After steamrolling the competition and dominating their division in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League, the Westlock Junior Rock were stopped in their tracks at the league championship last weekend.
The hometown boys hosted the Fort Saskatchewan Rebels for a best-of-three tournament, but were narrowly defeated 13-10 on Friday evening and 11-9 on Saturday afternoon.
“This one will sting for a while, but we know we left it all out there,” coach Mike Ivey said.
“It was two really good teams coming together, and as you can see by the score it could have gone either way.”
Both the Friday and Saturday matches were back-and-forth and tight right to the end — during both games the Rock at one point or another held the lead.
During Saturday’s game toward the end, when facing a one-goal deficit, it was obvious how much the team wanted the win based on the non-stop pressure they put on the Revels.
Unfortunately in the end, despite some spectacular scoring opportunities they managed to generate even while short-handed, the Rock were stymied by the Rebels’ strong defence and goaltending.
Westlock had faced Fort Saskatchewan early in regular-season play, posting a slim 11-10 victory before the Rebels moved from the north central division to the north east division.
Once the Rebels were out of the division, the Rock had no trouble with the rest of the competition, going undefeated through the regular season and the division playoffs July 11-12.
Ivey said they knew they would be in tough against the Rebels based on the score during their previous meeting, but the two-straight losses were tough to take considering how hard the Rock played.
“That’s the tough thing, the boys battled hearts out and worked so hard. They deserved it,” he said.
“But they definitely left it all on the floor, and that was nice to see.”
The end of play this year will see some of the more seasoned Rock veterans age out of the Junior level, which will mean some key losses in terms of the team’s leadership, but Ivey said he knows there are some tough players ready to take on those leadership roles next year.
“Absolutely,” said the coach.
“They’ve already stepped up this year so we’ll be ready to go.”
