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Playoffs bring new season for Green Gaels

Lacrosse club meets Mississauga in opening round

Jun 29, 2007 - 11:30 AM

By Brad Kelly

BOWMANVILLE -- The Clarington Green Gaels have started a new winning streak.

A perfect 20-0-0 regular season was wiped out on Thursday night as the Jr. B lacrosse club opened an Eastern Conference quarterfinal playoff series against the Mississauga Tomahawks. But it didn't take them long to establish they are determined to begin a new streak that ultimately leads to the Founder's Cup national championship.

The Green Gaels dominated in Game 1 of the best-of-five series, jumping out to an 8-1 lead in the first period en route to a dominating 18-5 performance at the Recreation Complex.

It was the kind of inspiring start the club was looking for.

"In the pre-game speech I put my ring on the table and Jonas put his ring on the table and we said, 'Boys this is what you want'," said coach Jason Crosbie of the message that was delivered by himself and assistant coach Jonas Derks prior to taking the floor, using their Canadian championship rings as motivation. "Twenty-and-oh means nothing. You don't get a ring for being twenty-and-oh.

"We have to win 12 games to get to the Founder's Cup. We asked them how much they were willing to sacrifice and how much they really wanted this."

Taking into account their play, they want it pretty bad. Leading 2-1 five minutes into the game, the Green Gaels fired six more goals before the period was over for an 8-1 advantage, building it to 12-2 by the end of the second period. They were quicker and worked harder than the Tomahawks, who came into the game as the eighth seed after an 8-11-1 season.

If Crosbie's message to the team was that the perfect season is a distant memory, they obviously got it. Now he wants everyone else to quit talking about it.

"The twenty-and-oh season is gone. Just to let you guys know, I don't want to hear any more about being twenty-and-oh," he said to reporters afterward. "It's over and done with and it doesn't mean anything if you don't win the championship."

On a night that included a number of offensive stars, Mike McCusker was the leader, scoring three times and adding five assists.

"We knew we had to come out hard and we definitely did in the first period and we were all over them the whole game," he said. "Playoffs is a totally different game. Every team plays a lot harder in playoffs. We need to come out hard every game or who knows, anyone could take us out."

Matt Cockerton turned in a strong performance with three goals and four assists, while Mike Cudmore, Todd Collins and Blake Bremner scored two goals each. Singles went to Nick Diachenko, Christoffe Perron, Scott Fitchett, Steve Conrad, Adam Derks and Mark Matthews.

Game 2 of the series was played last night (after our deadline) in Mississauga, with Game 3 in Bowmanville on Tuesday at 8:00 p.m.

THE SCOOP -- The Green Gaels will be hosting the 10th Annual Jim Bishop Memorial golf tournament on Thursday, July 12 at Oliver's Nest. Tickets are $135, with a shotgun start at 11 a.m. A limited number of tickets are available by calling Peter Abramczuk at 905-429-1182.

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