The Lacoka Bantam Locos have wrapped up a stellar season with silver medals at the Alberta Lacrosse Provincial Championships in Edmonton July 4-6th.
After being dominant in their league all season and taking the league championship, Lacoka steamrolled through their opponents at provincials to get to the gold medal game.
In an exciting and emotional gold medal game, Lacoka lost 11-10 to the High River Heat in double overtime. Coach Cam Green said, while the Locos were, understandably, disappointed by the loss, he couldn’t be happier with the finish.
“I was so proud of what they had accomplished.”
Green has often mentioned how passionate and driven his team is when it comes to playing lacrosse.
He has also said it is that drive that allowed them to dominate the Central Alberta Lacrosse League (CALL) this season.
Evidently, the Locos carried that trend into the provincial tournament. Up until the final, Lacoka outscored all its opponents by large margins defeating Sherwood Park, Lakeland, Grande Prairie and Edmonton 14-1, 11-4, 25-3 and 15-1 respectively.
Green said the Locos’ focus for provincials was defense. In the final, Lacoka met much stiffer competition. Green also said Lacoka had played High River before in exhibition matches. He said the game was close all the way through, with the teams trading goals and neither gaining a strong upper hand.
Lacoka opened scoring with a few goals, High River caught up and took the lead, then Lacoka would do the same and so on.
“It was exciting, the way a championship game should be.”
With 22 seconds left, Lacoka was up by one point and thinking they had the game in the bag. However, High River managed to score once more and force the game into overtime.
When the first overtime period ended with neither team scoring, a second sudden death overtime was played. Green said Lacoka pushed themselves hard in overtime, overcoming fatigue with their tremendous heart, but High River still managed to sneak one shot past the goal and win the game.
Green reiterated that he is more than satisfied with the season his team had this year. He also congratulated the High River Heat on a game well played and tipped his hat to the Heat goaltender in particular.