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If only the game were two minutes longer.
The Victoria Junior Shamrocks, down 18-10 with 6:29 to go, closed with six unanswered goals in the last 2:53, but lost its sa国际传媒 Junior A Lacrosse League home-opener 18-16 to the visiting Delta Islanders at The Q Centre on Saturday afternoon.
The Jr. Shamrocks fell behind 8-2 and 14-7 by periods before out-scoring the Islanders 9-4 in the final frame.
鈥淚 jokingly said that we had to have a seven-goal play at the end of the third period,鈥� Jr. Shamrocks head coach Walt Christianson said. 鈥淔or two periods we out-scored them and this is an example of what we were talking about with our youth.
鈥淚t was an eye-opener in the first period. They鈥檙e a very good team, don鈥檛 kid yourself, but I was happy with the guys in the last two periods. They played hard, didn鈥檛 give up and got back into it. We outscored them by four goals over the last two periods, but it鈥檚 also easy to play when you鈥檙e down that big and that鈥檚 going to be my message to them.鈥�
The Jr. Shamrocks were manhandled by Tre Leclaire who had four goals and seven assists to lead all scorers on the day.
鈥淗e鈥檚 a first-year Junior, but he鈥檚 a man,鈥� Christianson said. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a great player, a great athlete with a big body.鈥�
Cody Ness and Riley Taylor added three goals and two assists each for the Islanders, who will be a top club this season. Evan Messenger and Shawn Richardson added two goals apiece while Connor Davidson, Nick Jensen, Riley Phillips and Jeffrey Richardson added one each for the visitors.
Brad McCulley had four goals and six assists for a 10-point outing for the Jr. Shamrocks, who came back from a 10-6 deficit in Nanaimo on Friday to win 13-11. McCulley scored three times in a 2:25 span late in the game on Saturday. Matthew Hamilton added six points, including two goals while Ryan Lewis (1G,4A) and Cole Pickup (3G,2A) had five-point outings. Colten Merrilainen also had three goals, while Guy Cullen (with a pair) and Intermediate Shamrocks call-up Ben Preston also scored for the hosts.
Goaltender Liam Reid allowed 10 goals while Gurney Mitchell surrendered the first eight for Victoria. Brody Harris made 31 saves for the Islanders.
On Friday, the Jr. Shamrocks outscored the Nanaimo Jr. Timbermen 7-1 over the final 22:09 of the game. Pickup led the way with four goals and four assists, while Merrilainen had two goals and four helpers. Hamilton added three goals and an assist, McCulley chipped in with a goal and three helpers, and Lewis scored twice.
Darrin Wilson scored three times for Nanaimo, while Mathieu Jung and Will Johansen had two apiece in the losing cause. Gurney made 38 saves in the win.
