Defending Champion Steelhawks Register Overtime Win in Home Opener

Defending Champion Steelhawks Register Overtime Win in Home Opener

By Mark Stehlin

The undefeated Whitby Steelhawks (3-0) hosted the visiting Brampton Express (2-1) in their 2024-25 Arena Lacrosse League home opener at Children’s Arena in Oshawa on Saturday evening with the hosts coming out on top in an 11-10 overtime thriller on a goal by Devin Pipher.

Steelhawks Head Coach Ryan Degerdon, along with Assistant Coach Brad Reed both stressed the importance of pride in the Steelhawks jersey in their pre-game talk. Whitby are defending league champions, and the core of the team is back for another run this season.

Prior to their weekend game, Steelhawks learned that their leading goal scorer Brady Kearnan had earned a promotion to the National Lacrosse League (NLL), signing with the Ottawa, joining his brother Connor with the Black Bears.

Degerdon said, “I was happy for Brady and certainly not surprised to hear that he  got the call to go to Ottawa. We knew it was only a matter of time before we saw him go.” In three games with the team, Kearnan registered 13 goals and six assists.

The Steelhawks got off to a good start against the Express as face-off specialist, Matt Boissonneault scored the opening goal, and Whitby continued the momentum taking a 3-1 after the opening 15 minutes.

The Express found a new gear to start the second quarter. They reeled off two quick goals within a minute and the teams were tied at 3-3. The Steelhawks bent but did not break as they answered each successive goal by their guests with one or two of their own, taking an 8-6 lead into the half.

Once again, the Express came out of the half-time break on a mission and scored the first two goals of the third quarter to tie the game at 8-8. The teams traded goals and fans anticipated a thrilling fourth quarter with the teams tied at 9-9.

Within 30 seconds of the opening face-off in the final quarter, Steelhawks player, Liam Aston notched his second goal of the night for the 10-9 lead. That gap was short-lived as Brampton found the back of the net behind Steelhawks starter, Lukas Coote to tie the game again. The teams were locked in a defensive battle for the rest of the quarter. The clock struck zero with the game knotted at 10-10 and a sudden death goal would be the difference on this night.

Steelhawks leading scorer and star player Devin Pipher took the team on his shoulders and with just 0:39 off the clock in overtime firing home the game winner with his third goal of the night to keep the Steelhawks undefeated run in tack, improving their record to 4-0.

After the game, Degerdon said “I don’t want to make excuses, but we had only 16 runners with three call-ups, so we were missing seven or eight regulars.” He added, “this was a character win for these guys, and it was all about playing for the pride of the jersey.”

Degerdon spoke highly of his goalie, “Coote has started the season off very well for us, he is a calming influence back there.” Degerdon chuckled when he said, ”Coote is like a nice bottle of wine, he ages and gets better.”

He told his players before the game, “this will be a total team effort with defense helping offense and offense helping defense.”

He summarized by saying, “we’re developing a winning culture here and I’m excited to be part of it.”

Scoring for the Steelhawks - Aston (2,1) McGregor (1,0) Woods (2,0) Boissoneault (2,1) Osborne (1,1) D Pipher (3,1) York (0,2) Hyland (0,2) Goodchild (0,2) Keenan (0,4) Coote (0,2), Debrone (0,1).