What to Watch: Saturday and Sunday

July 5th, 2008 by Will Strome

We told you yesterday that we’re in for a big weekend in lacrosse, and with last night’s featured games ending in a narrow 5-4 win for Orangeville over Brampton and an 11-10 OT victory for Burnaby over Victoria these games are looking like they’re everything they’ve been hyped up to be. The great thing about summer ball? There’s always more where that came from.

RMLL

Calgary Jr A Mountaineers @ Edmonton Eclipse
Saturday July 5, 4:00 pm MST
Alberta’s finest go head to head for their second matchup in less than two weeks. The Eclipse stole one on the road from the Mountaineers, 7-6, on June 22. It may be a rematch but both teams will have two completely different looks—in goal, that is. The Mountaineers were able to bring in Drew Dickie from Nanaimo in B.C. Jr. A and Marc Nano was lured over from Ontario Jr. A’s Mississauga to Edmonton. Dickie played in 12 games for Nanaimo where he posted a .83 saves percentage and allowed 7.18 a game. Not to mention, Dickie also had 6 assists with his former club. Nano likely couldn’t be any more excited to find a new home after a 1-10 record and a goals against average of almost 9.5. However, Nano’s save percentage was just under .82. Mountaineer faithful hope that the newcomer will lower their nightly average of 8.2 goals against. Calgary, however, does have the highest scoring offense in the league with 80 goals thus far lead by Kiel Donahue (21 g, 8 a) and Tyler Farmer (11 g, 8 a).

MSL

St. Regis Indians @ Brampton Excelsiors
Saturday July 5, 7:00 pm EST
It’s a heavyweight bout in Ontario as the first place Excelsiors hosts the second place Indians. With only two points separating the two clubs, St. Regis has a golden opportunity to sit atop the MSL with Brampton and avenge an early season heartbreaker at home. The Excelsiors slipped past host St. Regis 6-4 early into the regular season on May 31. Since the clubs met, both have been heading in the right direction until very recently. Brampton went 4-1 until dropping two of their last three, both in the confines of their home arena (Six Nations, 10-7, on June 21 and K-W, 8-7, on June 19). After the two goal loss to Brampton, the Indians won seven of their last eight until their 12-11 defeat at Peterborough on June 29. The Indians will need a big outing from the top points scorer John Tavares (6.1 ppg) and Mark Steenhuis (5.9 ppg) to penetrate keeper Anthony Cosmo (7.14 gaa) and walk out of Brampton with a much needed win.

BCJALL

Victoria Shamrocks @ Coquitlam Adanacs
Sunday July 6, 5:00 pm PST
To say that this game is a must-see is quite the understatement. Without question, the most heavily anticipated match of the weekend is between two clubs who both have a share of first place. The winner will obtain sole possession of first while the loser will drop to a full game out of the top spot. The last time these clubs met was June 28 where Victoria was victorious at home, 11-5. Heading into that match the Adanacs were riding high on a seven game win streak but were able to bounce back in a thrilling 9-8 last second victory over New Westminster when Jarrett Davis scored with merely nine seconds to play on July 2. Victoria has won six of their last seven and has outscored their opponents 69 to 34. This match showcases three of the top four scorers in the league including Coquitlam’s Scott Defrancesco (31 g, 42 a) and Davis (22 g, 45 a) and Victoria’s Cayle Ratcliff (31 g, 34 a). Victoria’s keeper, Matt Flindell, is the only goalie in the league who has seen over 1,000 minutes in the net and posts a phenomenal .888 save percentage and a goals against average of merely 4.7.

Will Strome is an Inside Lacrosse and NLLinsider.com summer intern. When he's not writing lacrosse he's playing it on the Ohio University Men's Club Team as a long pole defender. He'll be heading into his senior year of a magazine journalism major this fall.

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