By Brendan McConnell
Field lacrosse may be a relatively new sport for the NCSSAA but two national capital high school teams made a big impact at OFSAA this year with an antique-bronze medal win and an appearance in the consolation final.
Ottawa’s entries into the June 4-5 tournament at Bell High School and the Nepean Sportsplex were the St. Mark Lions and the John McCrae Bulldogs – the city champions this year following an undefeated season in the ‘A/AA’ national capital ranks.
After going 2-1 in the round robin matches to qualify for the semi-finals, the Bulldogs fell in their next two games to finish fourth.
John McCrae coach Paul Leck says he couldn’t have been happier with his team’s play at the event.
“Our goal at the beginning of the year was to make OFSAA and when we got there, our next goal was to make it to a medal round,” he explains. “We accomplished that so I’m proud.”
Making their OFSAA field lacrosse debut, the Bulldogs twice faced off against a highly-skilled McKinnon Park team that boasted a national-level player within their ranks and went on to claim bronze behind champion Holy Cross.
“These are all junior A and junior B players so the skill level was so much more intense than what we get through the year but I figured we could compete and we did,” adds Leck, who treasured getting to experience OFSAA with his 11 seniors. “A lot of them have been with me since Grade 9 or 10 so I’m just happy for them that they had a chance to witness an OFSAA tournament and place this high up.”
Lions play maximum games
The St. Mark Lions also had a wild ride on the second day of OFSAA competition. After falling behind in the consolation semifinal 5-4, the Lions managed to tie the game up in the dying seconds and send the game to overtime. This sparked an intense string of three overtimes that eventually led to a St. Mark victory in sudden death.
In the consolation final, the Lions racked up a commanding lead against Adam Scott S.S. of Peterborough before dropping a string of goals to eventually lose by a slim two-goal margin, a satisfactory end result in the eyes of St. Mark head coach Stacey Simpson.
“The level of play my guys have come to even in one season in phenomenal,” says Simpson, noting that the highlight of the year for her was seeing her players grow their skills and learn new things on the field.
“I wanted them to be competitive,” adds Simpson, who doubled as OFSAA convener and felt positively about how the tournament rolled out on the organizational side. “I wanted them to know that they could play at different levels and I wanted them to have fun.”