Lacrosse Championships and Finals

This past weekend saw a couple national champions crowned along with the MLL champions. Saturday evening the Owen Sound Woodsmen defeated the host Outlaws 11-5 in Sherwood Park to claim their first President’s Cup. They went through the tournament undefeated and clearly dominated the opposing teams. The Woodies opened the tournament with an 8-5 victory over the Airdrie Knights and went on to defeat the Outlaws 11-5 and the Tri-City Bandits 8-4 in the round robin before crushing the Bandits 11-2 in their semi-final game. The Bandits ended up losing in the Bronze game to the Quebec league representative Kahnawake Mohawks.

A few thousand miles away in Guelph, Ontario, the Canadian Junior B championship was being fought for in the 2008 Founders Cup. In the end the host Guelph Regals lost to the defending champion Six Nations Rebels by the score of 8-7. Both teams in the final game finished the round robin with a perfect 5-0 record. Six Nations defeated the Port Coquitlam Saints of the BCLA 10-3 in their semi-final game to advance while the Regals defeated the Iroquois Nation of the ILA 8-1 to earn a spot in the finals. Iroquois defeated the Saints in the third place game.

The Major League Lacrosse season also came to a close Sunday with the crowning of the 2008 champions. The action started Saturday with the semi-final games and concluded Sunday with the championship game from Harvard Stadium in Cambridge, MA (home of the Boston Cannons). The Rochester Rattlers defeated the Philadelphia Barrage 16-15 in overtime before claiming the championship by beating the Denver Outlaws 16-6. The Outlaws earned a spot in the finals by downing the Los Angeles Riptide 13-12 in their semi-final.

That leaves two other national championships to be decided, the Minto Cup and the Mann Cup. The 2008 Minto Cup (junior A national title) is currently being played for in Calgary with the OLA Orangeville Northmen leading all others at 2-0. The Victoria Shamrocks and Calgary Jr. Mountaineers are at 1-1 and the Edmonton Miners are 0-2. The final will be played on Saturday August 30 at 7:30 PM. The 2008 Mann Cup (senior A title) will be hosted by the winner of the MSL final that has yet to be decided. Game six goes tonight in Peterborough with the Lakers up three games to two against the Brampton Excelsiors. The Western Lacrosse Association champion was decided last night as the New Westminster Salmonbellies took game four of their best of seven series 11-8 against the Coquitlam Adanacs. The ‘bellies finished the regular season as the top team in the nation with a 17-1 record and went through the WLA playoffs undefeated.