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Senior C lacrosse tournament humbling experience for local squads

Around Prince George this season, the Westwood Pub Devils and RPR Mechanical/BX Pub Bandits ruled the senior lacrosse floor.
The teams finished 1-2 in the Prince George Senior Lacrosse Association standings and met as playoff finalists, with the Devils coming out on top in a five-game series.
All it took was one game Friday against an opponent from that lacrosse hotbed known as the Lower Mainland for the Devils and Bandits to fall back down to earth.
The stakes are high this weekend at the 11-team Treasure Cove Casino Challenge Cup/B.C. senior C championship, which started Friday morning at the Kin Centre with five from the West Central Lacrosse Association in the hunt.
Two of those WCLL teams flexed their muscles in the tournament-openers and it was not pretty for the home teams. The Bandits got dumped 18-4 by the Coquitlam Adanacs at Kin 1, while Devils suffered a 15-3 thumping at the hands of the Ladner Pioneers at Kin 2.
“It was like we’d never played the game before,” said Devils captain Scott Anderson. “They ran us into the ground, they’re young and fast. It came from all over, they’re multi-talented out there. They were all over us, it was tough.”
Ladner exposed the Devils’ defence with quick ball movement which kept the pressure on goalie Steven Brizan. Cam Kirkbride, Eric Dufresne and Spencer Bennett each had two-goal outings for the Pioneers, who took a 3-2 lead into the first intermission, then scored seven unanswered goals in the second period.
Anderson, 49, who played senior B for Ladner in the late-1990s and early-2000s, knows the five PGSLA teams will be hard-pressed to keep up the pace against teams which draw from a population base of 2.5 million in Greater Vancouver.
“It was just our lack of experience,” said Anderson. “Our league is not like the one these guys are playing in, the competition down there is so much stronger. Some nights we’re playing with seven guys on the floor against 12.”  
The Adanacs are stocked with senior A and senior B veterans and they’re coming off a season in which they won 17 of 18 games in the WCLA regular season. Coquitlam lost the playoff final last weekend in two straight to the Ridge Attack.
Ranging in age from 21-36, the Adanacs brought 15 of their 25 signed players to Prince George, including Blake Dunlop, who shredded the Bandits’ defence Friday, collecting three goals and six assists. Steve McKinlay picked up three goals and three assists.
“We just came out ready to play, everybody battled and we came out on top,” said 34-year-old Adanacs captain Nick Jones, who had two goals and two assists in the game.
“It’s a way different league down there, more players to choose from. Most of our offence is probably senior A guys. We have a lot of experience. I played for the (senior A) Adanacs 10 years ago, Chase played five years ago, McKinlay played last year and (Steve) Neufeld played for Burnaby (the senior A Lakers) last year.”
Jones figures the Airdrie Mohawks of Alberta and Port Moody Express (who finished second in the WCLA) are the teams to beat this weekend.
The Bandits welcomed sniper Jesse Huffman back into the lineup after he missed the playoffs for work-related reasons and he responded with a goal and an assist, while Mike Blondin returned to collect a goal and three assists. But they sorely missed Cole Paciejewski, the PGSLA most valuable player, still away fighting wildfires.
“Coquitlam’s a deep organization, from top to bottom there’s a lot of people to feed from and lotS of those guys have played together their whole lives,” said the Bandits’ Drew Doig, the PGSLA scoring champion, who had a goal and two assists in the opener.
“It’s our first game together this weekend and we still have some gelling to do. They had more legs than us. Eleven a.m. on a Friday is a tough time because some guys have to work. It was 2-2 at one point and then they blew the doors off us. I’m sure we’re going to get better every game.”
That prophesy held true in the Bandits’ afternoon game, a 7-5 win over the Wsanec Arrows of Saanichton (Victoria), which was close all the way through. The Bandits iced it with a minute left when Arrows goalie Will Chaisson inadvertently passed the ball out of the crease right into the upraised basket of Huffman’s stick and he tucked it in for the seventh Bandits’ goal. Damon Calfa had a two-goal game for the Bandits while Blondin had another four-point effort with goal and three assists. Liam Miller notched the win on goal.
Later in the day, the North Shore Indians stopped the Quesnel M. Daniels Consulting Crossfire 14-4 and Port Moody topped the Co-op Petroleum Stylers 16-5.
In other games Friday, Airdrie beat the Mission Cedar Kings 7-6, Ladner pounded the Stylers 22-3 and Coquitlam doubled the Devils 10-5.
The tournament resumes today at 10 a.m. at the Kin Centre. The top four teams meet in the semifinals Sunday at 9 a.m., followed by the bronze-medal game at noon and the final at 3 p.m.