They didn’t do it the easy way, but the Cowichan Valley Thunder beat the Westshore Bears 11-10 at the Q Centre last Thursday to clinch the Vancouver Island junior B Tier 2 box lacrosse championship.
The Thunder had won the opening game of the best-of-three series four days earlier, and the Bears started the game like bears backed into a corner.
“We came out a little flat,” Cowichan head coach Lorne Winship said. “Obviously, they were playing desperately, and they came out hard. It was 3-1 for them pretty quick.”
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The Thunder got their act together after that wake-up call, but couldn’t pull away comfortably. Cowichan led 4-3 at the end of the first period and 9-8 after two.
“We kept getting a couple of goals up, but every time, they’d get it back,” Winship said. “They got back within a goal a number of times.”
A good start to the third period allowed Cowichan to get ahead 11-8, but Westshore again made it a one-goal game with less than seven minutes left to play. The Thunder put themselves in a bad position by taking some undisciplined penalties down the stretch, but goalie Pollo Claxton held the fort as the Bears pressed right to the last second.
Brayden Zunti led Cowichan with five goals and two assists, while Brandon Corby scored twice, and Colin Winship, Taylor Martin, Kyle Page and Rhys Mazurenko — with his first of the season — had one each. Tyson Black finished with six assists, Mat Jung had two, and Martin, Claxton, Brady Williams, Parker Teufel, Jacob Taylor and Hunter Hieta had one each.
The Thunder and the Bears will meet again at the provincial junior B Tier 2 championships, which Westshore is hosting this weekend. Joining the Island teams are Mainland representatives Port Moody and Coquitlam, who finished just a point apart atop their league’s regular-season standings. The Island teams and Mainland teams know virtually nothing about each other.
“We’ve heard lots of things, that they’re strong,” Winship said. “Unless they’ve been over here scouting, they probably don’t know a lot about us. I’ve heard they think they can handle the Vancouver Island teams easily. Hopefully we’ll have something to say about that.”
The Mainland teams will probably be younger, especially when compared to the Thunder, who have 12 21-year-olds on the roster.
“As an older team, we’ll be more physical, and we’ll be skilled,” Winship said. “We can match them with whatever style of play they use.”
Cowichan will open the tournament at the Q Centre on Friday at 11 a.m. against Westshore. They play twice on Saturday: against Port Moody at 10:30 a.m. and Port Coquitlam at 5:30 p.m. Medal games are on Sunday: bronze at 11 a.m. and gold at 2 p.m.
kevin.rothbauer@cowichanvalleycitizen.com
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