The Brooklin Merchants Fall to the Six Nations Rivermen

The Brooklin Merchants Fall to the Six Nations Rivermen

By Mark Stehlin

The Brooklin Merchants hosted the Six Nations Rivermen on Saturday afternoon as part of a double header that saw the Brooklin Lacrosse Club battle the Six Nations Chiefs later that evening. The league leading Merchants had made two trips to the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena this season and were 2-0 looking for the season sweep today. The Rivermen were determined to remind their hosts that life doesn’t always turn out as planned. The Rivermen sprinted out to a 4-1 first period lead and, despite a furious third period comeback attempt by the home side, it wouldn’t be enough as the Rivermen took this one 13-11.

The visitors struck first as Greg Elijah Brown fired one past starter Lukas Coote in the Merchants net less than a minute into the game. Parker Pipher, with his first of four, evened the score on a power play marker a couple of minutes later. It was the Rivermen who set the tone in that period. They went on a three-goal run followed by two short-handed goals near the end of that first frame and took a 6-4 lead into the second period.

Coaches Ryan Degerdon and Mark Debrone have maintained that winning each period must be a priority. While that didn’t happen in the first frame the Merchants were able to match the Rivermen with even scores in the second and third periods.

The middle frame was tighter than the opener. The Merchants decided to go with Deacan Knott in net in favour of starter Lukas Coote to start that period. Brooklin Lacrosse Club draftee Nicholas Volkov, playing in his first game for the Merchants, scored twice in that frame. He has suited up for BLC and on this day was asked to do double duty. He suited up for BLC for their 8 pm game against the Six Nations Chiefs. Score after forty minutes was 9-7 in favour of the Rivermen.

Pipher with his third of the game closed the gap to within one goal in the first few minutes of the period. The Rivermen responded with a pair in under a minute to regain a three-goal lead. The Merchants mounted a comeback with three straight in the final period to tie the game at 11-11 with three minutes remaining. It was not to be on this night, however as the Rivermen stormed back with two late goals for the 13-11 win. This leaves them with an 8-3 record compared to 11-2 for the league-leading Merchants with five games remaining for each side.

Parker Pipher led the way for the Merchants on the scoreboard. His four goals and two assists give him 50 points, good for second in the league points race just one behind Rivermen player Thunder Hill who had a pair of goals tonight.

“I think we played better than them in the second half of the game, but we came out flat in the first period. We have to play our full 60 minutes and I think we have them,” said Pipher.

“Sometimes a loss isn’t the worst thing as it reminds us that we are beatable, and we have to come out and be prepared for every game. We know that if we play a full 60, we trust each other and the coaches and play Merchants lacrosse we’ll be fine,” added Parker.

Scoring – Renaud (2,1) MacLeod (0,4) R McCrory (0,1) Elliott (1,2) D Pipher (0,3) Pullera (1,0) Volkov (2,0) Miller (0,1) P Pipher (4,2) Tucker (1,1)

Next up for the Merchants, home on Friday at 8 pm to Ennismore and then home again Sunday afternoon at 4 pm to Collingwood.

Notes – Besides Volkov, Lukas Coote and Will MacLeod also did double duty as they featured in the BLC line-up for the 8 pm overtime game yesterday with the win going to the Six Nations Chiefs by a final of 8-7.