OSHAWA – The new Arena Lacrosse League (ALL) held its inaugural showcase opener with three back-to-back games including the prime time feature between the host Oshawa Outlaws and the Six Nations Snipers.
Stu Hill scored the Snipers first franchise goal from Roger Vyse and Layne Smith at 3:46 of the first period. The Outlaws’ Darryl Robertson erased that at 4:29 and it was “game on” from there.
Smith scored his first ALL goal from line-mates Stu Hill and Roger Vyse, which was also erased less than a minute later by Oshawa. John St. John gave the Outlaws a 4-2 first quarter lead.
Oshawa owned the second quarter adding goals by Zach Tomkinson, St. John, Dylan Goddard and Wes Whitlow before Layne Smith tucked one in from Ashton Jacobs with one second left in the half which ended with the Outlaws leading 7-3.
Travis Longboat gave the Snipers hope a little over a minute into the third quarter from Haodais Maracle and Stu Hill on a Six Nations powerplay. Goddard got that one back on an Oshawa powerplay making it an 8-4 game to that point.
Longboat cut into the Outlaws lead with 3:46 left in the third quarter from Roger Vyse and Haodais Maracle, and Rayce Vyse added another Snipers goal with 36 seconds left in the quarter from younger brother Roger, and it was 8-6.
Layne Smith opened the fourth quarter with his third of the game to make it 8-7 before Gage Board made responded for the 9-7 goal.
Longboat scored his third of the game and the season from Roger Vyse and Shayne Adams to draw to within striking distance for the Snipers at 9-8, but a rash of Six Nations penalties came between the Snipers and a come from behind victory.
Oshawa pumped in the last four goals of the game, two of them on Outlaw powerplays.
In the other games played earlier, the St. Catharines Shockwave chopped down the Peterborough Timbermen 9-8 and the Toronto Monarchs held off the Paris RiverWolves 12-11.
The wins all count as the inaugural ALL season gets underway in earnest this week with the Paris RiverWolves visiting the ILA to face the Six Nations Snipers, with both teams hungry for their first win. Note that game time is 7 p.m.
In other games scheduled Oshawa will host the Peterborough Timbermen and St. Catharines in in Toronto.
The brand new ALL has filled the void left by the Canadian Lacrosse League which folded in the off-season and will play NLL rules and with an offence/defence style. The ALL will not not have coaches challenges. The ALL will play with a game roster of 18 players and two goalies. The Arena Lacrosse League will use 4×4.9 nets. Each team will carry a roster size of 20 signed players and three goalies.
