SIX NATIONS — The Arena Lacrosse League (ALL) standings are beginning to separating the chaff from the wheat, as they say, as the new ALL Sr. men’s league continues to gain fans in its inaugural season.
There were two ALL games, hosted at the ILA in Six Nations on Saturday afternoon, and another in Paris later that night.
The Paris RiverWolves downed the visiting Toronto Monarchs 17-13, at the Syl Apps Arena in Paris.
Saturday afternoon at the ILA, at 1 p.m., the St. Catharines ShockWave spotted Peterborough three first quarter goals and one more to open the second to take a 4-0 lead before St. Catharines woke up. When they did, Marvin Curry and Josh Becker cut the deficit in half. The Wave went on to close out the half down by just one goal at 6-5.
The Timbermen took the momentum in the third quarter to put some space between themselves and the ShockWave by outscoring them 6-3 in the quarter and 12-8 with 15 minutes remaining. The teams evenly shared four fourth quarter goals for the 14-10 final in Peterborough’s favour.
The 4 p.m. premier game at the ILA had the Six Nations Snipers taking down the league leading Oshawa Outlaws 20-6.
Roger Vyse, Luke Laszkiewicz, and Haodais Maracle powered the Snipers win with three goals and three assists each. Layne Smith wasn’t far behind with three goals and two assists and Craig Point dumped in three as with an assist for a four pointer.
Oshawa didn’t look quite right, right off the opening faceoff. After a five-minute feeling out process by both teams, the goals began.
Haodais Maracle scored two, Layne Smith and Craig Point put the Snipers up 4-0 with relative ease and by the half it was 6-2 with Snipers’ Luke Laszkiewicz and Tom Montour adding two more. Mike Triolo and Josh Miller scored for Oshawa.
It got worse for Oshawa as the afternoon went on. It was 14-3 after three quarters with six more to come for the 20-6 final.
In the 8 p.m. game in Paris, the RiverWolves vaulted into a tie for second with Oshawa. In fourth place, with a 4-6-0-0 record for eight points, is the Toronto Monarchs, followed by the St. Catharines ShockWave with a 4-6-0-0 record, tied for the last place spot with the Peterborough Timbermen who are 3-6-0-0.
After the Toronto Monarchs surprised the RiverWolves early with two quick goals, Saturday night, in Paris, Paris came back with a 6-4 first quarter lead on goals scored by Wolves’ Mike Melnychenko with two, Brenden Thenhaus, Mike Burke, and Andy Campbell with two first period goals. Tyler Ferreira, Jordan Dance and Jordan Critch, tallied for Toronto.
The Monarchs gathered themselves between quarters and produced much better results, outscoring the hosts 5-3 and to even the score at 9-9 at the half.
Toronto continued to press in the to take a 13-11 third quarter lead. But the Monarchs went into hibernation in the fourth quarter and the RiverWolves took complete advantage to a put up six unanswered goals to take the 17-13 win and build team confidence.
Leading the RiverWolves offence were Mike Burk (4G,5A), Spencer Pyke (2G,5A), Drake Smith (1G,4A) and Mike Melnychenko and Andy Campbell each with three goals and an assist. For Toronto, Jordan Dance lead the way with three goals and three assists.
The schedule continues this coming Saturday when Oshawa travels to the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre at 2 p.m. to play the Monarchs, the Peterborough Timbermen visit the ILA at 4 p.m. to face the Snipers and the St. Catharines ShockWave take on the RiverWolves in Paris at 8 p.m.
Coming into this weekend’s games, the Six Nations Snipers are in first place after nine games have been played so far this season. The Snipers now carry a record of 6-3-0-0 for 12 points, two ahead of second place Oshawa although the Outlaws have a game in hand over Six Nations.
