The Westlock Midget ‘B’ Rock crushed the Beaumont Raiders 12-1 in their Saturday night kick-off game at Rotary Spirit Centre.
Head coach Shane Boulerice said this first game of the season in the Greater Edmonton Lacrosse Council (GELC) set the bar high with early expectations to make it to provincials.
“I was pretty impressed to say the least,” Boulerice said.
The Raiders knocked in one point in the first period but the Rock’s crisp passing was what secured the boys four goals to close out the first 20 minutes.
The Rock nailed in another four points to shut down the second period 8-1. The battle continued but it was no equal match and the Rock flattened the Raiders 12-1 at the end of the third.
“In practice we try and run the same kind of thing — fast paced, quick paced, and the boys running — but games are different,” Boulerice said. “It’s faster, obviously, than practice but in practice we’ve seen this, and I’ve had these boys now for about three or four years. I know what they can do and how fast we can go.”
Boulerice said he expected this outcome, though the boys will have to work on pacing themselves rather than shooting the ball when they get the chance, unlike what he noticed happens to his players in hockey games.
“In lacrosse you have a 30-second clock, so you want to burn that 30-second clock down, run it down as far as you can, and then get a shot and hopefully get the ball back again and run that 30 seconds down again,” he said.
“That’s what I want to see at the end from these guys.”
