OHSWEKEN – Roger Vyse helped get the Six Nations Sr. B Rivermen off on the right paddle with two goals and two assists in Friday night’s 7-3 season opening win against the Ennismore James Gang at the Gaylord Powless Arena. Vyse followed that with an eight pointer the next night, in Wallaceburg, to lead the Rivermen past the Red Devils 10-7.
The Rivermen Roster is stacked with talent and with many familiar names, like Roger Vyse, Wayne VanEvery, Rodd Squire, Delby Powless, Cory Bomberry, Wenster Green, and a virtual who’s-who of professional and University Six Nations lacrosse stars. They came within a game of winning the Presidents Cup last year and are loaded for revenge.
Friday night, they faced the Ennismore James Gang, the team that beat them for last year’s Cup, and they seemed to relish the 7-3 win. Six Nations’ Chase Martin and the James Gang’s Cole Murray held all shooters off the scoreboard for the first 20 minutes of the new season.
They traded three goals each in the second period with VanEvery accounting for two and Roger Vyse for one for the Rivermen.
Everything started to fit together for Six Nations in the third period as Ian Martin notched two while Roger Vyse and Delby Powless added one each to take the 7-3 win.
The second game of the year was on the road in Wallaceburg Saturday afternoon and the Rivermen kept the momentum from Friday night going.
Roger Vyse held the hot stick Saturday night scoring three and assisting on five for an eight-point night and Wayne VanEvery cashed in a seven¬-point game with a goal and six assists. Rodd Squire scored four and assisted on two to lead the Rivermen offense. Murray Porter amassed 21 penalty minutes along the way.
Rodd Squire notched two after Roger Vyse opened the scoring with David Veitch accounting the lone Thrashers’ goal in the first period.
All five second period goals were scored on powerplays. Stu Hill scored back to back extra man goals 20 seconds apart very early in the feisty middle frame but the Rivermen ran into some penalty trouble later in the period allowing the Thrashers three powerplay goals to end the period with Rivermen leading 5-4. Six Nations’ Murray Porter, and Thrashers’ Jesse Gross were tossed from the game for fighting before the period ended.
Vyse opened the third period to extend the Rivermen’s lead to 6-4, assisted by Squire and Hill. Subsequent goals by Chadd Murphy, Wayne VanEvery, and Kyle O’Donnell brought the score to 7-6, Rivermen, with 10 minutes left to play.
The Rivermen strung the next three goals together to put the game out of reach for the Thrashers. One scored by Vyse and two by Squire.
Kyle Childerhose put the last mark on the score sheet for Wallaceburg to create the 10-7 final score.
This coming Saturday, May 2nd, the Rivermen host the Owen Sound North Stars at the GPA for an 8 pm start.
