Fourth-quarter comeback helps Shooting Eagles rally past Black Fish

Shooting Eagles' Tyson Johnson is checked by Black Fish's Connar Abrams during Arena Lacrosse League West Division action at Langley Events Centre on Nov. 12. Ryan Molag photo

Trailing for nearly the entire first 55 minutes of the contest, the Shooting Eagles scored three of the final four goals to slip past the Black Fish 12-11.

The teams were playing on Sunday in week 1 of the Arena Lacrosse League West Division action at Langley Events Centre.

Down 4-0 late in the first quarter, the Shooting Eagles chipped away over the game’s final 48 minute.

The Eagles trailed 4-1 after 15 minutes, 6-3 at the half and 8-5 with a quarter remaining. But the defending ALL West champions closed the game with seven goals over the final 15 minutes.

“It is easy when we are down and haven’t scored a goal in almost whole quarter to give up and get down on ourselves. But to be able to battle back and stick with it one goal at a time, keep it close the whole way through and then win it at the end, it is all heart and effort,” said Shooting Eagles coach Adam Smith.

“Today was a whole bunch of guys that don’t know each other. The idea was to get out, get the ball moving and learn what we can do.”

Coady Adamson (3-1), Mark Yingling (2-2) and Jake Young (1-3) all had four-point games in the win while Patrick Corbett (2-0), Ben Gagnon (1-2), Dylan Lacroix (1-1), Tyson Johnson (1-1) and Jacob Dowell (1-0) also finding the back of the net.

Johnson was also dominant in the face-off circle, winning 22 of 26 draws.

Liam Froese (12 saves on 16 shots) and Tristan Lomas (26 saves on 33 shots) split the goaltending duties.

“I thought we played well, but just couldn’t close it out in the end. We kind of let them in and they got some energy,” said Black Fish coach Rod Jensen.

“We have to get that killer instinct. You can be up three or four goals and they can come back. We have to get that killer instinct and get that extra goal to put it away.”

For the Black Fish, Ryan Jones (2-2) and Jordan Roberts (3-0) led the offence while Laszlo Henning (1-3), Brian Gillis (1-2), Daunte Twamley (1-2), Xander Cabeca (1-1), Remo Schenato (1-1) and Ryan Jensen (1-0) each scored a goal.

Dave Mather went the distance in the Black Fish goal, finishing with 40 saves as his team was outshot 52-49.

Young, Jones and Yingling were the game’s three stars.

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