New Westminster girls added more chattel to their lacrosse legacy at the B.C. box provincial championships last week.
The Salmonbellies won gold in three separate divisions, taking top spot in the peewee, midget and junior age groups.
In an all-New West junior final, Team 2 avenged an earlier 5-2 loss to Team 1 in the preliminary round to take the gold with a 6-0 win.
A second midget girls' team missed a bronze medal, falling 6-4 to Coquitlam in the consolation final.
The peewee girls started New West along the yellow brick road, defeating Port Coquitlam 8-3 in the championship final.
Team captain and provincial MVP Jennifer Hannay led the peewee 'Bellies with a six-point outing, including the game-winning goal. Assistant captains Meagan Black and Erica Malcom, the team's fair play award winner, both counted three goals and a single helper.
Mady Morrison, who allowed just 11 goals in five games, backstopped the gold-medal win.
New West upset previously unbeaten PoCo 5-1 on the second day of competition and then defeated the Saints again 6-2 in the crossover matchup to hand the Tri-Cities club its only losses this season.
"The 5-1 game was a confidence boost," said fair play coach Tony Malcom. "I think it goes back to New West just being a lacrosse city. It's a winning tradition - pride and tradition.
"The girls played great from the opening whistle. They were ready to go."
New West's midget 2 team avenged its only loss of the provincials, a 3-2 overtime defeat to its club counterpart, beating the midget 1 team 4-2 to advance to the gold-medal final.
The midget 2s then eked out a 4-3 win over PoCo in double overtime to take the gold. Bantam callup Hailee Piendl scored the game-winning goal.
"We just said to the girls, 'We just have to outwork them.' In the second overtime we had more momentum and Hailee just came off a screen and fired away," said coach Dwight Noda.
Goalie Bianca Ballarin gave the girls the chance to win, backstopping an anxious four-minute penalty kill that stretched into the first overtime period.
Noda gave much of the credit to team 1 coaches Jamie Stewart and Dean Malcom.
"When I shook his hand I said, 'I learned everything from you,'" said Noda, who won his first B.C. title as a head coach. It was also a first for German exchange student Anine Reidel, who pleaded with her parents to allow her stay an extra few weeks so she could play in her first box title game.
"They're excited," said Noda. "For many (of the girls) it was their first time."
Alison Shanks was named the midget MVP.
Zoe Loewen and Kristin Hackett were New West's fair play award winners.
In the junior division, Warren Goss coached his team to a third consecutive gold medal over a Stewart-coached side.
At last year's provincial, Goss' juniors lost in the round robin to Stewart but bounced back to take the semifinal en route to the 2012 title.
This season, Stewart's juniors had won every meeting between the two teams, heading into the championship final.
"Balancing our teams is one of the toughest things season.
"Where we started the season and where we finished was unreal," said Bishop. "The level of skill and decision making was unreal. We didn't win by accident. We played really well. It was the kids."
Evan Pattison was an example of the 'Bellies grit and resolve, notching two third-period markers in the final game before finding out the following day he had been playing with a broken wrist.
Captain Noah Armitage led the team throughout the year, while first-year Austin Ducommun also made a significant contribution.
"It's a tough thing to pull off. We just happened to rise to another level. We climbed the mountain," Bishop said. "I've never been more proud of a team."
Cedar Rutherford was named New Westminster's fair play award winner.
New Westminster's bantam A1 team vie for a second provincial boys' title, beginning today (Wednesday) in Delta.
Gold-medal games will be played on Sunday at the Ladner Lesiure Centre.
