The 2023 Founders Cup tournament is taking place in Port Coquitlam, as the sa国际传媒-champion Victoria Tier II Shamrocks look to end the more than five-decade sa国际传媒 drought.
The last time a sa国际传媒 team won the Canadian Junior B lacrosse championship, Victoria McDonalds in 1971, The French sa国际传媒ion and Dirty Harry were playing in movie theatres and Joy to the World and Maggie May on the radio.
The national championship trophy then was named the Castrol Cup, which was awarded from 1964 to 1971, before being retired and replaced by the Founders Cup since 1972.
Ontario teams have won the Founders Cup 46 times since 1972, the latest the Nepean Knights last year, and Alberta teams have won it four times. That is baffling, and an anomaly, since sa国际传媒 is also a box-lacrosse hotbed of sa国际传媒. It is attributed to sa国际传媒 placing most of its best 17- and 18-year-old players into Intermediate A, and not Junior B, up until five years ago when sa国际传媒 converted to a five-year junior system labelled Tier 1 (Junior A) and Tier II (Junior B).
Since the changeover, the Junior B Shamrocks have been the main supplier of players to the Junior A Shamrocks, the latter which went to the Minto Cup national Junior A championship tournament last year and to the sa国际传媒 final this season.
“The [Junior B] level is a very important part of our feeder system and all of our elite players have come through it,” said Rod Wood, vice-president of the Junior A Shamrocks.
Since sa国际传媒 began putting more emphasis on the Junior B level the past five years, it has won a silver medal and two bronzes in the Founders Cup.
“We believe one of the two sa国际传媒 representatives [Shamrocks or host Port Coquitlam Saints] will medal this year,” said Wood.
The Shamrocks were 2-1 heading into Thursday night’s late-finishing game against the Port Coquitlam (2-0-1).
Victoria, coached by Ted Jenner and assistant Tyler Heavenor, opened with an 11-6 victory over Ontario-champion Akwesasne Thunder (1-2 heading into Thursday) before dropping an 11-5 decision to First Nations champion Onondaga Redhawks (1-2 heading into Thursday). The Shamrocks responded by beating the Saskatchewan-champion Queen City Kings (0-3) by a 13-2 count in their third game. Brett Bridges led Victoria through the first three games with four goals and 11 points while Greysen Thompson had six goals and Ryan Lowe five goals.
Victoria concludes the round-robin portion tonight against the Alberta-champion Edmonton Warriors (2-0-1 heading into Thursday games).
The top two teams after the round-robin will play for the championship on Saturday. The third- and fourth-place teams will meet for the bronze medal and the fifth- and sixth-place teams for placing.
