May24, 2024 Victoria, BC ( ISN ) – The Victoria Shamrocks Sr. A lacrosse team opened their 2024 WLA lacrosse campaign at the barn in Colwood with a 12- 6 drubbing of the Langley Thunder in front of a near-capacity crowd Friday evening at the Q Centre.
Jessie King, the game’s 1st star, scored three times, and assisted on another four Shamrock goals to lead his team to the season home opener. Teammate Kyle Pepper would also assist in the win, figuring in multiple scoring plays with five assists over the sixty-minute stretch to claim 2nd star honors. Rocks Arthur Miller would take the third star on a 2-goal, 2-assist evening.
The Rocks would come out of the gate firing, setting the visiting Thunder back on their heels with three goals in the first five minutes of play on a pair of goals by Patrick Dodds and a single by King. Shamrocks Tom Vaesen would close out the first twenty minutes of play with a pair of back-to-back goals as the Rocks would blank the visitors 5-0 after one period outshooting the Thunder 20-13. Shamrock’s goalie Cam Dunkerley looked solid in net for his team, making some key saves when tested to keep the game sheet one-sided.
The Thunder would come out with intent in the second frame, scoring twice early to erase the blank sheet to narrow the margin to 5-2. The home green and white would find their second period legs after that, scoring four times to reclaim the momentum. Langley added a late score in the seventeenth minute to make the tally 9-3 in favour of the Victoria Shamrocks.
Fans would see the teams trade scoring chances in the third period as the Thunder would score three times in finding a glimmer of scoring momentum, however the Victoria would find themselves equal to the challenge with three scores of their own on a goal by Liam Phillips and another pair by Jesse King to bookend his scoring night with a powerplay goal and a short-handed mark in the first victory of the season. The Thunder would have the last say in the match scoring two of their three 3rd period goals back-to-back late in the frame to make the game-ending result perhaps a little more palatable for Thunder fans in attendance.
The Shamrocks will now travel to Maple Ridge to face the Burrards at the Ice Planet- Cam Neely Arena Sunday, May 26th. Game time is 5pm.
