Jun 09, 2009 - 02:57 PM

By Shawn Cayley

BOWMANVILLE -- These Clarington Green Gaels are good.

Record-breaking good, according to coach Jason Crosbie.

Another trio of dominating wins for the Jr. B lacrosse club has allowed them to zero in on setting a new league record with only four games remaining, one that could see them enter the books as the stingiest defensive team ever.

"We've only given up 55 goals," Crosbie said Monday, a day after a 14-2 win over Huntsville, which closed a three-games in four-day stretch, where they also defeated Cornwall 14-1 and Newmarket 16-3. "We're going to shatter the goals against record, which is 95. We've got four games left against Orillia, Huntsville, Markham and Newmarket. We're going to shatter that record by a huge margin."

Much of the credit goes to goalie Zack Higgins, who has provided a stabilizing influence between the posts, and the stellar defensive crew in front of him.

But as good as they've been, the offence has been equally, if not more impressive, potting 210 goals as the Gaels have gone 16-0.

"I've got four guys in the top-10 in scoring," Crosbie said, referring to the league's top three scorers in Ryan Serville, Zach Palmer and Curtis Knight, along with Shayne Jackson, who sits seventh. "Everything's been good so far, but you never know."

While the beatings administered to Cornwall and Huntsville were pretty much expected, Crosbie thought he'd see a better game with the Saints in town.

His own team had other ideas, scoring six times in the first, and jumping out to a 9-0 lead halfway into the game.

"I thought it would be better," Crosbie admitted. "We just really dominated that game. We dominated it from start to finish and it was a really good indication of what our team can really do when they are focused for 60 minutes."

Though encouraged by the dominating fashion in which his club has won games this season, Crosbie guarded against getting overconfident, and getting caught up with the games within the game, as evidenced Saturday when things got a little chippy in the third period, including a fight featuring Steve Bourden of the Green Gaels and Cornwall's Paul Norman.

"That's a natural reaction when you're getting killed," he said of games turning dirty. "Teams get in the mindset that we can't stay with them, we can't run with them, we can't outshoot them, can't outscore them, can't get in on the defence, can't get any good shots, so let's just fight them. That's what is going to happen."

NOTES: Against Newmarket Curtis Knight had three goals and eight points, while Shayne Jackson had three goals, Ryan Serville three, Emerson Clark two, Zach Palmer two, Chad Tutton two and John Lafontaine one ... Against Cornwall, Mike McCusker had four goals, Jackson and Knight three, Mike Power two, and Steve Bourden and Lafontaine had one each ... At Huntsville, McCusker had a goal and nine points, Serville had two goals, Jackson four, while Knight, Clark, Jordan Saunderson, Connor Latimer, James Malloy, Lucas Perri and Chris Cudmore each added one ... Goalie Zack Higgins picked up wins in all three games, and is 8-0 on the season.