It was quite a weekend for Rhys Duch.
The Victoria Shamrocks sniper recorded nine goals and nine assists in a pair of weekend wins, following up his four goals and four assists in Friday鈥檚 13-3 victory at home over Langley with five goals and four helpers in Sunday鈥檚 12-10 road triumph in Maple Ridge over the Burrards.
Duch鈥檚 charge lifted the Shamrocks back from 4-0, 5-1 and 6-2 deficits on Sunday as the visitors struggled out of the gates.
Corey Small (two goals and five assists), Steve Higgs (two goals and three helpers) and Chris Wardle (two goals) all had multiple-point games for the victors, who improve to 5-2 on the season. Tyler Burton also had a goal and an assist, while Ian McShane recorded four helpers and Thomas Moffat chipped in with two assists.
鈥淚t鈥檚 important to have that kind of depth. If you become a one-dimensional type of offence, you become an easy team to play. I think we do have the lineup and the team to do that,鈥� Duch said of the offensive production.
Aaron Davis, Matt Symes, Lyndon Knuttila and Luke Gillespie all had two goals each for the Burrards, who suffered their first setback of the season to fall to 5-1-1. Mike Mallory had a goal and four assists and Zack Porter had the other Maple Ridge goal.
Frank Scigliano was the far busier goalie, making 41 saves for the Burrards while Cody Hagedorn stopped 27 shots for the Shamrocks, who do not play again until a week from today in Burnaby against the Lakers.
Victoria trailed 4-0 in a span of 5:13 by the 14:13 mark of the opening period. Down 6-2 just 3:12 into the second period, the Shamrocks then outscored the hosts 10-4, including the last three goals of the game in the final 5:55 of play.
Duch tied it at 10-10, then collected the winner before Wardle added an insurance marker with four seconds to go.
Duch now leads the league in points with 45, nine points up on teammate Cory Conway who sat out both weekend wins due to injury. Conway still leads the Western Lacrosse Association in assists with 31. Duch leads the way in goals with 20.
Jeff Shattler also did not play Sunday for Victoria.
The Burrards did play the game after coming to an agreement with the WLA after having Sunday morning deadline set on the team, which was asked to pay a $25,000 surety bond or risk having the team suspended for the remainder of the season.
Burrards president Lance Andre and WLA board of governors chairman Dan Richardson both declined to comment, though, preferring to keep the decision in-house. It鈥檚 not known if the bond 鈥� placed due to recurring fighting and a lack of security in Maple Ridge 鈥� was paid or if the demand was lifted.
CLOVER POINTS: The Shamrocks acquired goaltender Adam Shute on Monday from the Coquitlam Adanacs for a second-round draft pick in 2017 and have released veteran Matt Roik, who did not dress Sunday. 鈥淭his move was made in the best interest of the Shamrocks,鈥� GM Chris Welch said of the six-foot-four, 200-pound newcomer. 鈥淚t was a chance for us to get younger in a key position where there isn鈥檛 a big market. We think Adam will work well in tandem with Cody Hagedorn.鈥�
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