Six Nations on verge of advancing after thumping Clearview

The Six Nations Rivermen once again had a dominating playoff performance on Sunday. The Rivermen traveled to Stayner and downed the host Clearview Crushers 20-7 in Game 2 of their best-of-five Ontario Series Lacrosse semi-final series. Six Nations had also registered a convincing victory, 17-5, in the series opener at home on Friday.

The Rivermen can put a wrap on this series with another win this coming Friday. Game 3 in the series will be staged at the Six Nations Sports and Cultural Memorial Centre. The opening faceoff is set for 8 p.m.

The Rivermen were able to easily handle the Crushers in Sunday’s outing even though five key regulars did not suit up for the match.

“We have a lot of depth,” said Six Nations’ assistant captain Oakley Thomas. “It’s a hard choice when we have to sit a couple of our guys.”

Rivermen head coach Darcy Powless said his club’s depth is rather beneficial as the squad can afford to insert others into its lineup when others are nursing a few bumps and bruises.

“We have the depth and we are able to take care of our guys and put other guys in,” he said.

Sunday’s outing was considerably more tame than the series opener on Friday when the two clubs combined for a total of 112 penalty minutes. A total of 39 penalty minutes were assessed in Game 2 with the Crushers being tagged for 23 of those. Thomas said he was anticipating a much cleaner game.

“I figured the refs would be a little bit more on it,” he said. “Things got a little bit crazy (on Friday). I had a good feeling things would be better today.” 

Powless credited the game officials for keeping things in line for the most part on Sunday. “It was a lot cleaner game,” he said. “They knew what was at stake.

 Rivermen forward Jordan Goddard had a spectacular outing scoring six goals, one less than the entire Clearview squad. Scott Del Zotto and Travis Longboat both added a hat trick each for the Six Nations side. Meanwhile, Tyler Brown and Marshall Powless both scored twice. Providing singles for the Rivermen were Thomas, Daylen Hill, Kevin Owen Hill and Justin Martin. Dusty Hill started the game between the pipes for Six Nations and played the first two periods. Troy Holowchuk then saw action for the final 20 minutes in net for the Rivermen, who were up 15-4 heading into the second intermission.