A Successful Weekend for the Merchants

By Mark Stehlin

The Brooklin Merchants racked up both miles and a pair of wins this weekend. Saturday night saw them in Belleville, where they left with a 22-7 win. Less than 24 hours later they were home at Iroquois Park Sports Centre to host the Collingwood Cruise and added a 12-4 victory. They own a 4-0 record on this 12-game regular season that has now reached the one-third mark.

It was good to see former Brooklin Redmen players Andy Glen and Mike Miron on the bench for the Cruise, coaching in a building that they both know well.

The Merchants struck first as Carson Christy fired a bullet between the legs of Cruise goaltender, Oliver Vanyo. Minutes later, Zach Miller fed Robbie Baxter in front of the net and he scored his first of four on the night to open the gap to 2-0. It took Vanyo a while to settle into the game, but he did and made a few nice saves to keep it close. Two former Whitby Warriors teammates were involved in the Merchants third goal as Jack Oldman scored on a nice two on one feed from Owen Tapper. After twenty minutes the Merchants had built a solid 4-0 lead.

Collingwood scored their first early in the middle frame, but the Merchants had an answer for that as Baxter fired home a bullet to maintain the lead. He added another less than two minutes later before the teams traded goals for a time. The Merchants took the middle frame by a final of 5-3 and owned a 9-3 lead after two periods.

The Merchants won the third period by a score of 3-1 for the 12-4 final.

The trio of Andrew Dalton, Owen Wills and Griffin Poll set up an amazing tic-tac goal mid-way through the third to make it 12-3. Poll is a Michigan based box lacrosse player who was coached by former Redmen player, Cam Holding. It was Holding who connected Poll to GM Gavin Prout for this opportunity.

“It’s been awesome to be here; the team has been super welcoming. We are off to a good start and I hope it keeps going like this.” said Poll.

“I’d say my strength is my effort and intensity level and I am happy to be able to learn from these guys,” added Poll.

Goalie Ryan Schuetzkowski got the win after he saved 28 of 32 shots he faced. Baxter scored four times for the second game in succession. Adding two each were Carson Christy and Zach Miller, singles went to Andrew Dalton, Max McPherson, Parker Pipher and Jack Oldman.

“It’s always tough on these back to backs, we know it is a grind, but the guys played well, this game took a while to warm up which is partly due to the back to back” said assistant coach Mark Debrone.

“Defensively, we keep telling the guys that backing each other up is the key and we cleaned a few things up as the game went on, overall a good performance,” added Debrone.

Next up May 31 in Collingwood and June 7 in Owen Sound. The team is home on Sunday June 14 at 2 pm to host Owen Sound.