A successful season for Westlock’s junior Rock lacrosse squad has ended with the team dropping its championship series 2-0 to the Medicine Hat Sun Devils.
The Rock took on Medicine Hat in a best-of-three series in St. Albert on July 26-27, losing Game 1 12-9 on Friday and Game 2 11-8 on Saturday.
With the loss, the Rock finished as Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League silver medallists.
“It’s tough, in a way, to get silver, but it was remarkable how well the boys played anyways,” said Rock coach Mike Ivey. “The boys played their hearts out in two tight games that could have gone either way.”
Both championship series games were very similar, Ivey said. The Rock battled hard and took early leads, but eventually found themselves down three or four goals and were unable to recover.
However, he stressed it was not for lack of effort.
“We worked our tails off,” he said, but the bounces simply didn’t go the Rock’s way.
The final game saw the Rock trailing 10-8 in the late stages, and Ivey made the decision to pull the goalie for an extra attacker.
Unfortunately that moved did not pay off, as the Rock hit several posts and watched as the Sun Devils scored in the empty net to salt away the championship.
“That was tough on the boys,” Ivey said. “They were hurting pretty bad after, but they also knew how unbelievable they had done.”
In getting to the championship series, the Rock finished in first place in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League’s Jr. B Tier II north conference with a record of 14-3.
From there, they knocked off the Fort Saskatchewan Rebels 11-4 on July 19 at home to win the north central division. They followed that with a 12-11 home win over the Vermilion Roar on July 21 to win the north conference.
Just to qualify for the provincial championship series was a big accomplishment, Ivey said.
“It’s nothing to hang our heads about, and nothing to be disappointed about,” he said. “We played unbelievable. We never quit.”
The 2014 lacrosse season is shaping up to be another strong year for the Rock. Of the 23 players on this year’s roster, only four are too old to return next year.
Adding in several midgets who are ready to make the jump, and a few players who took this season off, Ivey said he feels the junior program in Westlock will remain competitive for years to come.
