Aldergrove-based Tier 2 91原创 Thunder began their season with an 18-5 victory over the North Shore Indians on Friday night May 2 at the Aldergrove Community Centre.

After several years of absence from the West Coast Junior Lacrosse League, the rebranded  Aldergrove team is now a part of the 91原创 Minor Lacrosse Association, providing a path forward for players graduating into junior lacrosse.

The roster featured a large contingent of rookie players, bolstered with some late veteran signings.

Their home opener was in front of nearly 200 raucous fans, with goals coming fast and frequent.

Ddriving forces for the offence came from first year player Cooper Arbuthnot (6 goals - 4 assists), who scored 20 seconds into the game to set the tone and the experienced Jake Newby (8 goals - 3 assists). Additional contributions came from Madden Nobauer (6 assists) and Lucas McDermott (2 - 2).

Starting goalie Deklan Morrison was a huge addition to the team in the pre-season and showed it with a .926 save percentage as well as 3 assists on the night.

Head coach Liam Taillefer was pleased.

"I thought we battled hard all night and I was impressed with the work ethic from every player on the team last night and we鈥檙e going to look towards getting better every time we step on the floor.," Taillefer said.

Associate coach Kyle Brunsch added " it鈥檚 only the first game of the season, but we鈥檙e happy with the result. There鈥檚 a lot of things we need to work on as a team to get better but overall this is a step in the right direction."

Thunder's next home games are Friday May 9 against the Coquitlam Adanacs and then Friday May 23 versus Delta. Both games start at 8 p.m. at the Aldergrove Community Centre.