The Durham TurfDogs will meet the Brampton Inferno this Saturday in what promises to be a very special day. For the first time in the history of the Canadian Lacrosse League, a regular season game will be played at the brand new Cobourg Community Centre. The intention of this game is to sell the sport of lacrosse to the town of 18,500 in the hopes that they can bring a CLax team there in the near future. The community has been promoting this game for months and they’re hoping for a sell out crowd.
The game is at 2pm but activities will be running all day with lacrosse clinics starting at 9am.
Brad Self of the Rochester Knighthawks will also be there promoting Nationwide Lacrosse, the new lacrosse school that he co-founded with the National Lacrosse League’s leading scorer Shawn Evans.
Self will be accompanied by Toronto Rock forward Scott Evans as well as the Mann Cup trophy that they won last summer with the Peterborough Lakers. Both superstars will be available for autographs.
The adrenaline will be running high for Durham and Brampton as they look to impress the Cobourg crowd. Both teams are on two game losing streaks and are looking to redeem themselves in this Saturday Matinee.
The TurfDogs suffered a heartbreaking loss to the Niagara Lock Monsters last Saturday in a seesaw battle that could have gone either way. Shane Scott lit the lamp for 5 goals in that game and was easily Durham’s first star. Zach Higgins was a beast in goal making several circus saves including a diving no look stop as he dove across the net. They were 3 for 10 on the powerplay but still have lots of room for improvement. The TurfDogs need to work on getting the ball down low to their crease men; they can’t rely on their long shots finding the back of net.
No team will go far without a solid draw man and Graham Bergsma has been great this season for Durham. He wins the majority of the faceoffs and his 17 assists are proof that he can move the ball up the floor quickly off the draw.
Brampton has been having a yo-yo type season and are coming off a disappointing loss against the previously winless Barrie Blizzard. The Inferno need to find some consistency in the second half of the season if they want to be contenders for the Creator’s Cup. They have a team that can win it all but their star players need to show up to play every game.
Ryan Campbell shows up to play every game but he can’t carry the entire load and needs his teammates to start stepping up. When John McClure is on his game he’s tough to stop but he’s had a few games where he’s been virtually invisible. Scott Tinning has scored 2 goals in every game except one but he needs to start dishing the ball more; sometimes he tries to do too much by himself.
Saturday’s matchup should be the best game of week 9 and you can listen to all the action live at 2pm on The Lacrosse Radio Network.
