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National silver for Mathieu Jung

Cowichan Valley lacrosse star Mathieu Jung returned home with a silver medal from thenational field lacrosse championships.
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Mathieu Jung displays hi s silver medal and Defensive Player of the Game award from the First Nations Trophy tournament.

Cowichan Valley lacrosse star Mathieu Jung returned home with a silver medal from the First Nations Trophy national field lacrosse championships in Nova Scotia at the end of August.

Jung’s B.C. team lost the final to Ontario 12-10, despite a strong second half that saw the squad come back from a 10-4 deficit to make it close.

“The whole first half we were getting into penalty trouble,” Jung lamented.

Most games at the tournament consisted of four 15-minute quarters, but the final was stretched into four 20-minute quarters, and when the coaches opted to shorten their bench, Jung ended up playing 80 to 90 per cent of the game. As a defender, he was kept busy when so much of the first half was played in B.C.’s end of the field.

“Near the end it got a bit tiring.”

B.C. and Ontario were clearly the class of the tournament, well ahead of the other teams. When they met in the round robin, Ontario won 10-9, so B.C. was never far from victory.

“We knew we could beat them [in the final] if we had gone out and had a better first half,” Jung said.

In addition to his silver medal, Jung was also honoured as the Defensive Player of the Game in B.C.’s 18-4 win over Manitoba.

The medal was Jung’s second silver in a national championship following B.C.’s second-place finish at the U16 tournament in Edmonton last year. He hopes to return to the U18 tournament again next year when it is held in Winnipeg. Tryouts for that team begin next month.

Can B.C. unseat Ontario next year?

“It depends who comes back,” Jung said. “A lot of our team was ’98s, so a good chunk of the team should be back.”

After two silvers, Jung is ready to taste gold.

“Third time’s the charm,” he said.

 



Kevin Rothbauer

About the Author: Kevin Rothbauer

Kevin Rothbauer is the sports reporter for the Cowichan Valley Citizen
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