R.D. Parker Collegiate’s field lacrosse team nearly had a perfect end to their season in Winnipeg June 2-4, winning their first two games to advance to the final before falling 5-3 to Vincent Massey Collegiate in the Division III championship game.
The Trojans opened up with an 11-7 win over Fort Richmond and then edged Transcona 5-4 in the semifinals before some bad luck derailed their game plan a bit in the final.
“We lost our leading scorer in that game at the very beginning of the second quarter,” said Brad Ritchie, who coached the team with Dave Babulic. David Saunders’s broken collarbone not only made things easier for Vincent Massey’s defence but also meant that other RDPC players had to step up to fill the void.
“That allowed them to play differently, that’s for sure,” Ritchie said. “Most teams are focusing one guy on him, maybe even two, and that freed up their defence to do some things so that hurt. We had some people who scored their first-ever goals like my daughter. She got her first goal in the finals. Our goalie played really well. Cory Majeran played really well.”
Other players who picked up their first goals in the playoffs included Declan Steeves and Jamie Valentino.
The coach said some unforced errors in the final made it difficult for the Trojans to go on the attack.
“You work hard on defence and you get the ball back and then we would make one pass, a long pass, and we would miss it and it goes out of bounds and now it’s their ball again so you’re stuck again,” he said. “We were stuck on defence too much from some bad turnovers and not getting ground balls that we were getting earlier in the weekend.”
Despite the loss in the finals, the Trojans’ third season in the league – the two years prior to that they only competed in the provincials – was still a success, with the team growing its roster to 20 players thanks to the addition of 13 new players who had never played field lacrosse before. Being unable to get out on the field made it difficult to develop the skills needed to compete as well as they would have liked – they had two wins, two ties and four losses in the regular season - but the majority of the games were close.
“It was really competitive all year,” Ritchie says, with their only lopsided losses usually coming in the second of two games per day on the two weekends when the team travelled south for regular season matches.
“That’s always a challenge for us because we play two games a day, we have to, and so that second game the other team, they’re fresh,” the coach said. “It’s a difference. It’s like a 100-yard race and we have to run 110.”
With seven graduating players who won’t be back, including Saunders and goaltender Majeran as well as one defender and a couple of midfielders, Ritchie plans to lay a foundation of stick skills with indoor practices beginning in January, well ahead of the intense six-week season.
“You’re always going to have new players and that’s what you need,” he said, and there are no shortcuts to develop skills. “ It’s like anything. If you want to be a good skater, you gotta skate.”
The team is developing year by year and Ritchie says the players who were on the team this year had fun and learned a lot. Ritchie says a couple of team members have been identified as possible roster members of Manitoba’s under-15 provincial field lacrosse team and the coach is hoping the take the opportunity, which will benefit both the players as individuals and the high school’s field lacrosse team as a whole.
“We really grew a lot,” he said. “I think the kids had fun. I’m getting good feedback and we’re going to do it again next year.”
