In a battle for playoff positioning, the Peterborough Timbermen were downed 13-7 by the St. Catharines ShockWave on Saturday night at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena.
The loss, combined with a win by the Oshawa Outlaws on Saturday, drops the Timbermen into sixth place in the Arena Lacrosse League with two regular season games remaining. They trail the Outlaws by two points and are ahead of the last place Six Nations Snipers by two points. The Timbermen have now lost four games in a row, but, regardless of their final position, will make the playoffs.
Saturday, only half of the Timbermen’s usual defensemen were available for the game, so they ended up dressing more forwards, an unusual move in lacrosse as teams focus more on stacking their back end. Cam Garlin played out the back door to help the tired d-corps.
Once again the Timbermen had to play catch-up after falling behind 7-1 early in the third quarter. Brett Perras replaced starter Ryan Masters at that point but head coach Joe Sullivan said the switch wasn’t enough.
“We played very sloppy all game long and lost all the small battles and that took a toll on us. We were simply outworked physically and we were second on the ball all night long giving St. Kitts numerous second chances,” he said.
The Timbermen picked it up in the fourth quarter, scoring four in the frame including a pair from Chris Attwood 35 seconds apart, but it was too late.
2017 Timbermen captain Tim Bergin rejoined the team on the weekend to help provide a boost to the offense.
“Bergin had the itch to play and we had committed to him at the start of the year,” Sullivan explained. “We wanted him back if he wanted to come back.”
Also positive for the Timbermen was their discipline. They took only two minor penalties the whole game.
Anthony Patterson had a sock trick for the ShockWave. Caleb Wiles scored a hat trick and Bryan Neufeld added a pair.
The Timbermen play this coming Sunday, March 18 at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre in Oakville as they make up their game versus the Toronto Monarchs that was postponed in February due to weather. Game time is 3 p.m.
Scoring for the Timbermen:
Chris Attwood (3-1)
Joel Matthews (2-2)
Mark Vradenburg (1-2)
Brodie Tutton (1-0)
Fred Hartley (0-2)
Joe Wasson (0-1)
Zack Thompson (0-1)
Blake Kenny (0-1)
