Lakers Fall to Brooklin in Home Opener
The Peterborough Century 21 Lakers dropped their 2024 home opener 9-7 to the Brooklin Lacrosse Club on Thursday night at the Memorial Centre. The Lakers’ record falls to 1-2 with the loss and puts them in fourth place, which is a strange place for the 18-time Mann Cup champions to be in. Brooklin sits in first place with a 5-1 record.
“Pretty pedestrian effort for 40 minutes and then we tried to chase the game in the third and it was too little, too late. It was a tough loss,” said forward Holden Cattoni, who scored a pair of goals for the home side.
“Most importantly for us is about figuring out what our identity is going to be this year… we have to be more urgent about what we’re doing and not just expecting to put on a Lakers jersey and be able to put up 10. We have to be more detail oriented,” explained offensive coach Tracey Kelusky.
The Lakers had trouble sustaining pressure in the early going, and Brooklin jumped out to a 3-0 but the 9:31 mark of the first period. Thomas Hoggarth got the Lakers on the board at the 11:48 mark, catching the pass from Holden Cattoni and whipping around to fire a shot past Zach Higgins. BLC added one more before the period was out for a 4-1 lead.
“They came here with a game plan,” said Kelusky. “I wouldn’t say they outworked us… I thought we worked hard all night. Give credit to their goalie. We put a lot of balls on him early, quality shots. We hit five crossbars in the first period.”
Owen Hiltz made a sharp-angle pass to Joe Resetarits cutting to the net to open the second period right after the Lakers killed off a penalty. The Lakers went on a power play of their own but had the tables turned on them when Dylan Robinson sprang free in transition and scored shorthanded.
Cattoni picked the top right top corner at 9:08, but Connor Kearnan replied 57 seconds later, the goal counting despite what should have been a crease call. With under two minutes to go, Hoggarth fired a slow underhand on net and it went in, but once again, Brooklin responded right away. The faceoff was awarded to Brooklin on a technicality, and Kearnan scooped up the ball on the fast restart beat two defenders before beating Doug Buchan.
Jake Withers was ejected from the game at that point, picking up 2, 10, and a game for mouthing off. Brooklin led 7-4 after the second.
“Keaster (defensive coach Bobby Keast) addressed it in the locker room,” Kelusky said. “That’s not Lakers style, that’s not our way to go about chirping the refs. It’s not pouting, but it’s looking for excuses. It’s a clean up. We have to figure out what the identity in this locker room is.”
Turner Evans picked up a bouncing ball and scored an outside shot 2:54 into the third period. Tanner Cook replied in transition to restore Brooklin’s three-goal lead. Cam Milligan closed the gap again with another long shot. Holden Cattoni then pulled the Lakers within a goal at 8-7 with three minutes left. The Lakers desperately attempted to tie it, and were incensed when rookie Koleton Marquis was drilled down from behind after Cattoni picked off a pass near the Brooklin bench. With Marquis down and the Lakers expecting a penalty to be called – it wasn’t – Brooklin ran down to score into the empty net.
There were still 3.8 seconds left when Thomas Hoggarth, Taite Cattoni and Holden Cattoni received misconducts – the game ended with Turner Evans taking a five minute roughing penalty for trying to square off with Mike Byrne while the teams debated whether they would leave the floor or not.
“I think there were a couple plays where there should have been a penalty and I think they had too many men when we picked off the pass there at the bench. That’s just another excuse though. We can’t put ourselves in that scenario,” Cattoni stated.
Doug Buchan stopped 31/40 shots faced. Zach Higgins made 49 saves on 56 shots for Brooklin, which was led by three-point efforts from Luke Keenan and Tanner Cook.
Attendance was 2968 for the first Lakers’ game since last August’s MSL Finals defeat.
“It’s always special playing here, it’s unlike anywhere else,” Cattoni said. “Unfortunate that it was the home opener and this was the show that we gave them tonight. We have to be better next week when we’re back here.”
Missing were both Mike and Austin Hasen (attending a family event), Rob Hellyer, Blake McDonald and Jordan Stouros. Scratched were Carter Page, Andrew Vradenburg, Holden Lowes and Adam Thistlethwaite.
The Lakers are next in action this Sunday, June 16 when they visit the Cobourg Kodiaks at the Cobourg Community Centre at 6 p.m. Their next home game is Thursday, June 20 when they host the Oakville Rock at the Memorial Centre. Tickets are on sale at the box office.
SCORING FOR THE LAKERS:
Holden Cattoni (2-0)
Thomas Hoggarth (2-0)
Turner Evans (1-3)
Joe Resetarits (1-2)
Cam Milligan (1-1)
Owen Hiltz (0-2)
Koleton Marquis (0-1)
Taite Cattoni (0-1)
