By Gabriel Rodrigues
Despite Laurentian’s men’s lacrosse team losing to Western 9-6 in the first round of the playoffs, their coach considers his squad’s campaign “a success.”
“The team exceeded my expectations for the season,” said Derrick Gordon. “We had six wins which was a new school record for one season. Also, we had more goals for than goals against and had a goals against average under 10 for the first time in school history.”
During the season, the Voyageurs obtained six wins and six losses for a total of 12 points, placing Laurentian fifth in the West Division.
With their fifth place finish, Laurentian booked a first round playoff match-up with the second place Western Mustangs (10-2) on Nov. 1 at the Mustangs Field.
Through the first two quarters, the Voyageurs and Mustangs exchanged goals and found themselves tied at 3-3.
In the third, Laurentian’s Philip Romanet scored three goals in the quarter to give the Voyageurs a one goal 6-5 lead going into the last frame.
However, in the fourth, the Mustangs shutout the Voyageurs and tallied four goals within the quarter, giving Western a 9-6 win.
Although Laurentian lost, ending their chances to reach the 2014 Baggataway Cup, the Voyageurs had many positives to look upon, as they posted new school records.
Laurentian finished with 119 goals for and 116 goals against, which was good enough for a +3 rating to end the season.
Also, Voyageurs’ goalie, Ian Walters, achieved a 9.52 goals against average, placing him 16th in the league.
On the offensive side, the Voyageurs had three players, Romanet, Jon Van Der G and Clint Lamarsh, placing within the top 25 leaders in points.
Romanet led the way for the Voyageurs scoring 43 points, 21 goals and 22 assists, in 11 games, good enough for ninth in the league.
Van Der G attained 38 points with a total of 28 goals in only nine games to lead Laurentian in goals scored.
Lamarsh finished with 34 points, 23 goals and 11 assists, in 12 games for the Voyageurs.
Gordon, who’s in his third-year as Laurentian’s coach, said he was impressed by his teams’ hard work “on and off the field.”
As for next season, Gordon said his entire starting defensive core will be returning for the Voyageurs, but believes his squad must get bigger in order to compete with some of the best teams like Brock (11-1), Western (10-2) and Guelph (8-4).
“We need to get more bodies out, plain and simple,” he said. “There’s a lot of lacrosse players that go to Laurentian, but for whatever reason, (they) do not come out for the team. If we were able to have a roster of 30 players there’s no doubt, in my mind, we would be beating these top teams.”
For statistics, standings and updated playoff results, visit the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association at www.cufla.ca for more details.
