Strong test awaits Green Gaels

BOWMANVILLE -- Something is likely to change for the Clarington Green Gaels and Halton Hills Bulldogs.

The OLA Jr. B lacrosse teams are on a crash course Thursday night at the Recreation Complex in Bowmanville, where both will put their perfect 4-0 records on the line.

The game promises to be just what the young Green Gaels need in the early going.

"It's much better for our team down the road to have a one goal game," said assistant coach Jonas Derks following last week's big win over Markham. "I'll take one or two goal games any day of the week, win or lose, because the kids will take a lot from that."

The Green Gaels have turned close games into lopsided finals in their two home games, stretching a 5-2 lead into a 15-3 win over Mississauga, and then doing more of the same against Markham, building on a 5-4 lead after two periods and turning it on for a 12-4 victory with seven unanswered goals in the final 20 minutes. The two road games in Cornwall and Akwesasne were a little closer, with the Green Gaels returning home with 12-9 and 9-4 wins respectively.

Halton Hills should provide a stiffer test.

While they share the identical 4-0 mark as the Green Gaels, they have scored more (58-48), and are virtually the same in the goals against department, with Halton Hills allowing 22 to the Green Gaels 20.

Halton Hills features the top scorer in the league, as Pat Saunders has 19-12-31 totals to lead the way. They also have a couple of other snipers in the top-10, as Nic Grasby sits third with 8-19-27 numbers and Kyle Davis is fifth at 7-13-20. The only Green Gael to be included in that mix is Ryan Serville, who leads the team with six goals and 10 assists to sit seventh overall.

With so many rookies in the lineup, the perfect start to the season may have come as a surprise to some of the followers of the Green Gaels. The team lost Mark Matthews and his 99 points, along with second leading scorer Ryan Degerdon (27-38-65) to the Whitby Warriors Jr. A club, among others.

But, according to Derks, the team is right about where he thought it was capable of being at this point.

"No, we're not a little better than we thought. We're as good as we thought," he said when asked if the team was over achieving.

"I'm excited about it and happy with it. I never said I wished we would lose, I just wished if we are going to lose three games that we are going to lose them before the playoffs come."

Last season, the Green Gaels went 20-0-0 during the regular season and won nine in a row in the playoffs before losing three straight to Six Nations in the league championship series.

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