New Westminster minor lacrosse picked up a third-place medal at the B.C. bantam lacrosse championships in Victoria last weekend.
New Westminster's A1 team avenged a loss to the host Juan de Fuca club earlier in the provincial tournament to nab the bronze medal, following a come-from-behind 7-4 win on Sunday.
Trailing the Victoria club 4-2 in the middle period, Sam Unger sparked the Salmonbellie comeback, drawing the visitors to within a single goal.
Nathan Macedo, who was player of the game in New West's 4-2 win over regular season champion Port Coquitlam and in a semifinal loss to eventual provincial champion Coquitlam, knotted the contest to start the third period.
Noall Degife followed, scoring the eventual gamewinning tally.
Player of the game Nolan Duncan and Ryan Wilkinson, with a lastminute marker following a tremendous effort on a clock-killing rag, completed the comeback with single scores.
New Westminster narrowly lost its preliminary round match with favoured Juan de Fuca 43.
"Once the excitement got started on the bench, you could see the kids had more energy and it was only a matter of time," said bantam coach Kevin Ballance. "It was a nice ending to a disappointing weekend for the kids."
The disappointment was the team's inability to unseat Coquitlam, which finished ahead of thirdplace New Westminster during league play.
The bantam 'Bellies had two opportunities to defeat their rivals, but failed both times, losing 6-3 in the round robin and again 4-1 in the semifinals.
"We had the chance but didn't really play that well, Ballance said.
Owen Ballance was the game star in New Westminster's opening 65 victory over Burnaby.
The Royal City club then got by Cowichan Valley 8-5, with A1 team all-star Max Gerhardt getting the player of the game nod.
Wilkinson was New West's player of the game in the loss to Juan de Fuca.
New Westminster's B team just missed a bronze medal, finishing fourth following a 5-2 loss to Juan de Fuca 2.
Bantam B all-star Lee Wiseman was named the bantam B division MVP.
Owen Ballance and Emmett Donahoe were the A1 and B Fair Play award winners, respectively.
The B's were named the most sporting team.
tberridge@royalcityrecord.com
