OHSWEKEN – The Six Nations Rivermen beefed up its lineup this season with even more recognized stars of the game, all with the mandate to return the President’s Cup they lost last season, back to Six Nations in 2017.
This year’s Rivermen are big, experienced, strong on the ball, and determined. They are not the fastest team in the loop, but the experience and savvy this team has on the bench is what has brought 15 wins this season and a plus/minus goal differential of +99.
This week marked the end of the regular season with the Rivermen atop the league heading into Sunday’s finale against the third placed Oakville Titans.
The Ontario Sr. B Lacrosse League regular season came to an end with the Six Nations Rivermen finishing in top spot compliments of a 15-1 record for 30 points, eight more than second place Owen Sound.
Sunday, July 9, the Rivermen tackled the Oakville Titans 14-9, at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre. No less than 10 Rivermen registered multiple points along the way including Greg Longboat’s five-goal outpouring. Josh Johnson (1G,5A), Oakley Thomas (2G,3A), Danton Miller (2G,1A), Jacob Crans (1G,2A), Brock Farmer (1G,1A), Marty Hill (2A), Kyle Smith (1G,1A), Stu Hill (2A), and Joel Shepley (2A). Rod Squire scored a goal as well.
The game stayed close throughout the first period, which opened abruptly with Greg Longboat taking a feed from Josh Johnson for the game’s first goal at the 41-second mark.
Titans Chris Lopes evened the score at 1-1 which was answered with three Rivermen goals scored by Oakley Thomas, Greg Longboat Jr., and Jacob Crans, who converted a pass from goalie Chase Martin to make it 4-1.
The Titans fought back with the last two goals of the period to cut the Six Nations lead to 4-3. The Rivermen picked up another four goals in the second but Oakville scored three to bring about the two period score of 8-6 for the Rivermen.
The ball just kept rolling in Six Nations favour in the third period with six more goals on Six Nations side of the scoreboard and three more for Oakville for the 14-9 final score.
Saturday night at the Luther Vipond Memorial Arena, the Brooklin Merchants took the loosing end of a 10-4 score. The Rivermen seem poised and ready for the playoffs to begin, easily taking a 7-1 first period lead which they rode to the end.
Josh Johnson, Stu Hill with three, Rodd Squire, and Kyle Smith also with two, dug a crater the Titans were not able to crawl out of. The Rivermen added two in the second frame, scored by Smith and Hill, and a third period marker by Marcus Elvin carried the R-men to the 10-4 win.
Roger Vyse ended the regular season atop the league goal scorer’s list with 22 and Greg Longboat scored the most short-handed goals this season with four. Chase Martin led all OSBLL goaltenders with 8 wins, and tandem partner Warren Hill recorded the best goals-against-average with 5.00. Martin was third with 6.33.
