Pipher and Orpana Guide Steelhawks to Road Win

(Photo courtesy of Jay Saucier)

With an impressive 10-points each on Sunday afternoon, Parker Pipher and Owen Orpana lit up the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena scoreboard to lead the Whitby Steelhawks to a 14-12 win over the Paris RiverWolves in Arena Lacrosse League action.  The win improves Whitby to 1-1 on this young season and leaves Paris with the same record.

In the Steelhawks loss last week to the Timbermen, Pipher left the game early with an injury. He wasted no time on Sunday afternoon’s return to have an impact with his new team, joining Whitby and his brother Devin, in a trade from the Toronto Monarchs in the off-season. He scored the first two goals of the game in the opening minute and Whitby was off and running. The teams were knotted at 3-3 after one quarter.

A consistent message from head coach Ryan Degerdon and assistant Brad Reed to their players is to fight to win each and every quarter. In this game, they took the second quarter 6-4 to lead 9-7 at halftime and then went on to take the third quarter 3-1 for a 12-8 lead with 15 minutes remaining.

The RiverWolves found themselves in some penalty trouble and the Steelhawks took advantage with seven power play markers. A portion of Pipher’s 10-points was a natural hat-trick in the third quarter over a seven-minute span, all power play markers.

With Whitby up 14-8 and five minutes into the final quarter, the hosts would put a scare into their guests. The RiverWolves reeled off four unanswered goals to end the game and at the final buzzer they fell just short as the Steelhawks took the 14-12 win to get back to .500 on the season.

“I saw this as a good bounce back game after our loss at home last week to Peterborough and Brad and I had a good chat with the guys before the game”, said Degerdon.

“We stressed the importance of communication on the floor and on the bench. Brad and I saw evidence of that on Sunday afternoon as our leadership group took the ball and communicated well,” he added.

“It was great to see Owen and Parker put up some great numbers. My job is to win this league and to prepare players to make the move to the National Lacrosse League. It was too bad that Parker didn’t stick with Ottawa this season, but I will do what I can to help him and others make the move up,” he concluded.

The Steelhawks will battle the defending champion Brampton Express on Saturday December 20, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. at Children’s Arena in Oshawa in their final game before the holiday break.