Rivermen drop second straight at Presidents Cup

The Six Nations Rivermen are certainly not doing themselves any favours at the Presidents Cup tournament. The Rivermen were hoping for a solid bounce-back game on Tuesday, a day after taking far too many penalties and dropping a 9-6 decision to British Columbia’s Ladner Pioneers at the national Senior B tournament being staged this week in Edmonton. The Six Nations squad, however, simply was not itself Tuesday and was downed 17-10 by the Akwesasne Bucks, the Can-Am Lacrosse League champions. 

The Rivermen, the Ontario Series Lacrosse champs, entered Tuesday’s outing with a 1-1 tournament mark. The Bucks had lost two out of their first three round-robin outings. 

“They wanted it more,” Six Nations head coach Darcy Powless said of the Bucks. “They had to win to stay alive.” 

The Akwesasne squad got off to a quick start and led 5-2 before the match was even seven minutes old. 

“That was the first game with these guys that we just didn’t come out ready to play,” Powless said. 

The Rivermen battled back and were deadlocked at 6-6 with the Bucks heading into the first intermission. But Akwesasne took control of the contest outscoring the Rivermen 7-1 in the second period. Akwesasne also outscored Six Nations 4-3 in the final 20 minutes. 

The Rivermen are now sporting a 1-2-0 record and have three round-robin matches remaining, including two on Thursday. 

“A win would have helped us keep pace with the top teams,” Powless said. “Now we put ourselves into a couple of must-win games out of our last three.” 

Powless added his charges are now in a similar situation that they were in 24 hours earlier. “Just like yesterday’s game, we need to learn from it and move on and prepare for tomorrow’s game,” he said. 

The Rivermen will square off against the Capital Region Axemen, members of the Quebec Senior Lacrosse League, on Wednesday. The opening faceoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. EST. 

Scott Del Zotto and Travis Longboat scored two goals each for the Rivermen in Tuesday’s game. Wes Whitlow, Wayne Hill, Brooker Muir, Oakley Thomas, Justin Martin and Vern Hill scored the other Six Nations goals.