Day Two of the Nations Cup

With games starting at 8am and ending at 10:20pm, there was a lot of lacrosse.

Opening game of the day saw the home town Redhawks take on the Seneca 32’s.  Neal Powless opened to the scoring with the Redhawks with an unassisted tally at 8:03 am or 2 minutes and 40 seconds into the game.  The 32’s and the Redhawks traded goals until Andrew Beaver scored in the closing seconds of the first to give Seneca a  4-3 lead. The Redhawks exploded the second period with 6 goals, of which Brett Bucktooth assisted on four of the tallies.  The third period saw the Redhawks always stay a goal ahead despite the efforts of the 32’s Mike Stevens 2 goals as the Redhawks won a nail-biter 12 to 10.

The second game saw The Ohsweken Aces down the Onondaga Porch Dwellers 12 to 10.  After Randy Staats opened the scoring for the Aces, Dweller James Cathers knotted it up with an unassisted goal and a great game was set. With three minutes left in the first Jeremy Thompson scored to make it a 4-3 Dweller led only to have Randy Staats tie game up at 4 with seconds remaining in the period.  The second period saw both teams score 4 goals to set up an exciting third period.  Then NLL first round pick and Syracuse Alumni Cody Jamieson tallied two early goals to help secure the win for the Aces.

 

Up next saw the North Shore Indians fall to Tuscarora 11 to 5.  Gehnew Printup scored the first of his 3 goals 7 minutes into the first period as Tuscarora Coach Darris Kilgour’s defense tightened and did not allow an Indian tally as they built a 3-0 lead.  Emmitt Printup (4 goals 3 assists) extended the Tuscarora lead to 6 before the Indians made a surge of their own led by a couple of goals by Jesse Johnson.  Unfortunately for the WLA Indians, the momentum turned back to Tuscarora as they added 3 goals to North Shore’s single goal by Jame Brown.

 

Caughnawaga then tangled with the Frog Pond Maulers in another exciting game to see the Maulers come away with a 11 to 8 win. Caughnawaga’s goaltender Angus Goodleaf was on fire in the first holding the Maulers to 2 goals while Wolfbac tallied 3 of the teams 5 goals to take a 5-2 lead at the end of the first.  Caughnawaga scored just 12 seconds into the second to extend the lead to 6-2 before the Maulers started to solve the Caughnawaga net minder.  Caughnawaga’s Orris Edwards scored to make the score 8 to 6 in favor of the Cigar Store Injuns.  But Frog Pond clamped down on defense and did not allow a single goal as they found the back of the 5 times to come away with a 11-8 victory.

 

The first afternoon game of the Nations Cup pitted Seneca 32’s and Tuscarora.  With the Redhawks sitting in first place in their division and holding the head-to-head tie breakers between the two clubs, the winner of this game would advance with the Onondaga Redhawks to the medal round on Sunday.  With the motivation to advance the 32’s defense and goaltender Clint Jones shinned.  Shutting down the Tuscarora offense for the first period, veteran Brian Stevens was able to lead the first period attack scoring 1 goal while adding 3 assists in helping the Senecas build a 5-0 lead. Tuscarora’s Gehnew finally broke through the Seneca defense adding the first of his 4 goals of the afternoon early in the second period.  But Preston Lay opened the third period with an early unassisted goal of his own to extend the 32’s lead to 10 to 3 and helping secure a spot in Sunday’s semi-final with a 14 to 6 win.

With both Frog Pond and Ohswekan heading into this matchup as undefeatedteams in their group, they were guaranteed a spot in the medal round on Sunday.  What both teams were battling for was first place in their division and more importantly… bragging right back home.  Craig Point opened the scoring followed by a goal by Randy Staats for an early 2-0 lead.  Frog Pond responded with 2 goals by Wayne Van Every to tie the game to begin the second.  It was during the second period when the Ohswekan Aces began to pull away fom the Maulers by scoring 5 while holding their opponents to 2 tallies.  Isdiah Kicknosway scored for the Aces to extend the lead to 8 to 4 over the Maulers as the team was on its way to winning their division with a 12 to 5 win.

 

Up next saw the Onondaga Porch Dwellers and the Caughnawaga Cigar Store Injuns battle to see which team would get their first win of the tournament.  Onondaga’s Miles Thompson set the stage for the game as he scored an unassisted goal just 21 seconds into the contest as the Porch Dwellers cruised to an 18 to 10 victory.  The Porch Dwellers were led by Lyle Thompson’s 3 goals and 8 assists while the speedy Hank Delisle also added 2 goals and 7 assists of his own to help the team pull away in the second quarter.

 

The final game of the evening saw the Redhawks host the North Shore Indians.  The Indians from the Squamish Nation in Vancouver, BC were great supporters of the Redhawks when Onondaga was out west during their championship Presidents Cup run.  Now the Indians were standing in the way of an undefeated bracket play for the Redhawks.  The Redhawks secured first place earlier in the day and now were battling Vancouver for the Battle of East Coast vs. West Coast.  North Shore came ready to earn their first win of the tourney by scoring on their very first possession.  The Redhawks responded with 4 straight goals of their own.  But the Indians did not travel across the continent did not go away quietly.  Soon the Onondaga faithful saw the Indians still hanging around as the Redhawks held a 6-5 lead in the middle of the third.  The Indians then tied it up then went a head 7-6.  Tyler Hill then scored a beautiful fast break goal off of the ensuing faceoff to tie it up at 7.  After the Redhawks and the Indians traded goals, and the goal tenders stopped many chances the horned sounded to end regulation tied at 8.   Both team decided on a shootout to decide the outcome of the contest.  As the Onondaga arena noise level skyrocketed with each of the 5 shooters for each team, only one was able to score, North Shore’s Cree Cathers.   Congratulations to North Shore for the fine effort on the floor but for making the trip to Onondaga to compete in the Nations Cup.  It wouldn’t be surprising to see North Shore returning to compete for another Nations Cup in the future.

 

With the round robin play completed, the medal round is set for Sunday.

Semi Final 1 @ 9:00am            Onondaga Redhawks vs. Frog Pond Maulers

Semi Final 2@ 10:30am           Ohswekan Aces vs. Seneca 32’s

2:00pm                                               The Bronze Medal Game

3:45pm                                               The Gold Medal Game