The New Westminster Salmonbellies became just the second A2 team to win a B.C. Lacrosse bantam provincial title.
The first-year ’Bellies avenged an earlier 9-5 loss to regular-season foe Mission, beating the upper Fraser Valley club 8-5 in the gold-medal final at the Panorama rec centre in Saanich on Sunday.
Conner Whyte scored three goals and was named the MVP of the final, while Salmonbellie netminder Tyler Pongracz earned the tournament MVP award.
“Every game was like really awesome,” said New West coach Jason Bishop. “It was a really strong team effort.”
The regular season champs needed Travis Peterson’s overtime winner in sudden death to get past Kamloops 5-4 and earn a spot in the provincial final.
Evan Pattison tallied a pair of goals in both the semifinal and gold-medal game for the A2 Salmonbellies.
“I read the trophy to the kids. It is only the second time New West has won it. … There were about 20 names all around it. It is a pretty huge accomplishment for the team,” Bishop said.
The bantam A1 Salmonbellies had to settle for a bronze medal following a 7-5 win over Juan de Fuca in the consolation final.
New West’s only loss in the round robin was a 5-4 loss to eventual silver medallist Port Coquitlam.
The ’Bellies lost 6-2 to surprise gold medallist Delta in the semifinal. New West had beaten the fifth-place regular season club 3-0 earlier in the provincials.
Delta beat PoCo 4-1 in the B.C. final.
“(Delta) played well and peaked in the playoffs. They had a hot goalie,” said New West coach Rich Catton. “They got up on us early with their zone. We didn’t get the result we wanted, but they were a great group of boys.”
The bantam B boys were shutout at the provincials, falling 8-3 to the eventual gold medallists Campbell River in the preliminary rounds.
All-medal girls
All six New Westminster girls’ lacrosse teams came away with medals from the B.C. Lacrosse provincials hosted by Ridge Meadows.
New West’s midget 1 team won the silver medal following a 6-3 loss to the host Ridge Meadows in the title game at Planet Ice on Sunday.
The midget 2 team defeated PoCo 5-1 to earn the bronze medal.
“There’s no doubt the other associations are catching up, but to medal is still a big accomplishment. At bantam, there were eight good teams, so to come second and third was really good in a deep division,” said Tony Malcom, who co-coached the midget 1 and both bantam girls’ teams.
New West’s bantam 2 team was blanked 9-0 by Ridge Meadows in the gold-medal final of the girls’ provincials.
New West 1 took the bronze medal with a 3-2 double overtime win over Langley on a timely game-winning goal by Pyria Sidhu.
In the semifinals, New West 1, the sixth-place finishing team during the regular season, lost its chance to make it an all-Royal City final, surrendering a lead and eventually losing 7-5 to the host team.
Hannah Bernoe and Katie Davies showed a ton of leadership after the disappointing loss, said Malcom, rallying the girls with the words, “We’re going to get the bronze.”
Salmonbellie girls’ teams also came home with third-place medals in both the peewee and junior girls’ divisions.
The peewee girls knocked off Coquitlam 5-2 in the final game, while the juniors beat Burnaby 6-3 to take the bronze.
