fort Saskatchewan Rebels.
