Defence leads the way as Shooting Eagles stymie Grizzlies

Shooting Eagles goaltender Colin Jeffrey makes one of his 39 saves during his team's 14-5 win over the Grizzlies in Arena Lacrosse League West Division action on Nov. 17 at Langley Events Centre. Ryan Molag photo

It was a dominant defensive display.

The Shooting Eagles held the Grizzlies scoreless for a stretch of 32:32 – from midway in the second quarter all the way until the 8:15 mark of the fourth quarter – in a convincing 14-5 victory on Sunday at Langley Events Centre.

The win improves the Shooting Eagles to 2-0 while the Grizzlies fell to 1-1 in Arena Lacrosse League West Division action.

“It is nice holding a team to five goals,” said Shooting Eagles coach Adam Smith. “(But) I don’t think the score was very indicative of the game; I thought it was a very balanced game … we made the most of our shots.”

Aside from an early 1-0 deficit, it was all Eagles from that point forward as they lead 2-1 after 15 minutes and 6-3 at the half before breaking things open in the third with a 4-0 quarter.

Mark Yingling was the game’s first star following his five goal, eight-point performance while his teammates Dylan Lacroix and Keegan Kozack were the second and third stars, respectively, as each registered a hat trick. Lacroix added a trio of assists for the six-point game.

Garret Winter and Declan Fitzpatrick both had four assists in the victory and Tysen Nielsen (1-1), Lucas Parsons-Quintiao, and Gordon Walls-Good had a goal apiece. Goaltender Colin Jeffrey made 39 saves on 44 shots.

Smith was happy the team cleaned up some of their struggles with moving the ball cleanly, as well as the fact they did a better job in executing their new defensive systems.

“We adapted to our new system well,” said Shooting Eagles defender Ben Gagnon.

“Little slow to start, but we ramped up on our talk. Everyone is just firing, and it feels good out there.”

The Grizzlies – who scored an ALL West-high 14 goals in week 1 – were held to just five. Not helping matters was the fact they lost James Baker (who scored seven in the opener) to injury in Sunday’s game.

Baker was one of five Grizzlies players with one goal in the contest, alongside Joshua Faria (1-1), Jack Margetson, Garrett Lewis and Erik Forselius. Nash Moog had three assists. Brayden Wandler played the first three quarters in goal with 35 saves on 44 shots while Christian Del Bianco came on in the fourth, finishing with 14 saves on 18 shots as the Grizzlies were outshot 63-44.

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