Skip to content

Vic-Esq. Eagles win lacrosse gold at Travis Batemen memorial tourney

After a hard-fought, back and forth battle the Victoria-Esquimalt Eagles won gold at the West Shore's Travis Bateman Memorial Novice Lacrosse Tournament over the weekend.

The Eagles topped the Port Alberni Tyees 6-4 in the final at Colwood's Juan de Fuca Arena. Port Alberni finished the round robin in first, racking up some overpowering scores in their previous games. But the Eagles prevailed, largely on the shoulders of their goalie, Logan Auringer, who was named his team’s MVP.

The Eagles managed to escape a Tyee onslaught in the first period with a 0-0 tie. Then the Tyee struck in the second taking a two-zero lead on goals by Carter Nelson and Matt Ursel.

The Eagles battled back tieing the game up with goals from Sahaj Grewal and a late-period short-handed effort by Jackson Alexander. Early in the third the Eagles took the lead on another goal by Alexander. But the advantage was short-lived as the Tyee came back to tie it up with another goal from Ursel.

Emma Carter briefly put the Eagles in front again. But again the Tyee came back to tie it with a goal from Dean Lainson.

But the tie was short-lived after Eagles captain Kyle Drouin, gave worth to his teammates' trust, and scored two goals late in the third to put his team ahead.

Late in the third, to put the game away required some sterling penalty killing from Eagles alternate captains Ethan Brandwood and Justin Geddes and player Brian Toth to bring the medal home.

Earlier in the day the Bronze medal was won by the Comox Valley Wild. Other awards included the Travis Bateman Award for sportsmanship to Jacob Mellish, the team sportsmanship award to the Saanich Tigers House II. Fastest shot for an intermediate player went to Jacob King of the West Shore Whalers Int. II and the fast house league team went to Jesse Dalziel, of the Nanaimo Timbermen House III.