The Vancouver Stealth may have lost its first scrimmage of the year to the defending champion and newly-relocated Saskatchewan Rush 14-12, but what they learned about themselves was certainly more important than the result itself.
With a hungry, competitive preseason roster that contained rookies in the double digits for the Stealth but the goal scoring remained with the veterans. Guys like Rhys Duch, Logan Schuss and newly-acquired Garrett Billings chipped in on the scoring.
The Stealth played two separate squads in each half and the more veteran-laden crew in the second half of the game seemed to have more cohesion in the first half.
After falling behind 6-2 at the half, the Stealth did well to chip away at Saskatchewan’s lead and closed the lead to 10-7 after three quarters. But the Rush held off consecutive 5-4 quarters by the Vancouver and showed a little bit of that championship resolve in the process.
The scrimmage capped off a solid start to Vancouver’s preseason, which should lead to a high level of compete, according to Dan Perrault who talked to StealthLAX.com.
“The pace was good, the compete level was very high, and overall was happy with the effort,” Perrault said.
“We want the players to make it tough on us in picking this team.”
Vancouver is back in action on Dec. 5 while they will host Colorado on Dec. 6 at 10 a.m. PST. Saskatchewan is set to play Toronto in the Lansdowne Lax Showdown at The Arena at TD Place in Ottawa on Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. EST.
