Merchants Need a Late Push to Win Game 1 Over Bengals

By Mark Stehlin

The Ontario Series Lacrosse semi-final series between the Brooklin Merchants and the Hamilton Bengals commenced last night in front of a good-sized crowd at Luther Vipond Memorial Arena in Brooklin, ON.  Deacon Knott got the nod from Head Coach, Ryan Degerdon as the starter and Dylan Sprentz took his spot in the Bengals cage.

- photo by Mark Stehlin

It was the visitors who struck first and grabbed a 2-0 lead en route to a 2-1 lead after the opening period. 

A trio of goals from the Merchants to start the second, including an important short-handed marker by Devon Pipher, and a power-play goal just minutes later gave the Merchants that period by a score of 6-2 and a 7-4 lead after forty minutes.

- photo by Sam Hossack 

The Bengals were intent on making this a series.  They netted three straight to start the last period of regulation time and the game was tied 7-7 with half the frame remaining.  Parker Pipher with his second on the night broke the deadlock with 3:30 showing on the clock, a late Zac Carrigan marker sealed the win and 1-0 series lead for the Merchants in this best of five semi-final series.

Ryan Degerdon reflected on the start of the game "I loved the energy at the start, I felt the boys were maybe holding their sticks a little tight but I didn't want to tell them to calm it down because I liked what they were doing."

He added, "I was very happy with the second period, six goals for and two against". 

Degerdon, said "letting them come back in the third period with a three-goal lead was not good enough." "We've got to be better and find a way to bear down."

He said, the message for Sunday is simple "we will show up there, we know what kind of team we are and can be." "We have championship aspirations and we need to play a full 60 minutes to achieve our goals."

Scoring for the Merchants - MacDonnell (0,1) Renaud (2,0) Carrigan (1,0) Watts (0,1) Boyd (1,1) D Pipher (2,2) Wheller (0,2) Pullera (1,0) Leclerc (0,1) P Pipher (2,1) Hickey (0,3) Simard (0,1) 

Game two of this best of five is Sunday July 21 at 5 pm in Hamilton and the teams return for game three on Friday at Luther Vipond Memorial Arena at 8 pm.