Usually when a team heads into a provincial championship, there’s always a sense that they’ll have to be at the absolute top of their game and playing at their best to have a chance at winning a gold medal.
For the Moose Jaw 14-and-under Mustangs, it was just another weekend of racking up wins.
The Mustangs capped off an undefeated run through the Sask Lacrosse Association provincial house championship in Moose Jaw this week with an 8-1 victory over the Regina Axemen in the gold medal final at Mosaic Place.
The victory capped off a campaign that saw the Mustangs put together a 12-0-2 record in league play before stringing together five straight provincial wins.
“I’m very proud of the boys,” said Mustangs coach Joey Folk. who was quick to praise yet another impressive defensive effort from his crew, one that saw Regina receive few chances to mount a comeback as the game progressed.
“Our defence, I think if you ask any one of the coaches they’d tell you it’s probably unmatched. We probably have three or four of the best kids in the province and it always helps when they go down and score goals, but even our secondary kids and our first-year kids, they all stepped up. Even if they were smaller on the floor in size, they all gelled together and played absolutely amazing. I don’t think [Regina] had more than 10 shots in total, and it’s been like that all year long.”
“So I’m really proud of the kids, you can’t have much of a better year than that with all the golds and stuff like that, it was just a great season all around.”
Things were close in the early going of the final, as Moose Jaw’s Lachlan Clark scored the only goal of the first period for the local squad and the two teams were tied 1-1 through one.
Moose Jaw poured things on after the break, though, with Clark scoring his second, Brodyn Pladson adding a pair and Ryder Gilroy rounding out scoring in the frame for a 5-1 lead.
Pladson finished off his hat trick in the third, with Kashton Smith and Carter Hudyma scoring single markers.
Colton Flanagan was the winning goaltender and even added an assist to his ledger.
The successful season was just part of what has been an impressive career run for many of the Mustangs veterans, and Folk hopes to see more of the same in the future.
“That’s the thing about these guys, we haven’t lost many games, maybe a couple in overtime here and there, and the boys have medalled a lot.,” Folk said. “And it’s not just the winning, it’s the growing the dressing room with kids helping out and stepping up… it’s been really good and the future looks really bright.”
Moose Jaw opened the tournament Thursday with a 9-5 win over the Weyburn Thrashers before defeating the Regina Water Dogs 6-3 and Saskatoon Rush 7-3 in their other round robin games. The Mustangs advanced to the gold medal final with a 7-4 win over the Regina Outlaws on Saturday night.
