The Arena Lacrosse League’s Peterborough Timbermen are off to their hottest start in their three short years of existence. Saturday afternoon at Children’s Arena they defeated the Oshawa Outlaws 13-9 which gave them a 3-0 record. They sit second in the ALL behind the St. Catharines Shockwave on whom they hold a game in hand.
“It’s a turnaround from last year. The culture’s better in terms of who’s committing,” said new captain Mark Vradenburg, who had a goal and four assists on Saturday. “It’s refreshing. There are a lot of selfless guys on the team and we’re not running into issues where the ball’s getting stuck. The team’s coming together pretty well.”
The Outlaws scored first but the Timbermen replied and ran up a 4-1 lead including three goals in a span of 1:33. They led 4-2 after the first and 5-4 at half.
Discipline was a factor in the first half, with the Timbermen taking five penalties to Oshawa’s three. The Outlaws converted on three opportunities in the first half and five overall with one shorthanded goal.
“We deserved the penalties we got today but they definitely affected us. Most of them were due to poor positioning and defense,” head coach Joe Sullivan said. “They take momentum and flow away. We have to work harder to play through that.”
The lead changed hands twice in the third, with Oshawa tying the game and then taking a 6-5 lead by the 4:08 mark. Blake Kenny’s first of the game tied it at six before Cameron Simpson put the Timbermen up 7-6 heading into the final quarter.
Oshawa tied the game two minutes into the frame but it was all Timbermen after that as once again they found a second wind late in the game. Simpson scored his second, Kenny scored two more for the hat trick and rookie defender Ethan Riggs potted an insurance marker late.
“We fell asleep for a quarter but for the most part our defense did their job,” Vradenburg said. “Once we let Oshawa get a little bit of momentum that’s when we were susceptible to falling apart. Our offense fell asleep as well and we have to give them some goal support. Overall we battled through. It wasn’t the prettiest but we got the job done.”
Brier Jonathan, acquired in a trade with St. Catharines, made his Timbermen debut on Saturday.
“We sent some pretty quality players their way in Joel Matthews and Chris Attwood,” Sullivan said. “What we needed was defense. The challenge for us is to get Brier into as many games as he can. He’s a guy with NLL experience. It’s a true find to get a guy of that calibre still sitting around and able to participate.”
Jonathan is a name familiar to Peterborough fans for two reasons: he’s previously clashed with the MSL’s Lakers as a member of the Six Nations Chiefs and is also the grandson of former Peterborough Pete Stan Jonathan.
He made an immediate impact with hard-nosed play as well as the game-winning goal.
“I want to improve my game defensively but do the transition game as well. Push the ball up when I can and be a multi-player out there, not just strictly defense,” Jonathan said.
Brett Perras only allowed four goals in the first 30 minutes of play. Ethan Woods allowed five in the second half.
John St. John led the Outlaws with two goals and three assists.
Next Saturday the Timbermen are in Paris at 8 p.m. to visit the River Wolves.
Scoring for the Timbermen:
Blake Kenny (3-1)
Aaron Woods (2-3)
Cameron Simpson (2-1)
Fred Hartley (2-0)
Mark Vradenburg (1-4)
Ty Thompson (1-3)
Brier Jonathan (1-1)
Ethan Riggs (1-0)
Lyman Beatty (0-1)
