The blast of summer heat made for a draining experience Sunday afternoon for the players who suited up in lacrosse armour for the Great White North midget league final at Kin 1.
Quesnel Crossfire captain Dylan Cathcart was looking for a cool shower as he gathered his equipment and walked off the floor after the game against the Prince George Posse, his gas tank well past empty.
As hard as it was for Cathcart to muster the energy for his second game of the day, it was well worth it. The Crossfire defeated the Posse 4-2 in the game that mattered most, boosting the pride of the Quesnel squad a month before the provincial B championship next month in Campbell River.
"We had to fight hard, they're a good team and it was our best game of the season and we finally came out on top," said Cathcart, whose team lost two of three games to the Posse in the regular season.
"It's fun playing these teams because we're all friendly on the floor and it's not rough, where everybody wants to fight each other. For the most part it's just a good clean game of lacrosse. Bu that was a hard-fought game. That's the most tired I've ever been."
Jake McIntosh scored both Posse goals. He opened the scoring six minutes to the game but Rhys Whitaker evened the count with 10 seconds left in the first period. Chase Ballendyne wiped out another Prince George lead in the second period, beating Posse goalie Jonathon Wittmeier two minutes after McIntosh collected his second of the game.
Posse captain Doug Porter said his team had too many breakdowns on defence and didn't do enough to protect goalie Wittmeier.
"I think we were all tired from our first game today, we had to work hard to beat Mackenzie [9-4 in the semifinal]" said Porter. "It was hot but we should have played a lot better than we did. We missed too many shots."
Hunter McSeveney collected the gamewinner 50 seconds into the third period when he caught the Posse defence napping and scored on a breakaway. Jacob Schwab provided some more breathing room for the visitors late in the game to cap the scoring.
"They're good shooters and they can pick spots," said Wittmeier.
Prince George will represent the northeastern zone at provincials, while Quesnel has the green light to claim the vacant northwestern B.C. berth usually reserved for Vanderhoof, which doesn't have a midget team this season.
Quesnel defeated Prince George No. 1 8-2 in the other semifinal Sunday morning.
Cathcart, McSeveney, J.T. Moore and Quesnel goalie Tomas Reistad will join 11 Prince George players and four from Mackenzie on the Zone 8 team for the B.C. Summer Games in Nanaimo, July 17-20. They'll be playing the against A1 division teams from the lacrosse hotbeds of the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island.
"I've never done something like that before, it's going to be an awesome experience," said Cathcart, who had a tryout with the B.C. provincial team that will play in the national championship, Aug. 4-9 in New Westminster. "It's going to be way harder competition than down here. I don't know how we'll fair but we'll try our hardest."
In other Great White North League final results, Vanderhoof defeated Quesnel 7-4 in the bantam final, Prince George No. 1 topped Prince George No. 2 12-7 in the peewee championship game, and P.G. No. 2 scored a 6-2 win over P.G. No. 1 in the novice final.
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