The Penticton Heat peewee lacrosse team overcame nerves to win the Okanagan zone championship.
“I think they were pretty nervous at the beginning. They seemed tight and were making mistakes that we haven’t been making,” said Heat coach Chris Danby.
Leading 4-1 after the second period, the Heat went on to win 9-2 and finish 4-0 in the zone championship over the weekend at Memorial Arena.
“It’s pretty exciting,” said Danby, whose teams in the past have fallen short of advancing. “The boys were quite excited about it yesterday.”
Midway through the second period the Heat settled down and took the game to the Thunder. Danby liked how his players performed defensively. They haven’t surrendered many goals over the season and this weekend they came together. Scoring for the Heat were Chay Gettens and Cylis Charlton with two goals, and one each by Athan Smith, Fredo Monaghan, Liam Danby, Jacob Becker and Orion Jack.
Gettens said it was a fun experience for he and his teammates. He added they practiced hard to reach where they are.
“It was a hard working game. The first period was very challenging and after we got in the swing of it we were able to get a hold of some goals,” said Gettens. “We battled through it.”
The Heat also defeated Kamloops 9-0, Kelowna 9-4 and Shuswap 9-5. They will travel to Richmond for provincials July 20-24.
The Penticton Heat peewee lacrosse team.
Heat loses to Kodiaks
The Penticton bantam advance Heat’s season is over after being swept from their best-of-three series to the Kelowna Kodiaks. The Heat lost Game 2 6-4 at Memorial Arena.
“It was well fought,” said Heat captain Rhys MacDonald, who had a scare in the game when he was cross-checked in the throat and couldn’t breathe for about 20 seconds. “It’s always a tough competition going up against them, especially for such an important event like provincials. We just got a little bit more outworked and a short bench is pretty tough to play with all those extra bodies out there.”
MacDonald said their offence worked well as they were able to set picks and moved the ball well. They had chances but couldn’t finish. Finn Halladay led with two goals, while Keegan Allen and Gage Leclair scored the other goals.
“I thought we played pretty well. We’ve been battling through some injuries,” said Heat coach Del Halladay. “We have one of our key defensive guys out with a concussion and a couple other guys are fighting some nagging ones.”
Halladay said his team never gave up.
“In that aspect, I’m incredibly proud of them,” said Halladay.
Halladay praised the Kodiaks’ speed and strong goaltending. While the Heat received strong play from goalie Rowan Brown, Kodiaks goalie Dustin Gallinger forces runners to beat him or fake him out.