Paciejewski pots four in Shooting Eagles victory

Cole Paciejewski (#8) celebrates with teammate Jordan Gabriele after scoring one of his four goals during the Shooting Eagles' 15-11 win over the Sea Spray on November 16 at Langley Events Centre. Gary Ahuja LEC photo

Sometimes too much time to think can be a detriment to an athlete. Apparently, that was not the case with Cole Paciejewski.

“I had a long drive from Prince George down to Langley this morning, so I had about eight hours to think about the game. It was a bit nerve-wracking coming all the way down here, so I was pretty happy to get right in and contribute some goals and come away with the win,” he said following his first-star performance on Wednesday night.

Paciejewski scored four times to help the Shooting Eagles defeat the Sea Spray 15-11 in week two action of the Arena Lacrosse League West Division at Langley Events Centre on Wednesday night. The win improves the Shooting Eagles to 1-1 while the Sea Spray sit at 0-2.

This marked the second straight game the team managed to score 15 goals, but this time, the Shooting Eagles allowed 11 instead of 16 to earn the victory.

“We had a line-up of a bunch of guys still trying to make the team and tonight was their time to do that and they stepped up,” said coach Adam Smith.

The teams were tied at three late in the first quarter before the Shooting Eagles potted goals 23 seconds apart in the final minute for a 5-3 lead. The second period was another story, however, as the Sea Spray dominated the 15 minutes to lead 8-6.

“A dozen missed shots, a half dozen missed passes, so we came into the locker room and said let’s get back to focusing on what we are supposed to be doing. Let’s worry about our structure first, let’s worry about making the passes and catches and when we get a shot, let’s make sure that it is a shot on net,” Smith said.

And Smith’s talk obviously worked as the Sea Spray were shutout the entire quarter while the Shooting Eagles scored eight times while allowing no goals for the 14-8 lead. The Sea Spray had three of the final four goals, but the deficit was too much to overcome.

“At halftime, we just said the team that is going to work harder and gets more loose balls and little things is going to be the team that comes away with the win. We did all the little things right in the third quarter and it helped us get some good goals there,” Paciejewski said.

Box Score

While Paciejewski earned first star honours, the Sea Spray’s Keegan Bell was the second star thanks to a five-goal, seven-point night. Shooting Eagles goalie Tristan Lomas was star No. 3 as he made 31 saves on 42 shots.

For the Shooting Eagles, Coady Adamson (3+2) had five points and Spencer Bromley and Garrett Winter each had a goal and three helpers. Mark Yingling (2+1), Tim Whipple (0+3), Tomas Jeck (1+2), Dylan Lacroix (2+0) and Doug Porter (1+0) rounded out the team’s scoring.

While Bell led the Sea Spray with seven points, Adam Dickson (3+2), Parker Kump (0+4) and Nathan McKeigan (2+2) also had big games. Kump set up the first four goals for his team before leaving with an injury in the second quarter. Jared Moloci (1+1) had the other goal for the Sea Spray and in net, both Reed Watson (24 saves on 33 shots) and Ashton Leclair (15 saves on 31 shots) saw action.