It’s always tough writing a blog about ending your season earlier than expected, but thats what I find myself doing yet again this year as our team was eliminated in a deciding game 5 in Onondaga against the high powered Redhawks on Sunday afternoon.
Our regular season ended with us finishing 10-4 and securing 3rd overall place in the league. We played Buffalo Creek in the first round and swept them 2-0 before starting our semi-final series against a strong and experienced Onondaga team. Game 1 saw us make the long bus ride from Six Nations to Onondaga on a Friday night. Although we played well, we came out a little flat and couldn’t recover in time as we lost the first game 9-6. Game 2 saw us come back home to Six Nations on a Saturday afternoon determined not to go down 2-0 in a best of 5 series, and we prevailed with a hard fought 9-4 victory. We played hard and fast knowing our season was potentially on the line the next day if we didn’t win at home, and we got the job done in front of our hometown fans. Game 3 saw us travel back to Onondaga the next afternoon looking to steal a game from the hometown team and go back home up 2-1 in the series. Our squad did just that as we surprised the Redhawks and stole game 3 9-4 and had the chance to close the series out at home the next Saturday afternoon.
Game 4 was easily the best game of the series as both teams fought hard. We had a good crowd on hand and the game was close up until Lyle Thompson put his team on his back and went on a run of his own and scored 3 goals in a matter of 2 minutes or so at the end of the 2nd period to put his team up for good as Onondaga prevailed in game 4, setting up a do-or-die game 5 the next afternoon in Onondaga.
By now you can guess that game 5 didn’t go at all in our favor as our team bowed out of the playoffs to a very solid lacrosse team. It was a long and hard fought series that will take some time to recover from, but that’s what lacrosse is all about. The Redhawks deserved to go through to the finals as they have a great team and some very good players in Brett Bucktooth, Hiana, Lyle, and Jeremy Thompson, and Lee Nanticoke, and will fight for a spot in the presidents cup come late August. I thought our team had a very positive year together and we will only grow from here. The improvement we made from last year to this year is very strong and we will look to make that final step next season.
As I was painfully reminded by my good friend and teammate Michael Holmes, this was my 3rd semi-final loss within 9 months, having lost the OLA Sr Mens Field semi-final in OT, the CLAX semi-final, and now the Can-Am semi-final. A couple beers together later made me feel a bit better, but hopefully 2015 brings better luck my way. All in all a very memorable season of lacrosse and I wouldn’t trade the time spent on the road battling it out with my teammates for anything.
Till next year
Speck
