The Quesnel Crossfire will take aim at their first-ever win tonight.
The Crossfire, a brand new team in the Prince George Senior Lacrosse Association, will battle the Mackenzie LumberJax - a club that joined the league last year - in a 7 p.m. game that is part of a PGSLA tripleheader at the Coliseum.
The Crossfire lost their inaugural contest 26-10 to the BX Pub Bandits Thursday night in Quesnel. In that game, played in front of about 150 fans, the Crossfire were competitive for most of the first two periods. Then, however, a series of brawls resulted in the ejection of three of their better players and the remaining Quesnel troops watched helplessly as the more experienced Bandits ran away from them on the scoreboard.
"We did pretty well," said the Crossfire's Devon Magnuson, a former Coquitlam resident who has junior B, senior B and field lacrosse experience. "We've got some good skill up front but we could use a couple more guys - another lefty and we just need some time for a couple of the newer guys to learn how senior lacrosse works and a couple of the systems. All in all, I was pleased with the effort. It went better than I expected."
By the end of the night, 182 penalty minutes had been handed out. Magnuson wasn't happy to see the game dragged down by cheap shots and fisticuffs but he has a good idea of why it happened.
"It was first-game excitement on their part and a lack of experience in senior lacrosse and the physicality of it on our part," said the 23-year-old Magnuson.
"They were quite aggressive and a little dirty but we definitely need to hold back and not take stupid penalties.
"I'm hoping that we get to play some lacrosse [against the LumberJax tonight] and get rid of the stupid stuff," he added.
"I think these [Mackenzie] guys will be more willing to play and hopefully it will be a little closer."
This will be the season-opening game for the LumberJax.
The Crossfire have 22 players on their roster and they range from 16 to 43 in age. Pat Gibbs is the elder statesman and team captain.
Gibbs said the Crossfire - who feature eight players with no previous lacrosse experience - will be learning on the fly each game night.
"We've got lots of experience on offence but the guys that haven't handled the ball very much, I need to teach them how to play defence and that's going to take a bit," he said.
"We're going to be kind of an opportunistic team and just hope we can look after our own end."
Gibbs has two sons on the team - Alek and Mitch - and is excited about the chance to play alongside them all season.
"I've coached them since they were six or seven and have been able to grow with them. And they're so much better than I am," he said with a laugh.
"Their hands are so good, they're so big and they're so strong. It's kind of funny, but it is quite nice to go out and play with my kids."
In tonight's other games, the Shooters Pub Devils (0-1) will take on the Twisted Cork/Regional Security Stylers (0-1) at 5 p.m. and the defending-champion College Heights Pub Assault (1-0) will clash with the Bandits (2-0) at 9 p.m.
