Photo by: Charlie Martin
The Badgers’ men’s lacrosse team played the McMaster University Marauders in a Saturday night match on Oct. 22. The Badgers, after a tough home opener loss to Guelph, roared out to three straight wins, one of them against McMaster. However, Brock’s last three games were all losses, including last Sunday’s overtime thriller against Guelph. As a result, Brock entered Saturday with an even 4-4 record to McMaster’s 3-5.
It took Brock some time to settle in. McMaster got the scoring started four minutes in. The Badgers started to pick up the pace towards the end of the half, ending it up 4-3 with a 17-6 edge in shots on net.
Brock started the second half with a strong defensive set, punctuated by a big save on Sam Leclair, which would soon be followed up by a nice goal by Mitchell Zulian a little over two minutes in.
Brock kept at it with a flurry of chances, including a save on Zulian with four minutes remaining.
Though not tested often, goaltender Connor O’Toole looked solid when necessary and had a big save with 6:25 remaining.
After a power outage that had both teams stalled on the sidelines for 15 minutes, Brock continued to pour on the pressure with two chances for Aidan Buis in close, another save on Leclair, and excellent defence that kept McMaster outside of dangerous areas.
After finishing the third up 21-9 in shots, Brock quickly solved McMaster’s goaltender in the fourth with Brodie Thoms getting his second of the night less than two minutes in.
Four minutes later, Zulian would also get his second of the night, and two minutes later Thoms would complete his hattrick.
With five minutes remaining, Matthew Labute would collect Brock’s final goal of the contest.
With 2:40 left in the third, McMaster would have their best opportunity of the half but by then it was much too late, O’Toole stood tall, closing the door on a shutout half.
Brock won by a commanding 9-3 score and dominated the shot total, finishing up 31-12.
Brock lacrosse’s next game was a 10-3 win on Sunday the 23rd against the Wilfrid Laurier University Golden Hawks. Capping off their last game of the regular season in a big way, the Badger’s will have a chance to defend their national lacrosse title in the Baggataway Cup in Peterborough starting on Nov. 4.