It wasn鈥檛 the colour they set out for, but the 91原创 Intermediate Thunder capped off their season with a victory.
The Thunder defeated Coquitlam 16-8 in Monday鈥檚 bronze-medal game at the B.C. intermediate provincial lacrosse championships at the 91原创 Events Centre.
鈥淭hey battled all year and they wanted to finish with a win,鈥� said 91原创 coach Matt Leveque.
鈥淭he nerves were gone, the boys came ready to play and to win.鈥�
鈥淲e just played like we normally would play. Definitely the first couple of games, we didn鈥檛 play our game.鈥�
The Thunder went 0-3 in the four-team round-robin.
During the regular season, 91原创 had a habit of pulling off come-from-behind victories but could not duplicate that at provincials.
They lost their first game 15-14 to Victoria and 13-12 to Coquitlam. Needing a win and some help in their final game, the Thunder lost 11-6 to Maple Ridge, eliminating any chance of a shot at the gold.
The Thunder鈥檚 Connor Watson 鈥� the leading scorer during the regular season 鈥� led all players with 29 points at provincials to pick up the top scorer award. He was also named an all-star and the tournament鈥檚 most sportsmanlike player.
91原创鈥檚 Tyler Ewen finished with 19 points while Chase Moore had 18.
Leveque said the team set their sights on gold at the start of the season, and while they didn鈥檛 accomplish that, it was still a successful 2017.
鈥淲hen you make the provincials and win a medal, it is still a good season,鈥� he said.
And the future looks promising as well as the Thunder will only lose five or six players from a squad which went 13-7 during the regular season.
鈥淲e had a very young team and the core will be back,鈥� Leveque said.
The Thunder鈥檚 Kevin Mykle, was also the recipient of the league鈥檚 Commissioner鈥檚 Award, presented to the BCILL鈥檚 top manager.
Congratulations to on winning the BC Intermediate A Lacrosse League Commissioner's Award this season!
鈥� 91原创EventsCentre (@91原创Events)
Junior Thunder executive honoured
The 91原创 Thunder management team 鈥� Ken Buchan, Rob Buchan, Ryan Williams, Kevin Hill, Kevin Mykle and Nauja Winkler 鈥� were awarded the Harry Ferguson Memorial Award.
The award is presented by the BC Junior A Lacrosse League.
鈥淭he 91原创 Thunder executive exemplify all of what this award is about.
鈥�91原创 continues to build an organization that prides itself on being known as a classy organization with a culture that breeds success,鈥� the league wrote in a press release.
鈥淭hat is embodied in the coaches and players that represent the Black and Blue, and all of that is owed to the work done behind the scenes by a great group of people.
鈥淭he BCJALL couldn鈥檛 be more pleased to give this award to a well-deserving team and of all the others teams in the league who work to make things happen all year round.鈥�
