A better effort from the Peterborough Timbermen on Saturday night unfortunately didn’t translate into their first win of the season as they fell 14-11 to the Paris River Wolves and now sit last in the Arena Lacrosse League with a record of 0-3.
The win was the first of the season for the River Wolves.
The Timbermen clawed back from a second quarter 8-1 deficit to pull within three at 11-8 by the end of the third.
That fact, at least, was pleasing to head coach Joe Sullivan.
“Once we started to get the ball moving through everyone’s stick we settled in much better and began to rally back,” he said.
However, the slow start and some more disciplined play ultimately cost them.
“We started much too slowly to compete at this level. Paris came out and executed a great game plan and their offensive standouts like Brendan Thenhaus played like stars,” Sullivan said.” Once again we had players missing the concept of their individual responsibilities and it cost our team at very inopportune times.”
Geoff McNulty led the attack with two goals and four assists, while Josh Wasson had three goals and two assists. Cody McMahon and captain Tim Bergin each had one goal and three helpers.
McNulty, Cole McWilliams and Doug Utting all scored shorthanded goals while two of Wasson’s goals and McMahon’s came on the power play.
Curtis Singleton had an assist in his Timbermen debut.
Cole Murray and Nolan Clayton split the duties between the pipes for the Timbermen with Murray making 21 saves on 27 shots and Clayton 17 on 25.
Bryden Curren and Andy Campbell each had three goals for the River Wolves. Rance Vigneux made 30 of 41 saves.
Not dressed for the Timbermen were Colton Armstrong, Matt Crough, Ryley Martinell, Ryan Masters, Nick Saltern, Eric Shewell and Joe Wasson.
“Sitting at 0-3 is not where we should be right now,” Sullivan said. “We are not playing dedicated and disciplined lacrosse and don’t seem to leverage our strengths when we need to. I am however still very impressed with the commitment level and effort, but there is a big difference between working hard and working smart and we need to get there as quickly as we can as individuals and as a team.”
The Timbermen’s next game is Saturday, January 28 at 4:00pm at the Tribute Communities Centre in Oshawa where they will host a return match with the River Wolves. They will play home games at the Peterborough Memorial Centre on February 26 and March 19. Tickets for those games are on sale now at the PMC box office.
Scoring for the Timbermen were:
Josh Wasson (3-2)
Geoff McNulty (2-4)
Cody McMahon (1-3)
Tim Bergin (1-3)
Brett Coons (1-1)
Dan Michel (1-1)
Doug Utting (1-0)
Cole McWilliams (1-0)
Garrett Lewis (0-1)
Riley Campbell (0-1)
Zack Thompson (0-1)
Curtis Singleton (0-1)
Full game stats can be found at: http://www.arenalacrosseleague.ca/stats#/248/game/103158/boxscore?season_id=618
While at times the defence did not fair well and while at times the offence took forever to get going it was clear that too many penalties for what should be a much more disciplined crew was evident as to the loss of this game for the Timberman. That is the news on that game.