It’s all good for the Green Gaels

BOWMANVILLE -- The course that may have been charted out in the early going for the Clarington Green Gaels has already changed its path.

A convincing 15-3 win over the Mississauga Tomahawks in Jr. B lacrosse Thursday night at the Recreation Complex certainly made a statement and raised a few eyebrows.

“It was a surprising start tonight,” said coach Jason Crosbie following the game. “I know (assistant coach) Jonas (Derks) mentioned in the paper that if we lose a couple of games early that’s all right, that it’s not really going to hurt us.

“Last year we went 29 and oh and lost the last three. We want to win the last three this year.”

Crosbie was referring to the perfect 20-0-0 regular season of 2007, followed by nine consecutive wins in the playoffs before losing three in a row in the league championship to Six Nations, who went on to win the Founder’s Cup at the Canadian championships.

Though the Green Gaels were anything but perfect in their debut, they certainly were dominating from the midpoint of the game on. Leading 5-2, Mark Cockerton scored his third of the night with 10:43 to go in the second period that started a run of 10 in a row for the Green Gaels, who were up 15-2 with just over five minutes to go in the third.

Cockerton finished the game with four goals and three assists in his debut with the club. Obviously opening night jitters weren’t an issue.
 

“No, not really, but it was totally different than Midget,” said the 16-year-old Oshawa resident, who attends Paul Dwyer. “The guys are bigger and the hitting is harder, but I felt confident though.”
 

Mark is the younger brother of Matt, who had 7-7-14 numbers in just five regular season games last year with the Green Gaels, and registered 8-19-27 totals in just 10 playoff games before moving on to the Whitby Warriors this season.

As for the younger Cockerton, his debut was impressive.

“He’s just a great ball player,” said Crosbie. “He has the skill set that is beyond everyone else. The only thing we need to work on with him is being able to play the whole game with the intensity that you should.”

Cockerton was just one of many of the rookies who had an impressive debut.

“I was really concerned about what kind of level of intensity they would have tonight and they showed that a lot of guys are real ball players,” noted Crosbie.