Merchants Take Control of Series

By Mark Stehlin

It was a successful day in Meaford for both Brooklin teams on Sunday afternoon. The Brooklin Lacrosse Club took the 12-9 win over the NorthStars in a matinee for their final regular season home game. Later on, it was the Brooklin Merchants turn to take the floor for game two of their best of five semi-final series against Owen Sound. The Merchants won game one at home 14-4 on Friday night. Sunday’s affair was much tighter as the Merchants took this one 9-7 for a 2-0 series lead.

With both squads in town a few Merchants players appeared on both rosters. Eddie Renaud and Cole Tucker suited up for BLC and Lukas Coote backed up Steven Orleman in the BLC net.

Liam Osborne with his first of the playoffs got the visitors going. It was Zac Carrigan who had a hattrick in game one who came up big again as he scored in the final 0:30 to give Brooklin a 3-1 lead going into the first break.

It was the Carrigan and Osborne show again to start the second as they each tallied to spread the lead to 5-1. The home team was able to capitalize on a couple of Merchants penalties with two goals of their own in that period and it was 5-3 for the Merchants after forty minutes.

The NorthStars were looking to keep this affair close and Dawson McKenzie, one of their top point-getters in the regular season, made it 5-4 early in the third to give the home side some life. The teams went back and forth in that frame. It was Adam Perroni who registered what would turn out to be the winner with 13:04 showing on the clock to make it 8-5. The NorthStar were not going away as two more kept it close. It was Carrigan with his second consecutive hattrick with under a minute on the clock who gave his side the 9-7 win and 2-0 lead in the series.

Scoring – Osborne (2,2) Renaud (1,0) Carrigan (3,3) Elliott (1,3) D Pipher (1,1) Perroni (1,0) Pullera (0,1) Morgan (0,1) P Pipher (0,3)

The teams will meet for game three in this best of five series on Friday August 1, 2025 at 8:00 p.m. at Iroquois Park Sports Centre (IPSC). The annual Ontario Lacrosse Festival is set to invade IPSC from August 1-10 so the atmosphere for Merchants and BLC games will be electric with good energy in the building.