Merchants Strike First in Offensive Outburst

By Mark Stehlin

The Owen Sound NorthStars traveled to meet the Brooklin Merchants last night in game one of their best-of-five Ontario Series Lacrosse Semi-Final series. The game started much tighter than it ended. Five Merchants scorers notched multi-goal games and the defense in front of Deacan Knott locked it down en route to a 14-4 final to take a 1-0 series lead.

The Merchants did score first, but Jake McNabb with a pair for his NorthStars midway through the first, kept the game close. Score was Brooklin 5-2 over Owen Sound at the horn to mark the end of the first. Brooklin’s Zac Carrigan with his second in that period grabbed his own rebound and deposited the ball behind starter Gavin Clarke who put on a decent performance despite the lop-sided score. The Merchants caught their guests napping with two goals in the last 0:55 to take the lead into the locker-room.

It was a dominant 5-0 second period win for the Merchants that would be the difference in this contest. On transition, it was Jacob Hickey with his second of three on the night from a pretty outlet pass originating back in Knott’s crease to open the gap to a comfortable 8-2 lead. In the first period, Adam Perroni fed the ball to Hickey when they tore off down the floor from their end that resulted in a goal also. Will MacLeod, on the power play, got another goal for the home side with 0:33 on the clock to end that period and the Merchants had a 10-2 lead.

The visitors did display a spark of life in the third as Riley Thompson scored twice for his team. That turned out to be too little too late as the Merchants took the game 14-4 and with it a 1-0 series lead. The NorthStars found themselves in some penalty trouble in that period as MacLeod and Devin Pipher both with their second of the night, made them pay. Alex Marinier with his fourth on the night wrapped up the scoring with just under five-minutes remaining. If TSN was filming the game, Brooklin’s Scott Reed would have made the highlight of the night on an impressive effort to get the ball to Hickey for his hat-trick (fans can find the reel on the Merchants Instagram account, thanks to Sam Hossack).

“I played all of my junior career out the front door and only just started on D in Senior. Part of what I am trying to do is move the ball up the floor and put the ball in the back of the net when I can,” said Jacob Hickey after the game.

“Tonight, we had a complete team effort and a full 60-minutes from back to front, offense put up 14 goals and Deacan and the D kept them to only four goals. We have a number of very dynamic players on this team and we are excited for what is to come,” added Hickey.

Scoring – Duncan (0,1) Carrigan (3,6) MacLeod (2,2) Elliott (0,1) Marinier (4,2) D Pipher (2,2) Perroni (0,1) Pullera (0,3) Hickey (3,0) Reed (0,1) P Pipher (0,1)

Game two goes Sunday July 27 at 6:00 p.m. in Meaford, part of a double-header as the Brooklin Lacrosse Club of Major Series Lacrosse will play Owen Sound in their final regular season game at 2:00 p.m.