Saturday night, Aug. 10, at the Bill Burgoin Arena, the inaugural season of the OLA Sr. B Six Nations Rivermen came to a premature end with a painfully close 10-9 loss in Game #3 of the best-of-five series against the St. Catharines Saint.
After Saints’ Brad Favero scored the first of the game on a powerplay from Chris Attwood, at the 9:27 mark of the first period, the Rivermen slapped the Saints around with four unanswered goals beginning with Cory Bomberry’s first of the game. Justin Gibson, Chancy Johnson and Wayne VanEvery made it 4-1 after the first 20 minutes.
Up two games to none in the series, the Saints could smell blood and poured it on in the second out scoring the Rivermen 5-3 in the period but the Rivermen still held a 7-6 lead going into the third.
Andy Toby tied the score at 7-7 at 4:47 but Cory Bomberry answered from Delby Powless and Holden Vyse.
The Saints went on a three goal-scoring binge in the middle of the third which the Rivermen were unable to match. Gibson scored the last goal of the game from Bomberry and Powless at 17:45 to draw within one of the Saints but they could not find the tying goal and lost it 10-9.
The Rivermen become the first of Six Nations lacrosse stars in the sky this year to fall short of the National Championship goal. But a for a first season team, this club did exactly what coach Stew Montour said when the team was first announced, “We’re gonna hit the ground running.”
Six Nations Rivermen head coach Stew Montour guided the Six Nations Rivermen to the league finals in their first year in the OLA Jr. B circuit. Despite the disappointing loss to the St. Catharines Saints, Montour is pleased with the brand new team’s success. (Photo by Jim Windle)