Clarington Green Gaels remain perfect

CLARINGTON -- The Clarington Green Gaels just keep on rolling.

The Jr. B lacrosse club chalked up a couple more victories recently, 17-5 over Mimico and 12-8 over Newmarket, upping their unblemished mark to 8-0 on the season.

Though not surprised at the club's hot start, Crosbie warned against getting too comfortable in the role of favoured team, winning night after night.

"I knew I'd have a good team. A lot of veteran guys returning, really good guys, I knew I had some good talent coming up. It doesn't surprise me (being 8-0), but you're always wary of it, just like a couple years ago, going 20-0, right?," he said. "You go with no losses, you wonder have you been good? Have the teams been bad? You don't know."

Against Mimico, at home last Thursday, the Green Gaels turned a 2-2 score after 20 minutes into a blowout, scoring seven times in the second and eight times in the third, led by the four goals of Curtis Knight.

Knight, Shayne Jackson with three goals and two assists and Ryan Serville with a goal and four helpers, each had five point nights, while Zack Palmer continued his assault on the league, scoring twice as part of a seven-point night.

Jordan Saunderson, Steve Bourdon, Mike Power with two and Mike McCusker with three also scored, while Matt Chamois earned the victory.

One night later in Newmarket, the Green Gaels received a stiffer test, but still emerged with the win, thanks in large part to another seven-point outing from Palmer and an eight-point night from Jackson.

The Gaels jumped up out to a 3-0 lead before the game was 10 minutes old on goals from McCusker, Connor Latimer and Palmer, while Mike Power added another before the end of the first period for a 4-2 Clarington lead.

Each team scored three in the second, with the Clarington goals coming from Jackson, Serville and Knight.

In the third, it was Jackson stepping up large, scoring three more times, while Chad Tutton and Serville rounded out the scoring and Lukas Coote earned the victory.

With 14 points in the two games, Palmer leads the league with 49 points in eight games.

Though the end result was one of the preferred variety, Crosbie wasn't entirely thrilled with his team.

"We were bad. Legitimately, we weren't very good," he said. "We had back-to-back games so I think they were mentally tired. The problem is they figure they're too good. When you think you're that good, you don't put in the work that ensures doing the right things. For a couple periods, they just thought they were the Green Gaels and they hadn't lost yet, so we were good. But you need to show up on the floor."

To the players' credit, says Crosbie, they picked themselves up in a big way between the second and third periods.

"In the second intermission, they figured it all out," he explained. "We didn't even talk to them, so that's a good sign. That's a team that can figure it out and turn it on when they need to.

Next up is a weekend set against Halton Hills and Huntsville, marked by the return of goalie Zack Higgins.