Dog-tired after playing a semifinal playoff just hours before, the Airdrie Mohawks leaned on the broad shoulders of 60-year-old goalie Rod Quinn to deliver them a bronze medal at the Treasure Cove Casino Challenge Cup/B.C. senior C lacrosse championship.
Quinn put into practice the net-stuffing skills he learned as a Calgary teenager and backstopped the Mohawks to a 9-8 victory over the Mission Cedar Kings Sunday afternoon at Kin 1.
“I didn’t feel (young) but it just feels good to go out with the guys, it peels the years off you,” said Quinn, the oldest player in the Alberta-based Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League.
“I’ve played with these guys a long time and I just love them like my own. Basically, they’re my own sons that I never wanted but I got.”
Quinn lives in Calgary but has ties to Prince George, having played for the Prince George grandmasters team several times at the Canadian masters lacrosse championship 10 years ago and he felt right at home seeing familiar faces in the stands at the Kin Centre. He made 29 saves as the Mohawks outshot the Cedar Kings 38-37.
The teams were tied 6-6 heading into the third period. Greg Bradley and Mission shooter Harry Senkler traded goals and it remained tied until the 12:34 mark, when Bradley took advantage of a four-minute power play to whistle a low shot past Cedar Kings goalie Jeff Passimore. Before the second penalty had expired, Garrett Werschke made it a 9-7 count with a shot that went in off the stick of a Mission defender. Gavin Shand made it a one-goal game on a setup from Prince George native John Makowsky with five minutes left but that’s as close as it got.
Earlier in the day, the Port Moody Express ended the Mohawks’ title hopes with a 9-6 semifinal win Sunday morning.
“It would have been nice to take the first game but we weren’t really ready to go and they came out harder than we did,” said Bradley, a native of Richmond, who led the Airdrie attack with three goals and an assist.
“We won bronze last year too, so we were looking for a little more. We really like the competition out here because back home we’re not getting close games where we can actually see what kind of team we have.”
Makowsky, who collected two goals and two assists, said his legs felt like lead weights after the Cedar Kings lost their semifinal Sunday morning 15-10 to Ladner. It was tough for both teams going back-to-back in the bronze battle with less than 90 minutes rest. Airdirie and Mission played six games in three days.
“I am very tired, two games in a row is rough, especially when you have two teams that can run really hard and they’re in shape,” said Makowsky. “It was a tough fight the whole way and that’s why I play with these guys, we fight to the end.”
The four Prince George Senior Lacrosse Association teams had a tough weekend. The RPR Mechanical/BX Pub Bandits went 1-3 as the only PGSLA team to win a game. The Westwood Pub Devils, Co-op Petroleum Stylers and Quesnel M.Daniels Consulting Crossfire all went 0-4.
