The Red Devils hammered the Hamilton Bengals on Sunday afternoon at Wallaceburg Memorial Arena in front of 339 fans. The final score was 18-7.
Coach Jamie Knight told the Sydenham Current it was a solid, all-around effort by the Wallaceburg club.
“Right from the first face-off, (Hamilton played Saturday) night in Sarnia, so we wanted to jump on them early,” he said.
“That was our game plan and we came out and did that. Just a good response, when they scored we responded right away. Vern Hill scored a couple big goals for us right away. That kind of deflates their bench, they get up and then they’re right back down to where they were.”
Knight said the Red Devils offence was clicking, with and without the ball.
“For me, one of the biggest things we’ve been trying to do is become more responsible without the ball,” he said.
“You’ve saw a lot out our ‘O’ guys picking up checks today. That was a great game, a great team game. If I’m talking to the team, I’d say ‘that’s the perfect team game we played today.’ A lot of guys made commitments without scoring, that’s how you win.”
Knight said the Bengals are a good team.
“That is going to be one of the best team’s we play this summer,” he said.
“So taking it to them like that was huge for us.”
Knight added: “The biggest thing in Wallaceburg, the only way you get respect is to beat teams other than teams in our bracket. Nobody gets too excited, oh they beat London, they beat Sarnia, let’s see if they can beat the Hamilton’s, the Six Nations, the top dogs. That’s a strong team in Junior ‘B’ and we took it to them pretty good.”
Hill, who was named the games first star, finished with 3 goals in the game.
Kyle Dawson scored 3 and added 3 assists, while MacCoy Abrams are netted a hat-trick for Wallaceburg.
Cory Lucier and Sidney Powless each had 5-point games, each scoring 2 goals and adding 3 assists.
Aaron Underwood scored 2 goals and added 1 assist, Tyler Brown had 1 goal and 1 assist, while Riley Roe chipped in with 1 goal and 1 assist and Parker Gilhuly scored his first of the season.
Tanner Cole finished with 4 helpers, while Jordan Goddard added 3 assists.
Brayden Bell picked up the victory in net, stopping 33 shots and allowing 6 goals in 47:23 minutes of action.
Lucas Jacobs made 16 saves, allowing 1 goal, in 12:37 minutes of action in the third period.
Wallaceburg now sits in first place in the Ontario Junior ‘B’ Lacrosse League’s Far West Divison with a 3-1 record, a couple of points ahead of Windsor, who own a 2-2 record.
Hamilton drops to 3-2 on the year, second in the South West division.
Wallaceburg will have their first road game of the season on Tuesday night, when they head to Point Edward to battle the Pacers. Game time is set for 8 p.m.
Wallaceburg will then host the Owen Sound North Stars on Saturday night May 5 at 7 p.m. and the Guelph Regals on Sunday afternoon May 6 at 3 p.m.
Here are some photos from Sunday’s match-up with Hamilton:
