Dan Dawson paid instant dividends for the Victoria Shamrocks as they collected their third straight Western Lacrosse Association victory on Friday, this time by a tight 12-11 count over the Maple Ridge Burrards.
Dawson had three goals 鈥� including the game-winner with 16.7 seconds left 鈥� and three assists in his first game back in his second stint with the Green and White, much to the delight of the 2,367 fans on hand at The Q Centre on Friday night.
鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty fitting, isn鈥檛 it,鈥� said Shamrocks head coach Bob Heyes, who wasn鈥檛 pleased with the sloppiness of throwing away some big leads, but enjoyed the final result. 鈥淗e calmed the guys down the last 10 minutes of the game.
鈥淗e spoke up on the bench. He didn鈥檛 say much, he just said, 鈥楬ey guys, it鈥檚 going to be one of those games鈥� and you know when he says that, that he has things under control.鈥�
The Shamrocks, who improve to 3-2 while the Burrards fall to 0-3 after back-to-back losses to Victoria, had it under control early up 3-0, then late in the second period with 8-3 and 9-4 advantages.
That disappeared courtesy of some sloppiness on the home team鈥檚 part. Luckily for the 鈥橰ocks there was plenty of offence to be had as Dawson and Rhys Duch (two goals and four assists) both had six points.
Corey Small and Jesse King had two goals apiece with three and two assists, respectively. Cory Conway had a pair of goals and a helper and Mitch Jones had the other tally. Captain Scott Ranger had three assists before he left the game with a leg injury late in the second when he took a high-sticking major.
Dan Taylor had three goals and two assists for Maple Ridge, while Coady Adamson and Tom Johnson added two goals apiece. Connor Goodwin, Aaron Davis, Andrew Murphy and Ulysses Toulouse had the others.
In the end, it was a great start for Dawson.
鈥淟ike any other team in the WLA, you want to win the West. To get there, there are so many small steps you need to take. Right now we鈥檙e just trying to compete every night and bring our best effort,鈥� he said.
The Shamrocks now travel to Langley on Wednesday for a rare mid-week game.
CLOVER POINTS: The Edmonton Rush defeated the Toronto Rock 11-10 to win the NLL title on Friday which means the Shamrocks should get goalie Aaron Bold and Ryan Dilks onto the roster soon, but likely not by Wednesday.
Twitter.com/tc_vicsports
