Late Surge Falls Short as Steelhawks Drop Second Straight

(Photo courtesy of Dreamshot Media)

Fans of the Whitby Steelhawks know their team will never surrender. On Saturday afternoon in Oakville, they were down 14-10 to the Toronto Monarchs in Arena Lacrosse League (A.L.L.) action with just under 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. They reeled off three straight goals to claw back into the game but as the buzzer sounded the scoreboard displayed a 14-13 final in favour of the Monarchs. Not enough to stave off their second consecutive defeat, each by one goal and they now possess a 1-3 record in this 14-game regular season. The Steelhawks lost a total of three regular season games combined between the 2024 and 2025 campaigns.

The 2025 Leading Scorer in the A.L.L. with 103 points, Parker Pipher, was dealt to the Steelhawks in the off-season from the Monarchs and led his new team with four goals and two assists on Saturday. In addition, Nic Farrus added three goals, Devin Pipher and Liam Osborne with two each and singles to Quinn Hyland and Keagan Croley rounded out the scoring for the Steelhawks. Ryan Schuetzkowski took the loss in the Steelhawks net and faced 60 shots, adding two assists.

The Monarchs led 4-3 after one quarter and 9-4 at half-time. The Steelhawks were able to tie the contest on three occasions in the first half and even took a short-lived 3-2 lead, but the Monarchs soon tied the game and went ahead never trailing again. The Monarchs took advantage of some Steelhawks penalty trouble and scored five straight to end the second quarter, three in succession on the power play.

The second half was better for the visitors, as they won the third quarter 6-4 to close the gap to their opponents. This included a three-goal run in the third quarter to equal the aforementioned three goals they managed at the end of the contest.

“ I don’t want to make excuses, but the lack of a full line-up has been the theme this season, we only dressed 16 runners on Saturday, so the guys were feeling it”, said head coach Ryan Degerdon.

“ I thought we came out strong. Brad (Brad Reed, assistant coach) and I had a message for the guys before the game which was to focus on effort, communication and awareness on the floor. I was happy with the effort and if we keep that going we can turn this around”, added Degerdon.

“ Late in the game we scored to get within one, I saw 1:08 on the clock and decided to draw up a 5 on 5 play rather that pulling the goalie for the extra attacker as I was confident in the guys, it didn’t work out but that was the call I made at the time. We are now facing some adversity, but I feel good about the fact that we will pull together as a unit and build some success”, said Degerdon.

The Steelhawks are back on the road Sunday January 11, 2026 for a 4:00 p.m. game at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena where they will meet the Six Nations Snipers who, after dropping their first two games, have now countered with two straight wins and sit at 2-2 on the season.

Whitby will finish the month of January with three home Saturday games; January 17th, 24th and 31st all 1:00 p.m. starts at Children’s Arena in Oshawa.