SIX NATIONS — On Wednesday, July 10, the Six Nations Arrows entered their first play off round with the St. Catharines Athletics with game one taking them to the Jack Gatecliff Rink.
Goals came from Tehoka Nanticoke (3), Travis Longboat (2), Jackson Reid and Jamie Dilks. But the final score stood at 7-10 for the Athletics.
Game two brought a lot of home support to the stands of the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena, as an extremely close game ensued.
Goals came from Tehoka Nanticoke (3), Chase Scanlan, Kevin Owen Hill (2), Travis Longboat (2) and Owen S. Hill.
This was just enough for the Arrows to cinch a win 9-8 to tie the series. But this meant that the Arrows would have to win every single game thereafter to come out on top in the best of five.
But the scoring power wasn’t there as the Athletics stacked their defence to perfectly dissuade the Arrows from burying.
On the following Sunday, game three took place in Athletics territory and the Arrows were left behind as the Athletics took off in scoring by the second period. This finalized the game 7-12 for the Athletics.
Game four brought the game to the ILA, where the stands filled again with home support as the Arrows would have to pull themselves out of a do-or-die situation.
The first period began with three goals for St. Catharines, while Travis Longboat and Chase Scanlan gave up two answers. But the Athletics quickly put away another to take a two goal lead by the end.
This opened the second period with the premise that the Arrows could make a come back as Jeremy Bomberry buried and Jamie Dilks put in an answer unassisted to make the game 5-4.
However that would close the scoring for the Arrows for the rest of the game, as the Athletics shut down their offensive power with man on man placement and defenders that would quickly jump the ball.
Forcing Arrows offence to fight to maintain possession did the trick, as the Athletics then put away six more goals, unanswered, by the end.
This closed the game 12-4, and will pit the St. Catharines Athletics and Burlington Chiefs against each other at the top of league standings.
