The Westlock midget Rock lacrosse team will have two shots to claim the Midget ‘B’ Greater Edmonton Lacrosse Council championship.
A 7-1 win over the Sherwood Park Titans June 28 in Edmonton and a 5-4 win over the June 29 win over the Fort Saskatchewan Rebels mean the Rock have qualified for the championship final on July 4.
With the game to determine who the Rock will play July 4 not taking place until the day before, coach Mike Ivey said it’s tough to say how the Rock match up against their next opponent. However, he recognizes it won’t likely be a walk in the park.
“The teams are starting to narrow out a bit as the playoff goes down,” he said. “They’re going to be good teams no matter what.”
Westlock will face the winner of the July 3 match between the Rebels and the Titans in the championship. Because the playoff tournament uses a double-elimination rule, if the undefeated Rock lose the game they will have another shot at it on July 10.
The June 28 win over the Titans was a tale of two separate games in one, Ivey said.
“It was actually really tight at the start,” he said, as the two teams ended the first period of play tied 1-1.
From then on, however, it was all Rock.
“We really broke through in the second,” he said. “I think we were up 7-1 by the end of the second. We started to dominate … and everyone was going and we established a good playoff atmosphere and everyone was having a lot of fun.”
Regardless of how the playoffs ultimately end, Ivey said it’s been a good season for the Rock, highlighted by a midseason, 10-game winning streak that put the team in first place overall.
That winning streak didn’t come solely at the expense of the leagues bottom-feeders either, he added. Among the wins was one that ended the Rebels’ season-opening 10-game unbeaten streak.
Even though the Rock claimed first place in regular season play, and did so on the back of a substantial winning streak, Ivey said things weren’t always easy.
“Every game we played could go either way,” he said. “We always came in thinking we’re going to win. We’re a very confident team. We’re confident in the group we have.”
That confidence is grounded in the strong performances by every member of the team, he added.
“Every player that we’ve had has played well,” Ivey said. “We have a lot of first-year guys who have stepped up and a lot of kids who have been playing for a long time that have just been unbelievable for us.”
