Green Gaels meet Six Nations in Jr. B final
Aug 08, 2007 - 01:02 PM
By Brad Kelly
BOWMANVILLE -- The oddsmakers would have been bang on with this one.
As it should be, the top seeds in the East and West Conference will face each other for the Ontario Lacrosse Association Jr. B League championship. At stake is a ticket to the Founders Cup National Championship in British Columbia serving as the prize for the winner.
It's the Clarington Green Gaels against the Six Nations Rebels, just the way it should be.
"It's going to be a great series," predicts Green Gaels coach Jason Crosbie, eagerly anticipating the showdown between the league's top two clubs. "I truly believe it's going to go down to the wire.
"This is our house and we are going to protect it. They have to come here and beat us here first before they can go on. I have full confidence in my team."
The "house" is the Recreation Complex in Bowmanville, which will host Game 1 of the best-of-five championship series tomorrow night at 8 p.m., with Game 2 back in Six Nations Friday.
By now, everyone is familiar with the Green Gaels, who waltzed through the regular season with a perfect 20-0-0 mark, and have upped the winning streak to 29 consecutive games with three game series sweeps over Mississauga, Barrie and Halton Hills in reaching the finals.
Six Nations, at least in these parts, is a little more unknown because the East and West Conference teams don't face each other during the regular season. But they are just as deserving of being here.
They earned the top seed in the West after a 17-3 regular season, then won the Conference championship by eliminating Hamilton 3-0, Owen Sound 3-1 and Windsor 3-0. Much like the post-season run the Green Gaels are on, each round was a little more competitive and the scores a tad closer.
Marty Hill has been the top marksmen in the playoff for Six Nations posting 11-20-31 numbers, followed closely behind by Cody Johnson's 17-11-28 total, while Blake Sault has posted the reverse, 11-17-28. Netminder Randy Johnson has played every game in the playoffs, and registered a 14-2-0 record during the regular season.
Defensively, Hawenaedas Thomas was named the Defensive MVP in the West, an award matched in the East by Mark Burnett of the Green Gaels. As well, head coach Stu Montour and his staff were named Coaches of the Year in the West.
The winner of the series will advance to the Founders Cup National Championship in Kamloops, British Columbia from Aug. 22-26. Since relocating to Clarington in 1997, the Green Gaels have won the Founders Cup in 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2004.
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