SIX NATIONS — The ALL Men’s Division closed with a final championship game on Sunday, April 14 at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena.
After the quarter finals that took place at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre, the Six Nations Snipers were beaten out by the Paris RiverWolves with a heavy score of 11-20, and the Oshawa Outlaws beat out the Toronto Monarchs 14-12.
This brought the Whitby Steelhawks and the St. Catharines Shockwave to the ILA on Saturday to battle it out with a final score of 19-11 for the Shockwave. On the other side of the semi-finals, the RiverWolves had a rougher match up with the Outlaws but still came out on top of a close game 14-13.
This brought the top place Shockwave, who entered with a nearly undefeated season, up against the third place RiverWolves as the underdog in the final game. The Shockwave housed favourites from Six Nations and the NLL lacrosse sphere including Bill O’Brien, Layne Smith, and Alex Henry, while the RiverWolves sported Spencer Pyke and Cole Spear.
The first period of the game offered a show of back and forth. Although the RiverWolves broke the scoring, the Shockwave returned twice with goals from Cody Ward and Caleb Wiles, only to be tied again by the RiverWolves with five minutes left.
The second quarter allowed the Shockwave to get a bit of a lead. After the RiverWolves buried again, Neufeld came through with two quick back to back goals within minutes to push ahead. The RiverWolves returned only to be put back in place by a double return made by Wiles and Chris Attwood.
This started the third quarter with Shockwave in the lead 4-6, and an even thicker tit for tat game ensued as the RiveWolves buried unassisted four minutes in. But Dylan Laprade scored from Chase Martin moments later. This was answered by the RiverWolves and made the game all the more intense as both sides fought for possession and turn overs.
By the final quarter, it could have went either way with a score of 7-6 for the Shockwave. However, the game leaned to the side of the home team as the final goal of the game was earned by Josh Becker from Wiles, from Neufeld.
This closed a great contest at 8-6 for the Shockwave, who were given the 2019 Championship title of the Mens ALL Division.
