It was supposed to be a warm up for the Provincial Championships that are to take place in Whitby during the weekend of July 31 to August 2, 2009, the Jim Newton Bantam Fury looked a bit disinterested playing their games this past weekend in the Mimico Tournament. With two of the three teams that they played in the tournament being Brampton 2 and Milton, they were hoping to assert themselves and show both these teams that they will be the team to beat in Provincials, as both of these teams are also in the Fury's pool in Whitby.
The boys hit the floor for their first game on Saturday morning against Barrie, and the fans were treated to a great game of lacrosse, as both the Barrie goalie and the Fury goalie, Mac Langford played very well, and keeping the game close. With just over 2 minutes to go in the game, and the Fury leading by a score of 5-4, they were given a 4 minute penalty for a hit from behind, giving the Barrie squad a powerplay for the balance of the game. They were able to capatilize on the power play with just over a minute to go in the game to tie the score, and send the game to overtime. Still on the powerplay in the overtime, the Barrie team worked the ball around, but were unable to score. With both teams having a couple of chances to score, both goalies again made some great saves to keep the game knotted at 5-5. Then on a long break pass, the Barrie player got in behind the Fury defender, and just as he went to shoot, his stick was slashed, slowing down the motion of the ball, and the ball went up high, in a slow motion kind of way, and over the top of the Fury goalie, giving Barrie the 6-5 victory.
In their second game, vs Brampton 2, the Fury again battled well, but again silly penalties took their toll, and the boys dropped the game by a score 6-4. After this game Coach Hlibchuk was forced to read the riot act to a few players, who insist on taking silly penalties, and putting the team in a short handed status, when the team at full status, is capable of playing with any other team. So, the coach was looking for a huge improvement in game 3 on Sunday morning.
On Sunday morning, the Fury were up against an upstart, rough and rumble type team in the Orangeville Northmen. The game was an end to end affair, but lots of missed passes and missed opportunites by both teams. In the end, the game went into another overtime, and Jacob Halsall netted the winner for the Fury, and set them up to play in the bronze medal game later that afternoon.
Their opponent for the medal game would be the team from Milton. The Fury started out strong, and had leads of 2-0 and 4-2, but again penalties and poor play, allowed the Milton team to take over, and Milton scored the next 5 goals of the game, and when the buzzer sounded to end the game, Milton had won the bronze medal game by a score of 7-4.
The Fury have lots to think about. As mentioned earlier, the teams from Milton and Brampton are in the same pool with the Fury, at the Provincial Championships, and the coaching staff of the Fury believe that if the boys can stay out of the penalty box, they can compete and come out on top of their pool. With a practice scheduled for Wednesday night, the coaching staff will have one final chance to put the boys through their paces to get ready for the weekend, and the most important tournament of the season.
The schedule of games for the Jim Newton Electric Bantam Fury, for the Provincial Championships is as follows....
Game 1 Friday, July 31, 2009 2:30pm McKinney Arena Pad 1 Fort Erie vs Kawartha Lakes
Game 2 Friday, July 31, 2009 8:00pm Legends Arena Pad 1 Milton vs Kawartha Lakes
Game 3 Saturday, August 1, 2009 3:00pm Legends Arena Pad 1 Brampton 2 vs Kawartha Lakes
