Finishing off the 2018 Western Lacrosse Association season with two meaningless games might have presented the Victoria Shamrocks coaching staff with an issue of incentive. Second place is assured and there is no chance of overtaking the New Westminster Salmonbellies for the WLA regular-season championship.
But the Shamrocks weren鈥檛 like confused method actors asking: 鈥淲hat鈥檚 my motivation?鈥� They seemed to have plenty of it before 1,995 fans Friday night at The Q Centre.
The Shamrocks (12-5) dispatched the Coquitlam Adanacs 15-4 in their penultimate performance. The Adanacs, meanwhile, closed out their 2018 season account at 2-16 to place last in the WLA.
鈥淵ou have to be playing hard going into the playoffs because you don鈥檛 want to be getting into bad habits, especially now,鈥� said Rob Hellyer, who had two goals and three assists for Victoria.
鈥淎nd our crowd gets us going. We played well as a team and the result showed it.鈥�
With offensive threats Rhys Duch and Chris Wardle still on the shelf, Victoria called up a group of Junior Shamrocks players, with Brad McCulley scoring his first career WLA goal. Junior Shamrocks call-up Marshal King, out of NCAA Div. 1 Drexel University field lacrosse, also tallied.
Jesse King, Marshal鈥檚 older brother who played for the Big Ten Ohio State Buckeyes, had two goals and seven assists for Victoria. Casey Jackson added two goals and four assists and also addressed the motivation question. It wasn鈥檛 a problem against Coquitlam, he said, because one of the A鈥檚 two wins on the season was against Victoria.
鈥淲e lost to them and this [was the rubber match], so I felt we played with a real edge tonight,鈥� said Jackson.
Victoria head coach Bob Heyes also touched on Coquitlam鈥檚 surprising success earlier against the Shamrocks, including a win and an overtime loss.
鈥淲e鈥檝e not played great against Coquitlam. But I thought our compete level was good,鈥� said Heyes.
Jackson increased his WLA-leading goals total to 45 to pretty much clinch the league goals title by going six goals clear of second-place Mitch Jones of New Westminster (39 goals).
Victoria closes out the regular season Sunday at The Q Centre against the regular-season champion Salmonbellies.
The second-place Shamrocks will play either the Nanaimo Timbermen or Maple Ridge Burrards in the WLA playoff semifinals, beginning next week. The Timbermen (9-7-1) have qualified for the playoffs for the first time in 11 seasons. They can finish third and set up an all-Island playoff semifinal against Victoria if the T-Birds beat the Burnaby Lakers (6-10-1) tonight at Frank Crane Arena in the Harbour City.
The other playoff club, Maple Ridge (9-8-1), has finished the regular season and the Burrards await tonight鈥檚 result in Nanaimo to see if they meet Victoria or New Westminster in the semifinals.
