
Win Over North Stars Puts Lakers Back in Second Place
The Peterborough Century 21 Lakers snapped a three-game losing streak Thursday night at the Memorial Centre with a 9-7 win over the Owen Sound North Stars. It was KX105 Country Night at the PMC and the fiddle tunes had the Lakers feeling some kind of way as they outshot the North Stars 70-37 in a bid to get the offence back in a groove. It leaps them back over Brooklin, losers on Wednesday to Cobourg, for second place.
“Finally, a good effort at home,” said a relieved Holden Cattoni. “We’ve been struggling to find our rhythm and tonight we played a pretty solid game top to bottom. Kudos to their goalie, almost 60 saves. We pulled out a good win and one that we needed at home. We’d like to have probably more than nine goals on 70 shots but that’s hopefully something to come in the near future.”
Braedon Saris scored the first two goals of the game followed by one from Brad McCulley. McCulley had another great chance shortly thereafter but Owen Sound goaltender Andrew Kidd shut the door as McCulley tried to go five-hole. MSL leading scorer Jackson Webster got Owen Sound on the board with the first two goals of his hat trick, the first coming on a highlight-reel backhand shot as he fell to the ground.
Adam Thistlethwaite found a hole on the left side after a pass from Ben Trumble to open the second period; the pair were taking turns playing up front in the absence of Thomas Hoggarth and Mike Robinson. Joe Resetarits then finished off a transition play started by Jake Withers, who caused two turnovers in about 10 seconds, in the defensive end for a 5-2 lead. Owen Sound then sandwiched a Holden Cattoni power play marker that had Peterborough up 6-4 after two.
Each team scored three in the third period; Carter Page picked up a low Saris rebound, and Joe Resetarits nearly hit the floor with one knee as he also went for the low shot. Jeremy Searle and Josh Rosa replied for Owen Sound, who began pulling Kidd at the three-minute mark. Cattoni wasted no time putting the ball into the empty net for the Lakers’ ninth goal with 1:30 left. Xander Derkatz scored his second goal of the game with 16 seconds left but the Lakers were able to hang on. Withers tried for a second empty-netter but the referees appeared to declare he was in the crease, leading to a chorus of boos from the 2,781 fans in attendance.
“The wins and losses are one thing but it’s the way we were playing that we weren’t happy with,” Cattoni said. “You can’t always control when the ball goes in the net or if you catch a hot goalie, or their team has a good shooting night. That happens. We were more just disappointed with the way we were playing and the effort we were showing so this was a good step forward for us tonight and hopefully we can replicate that in the weeks to come.”
Fans clad in cowboy hats were treated to a country music extravaganza; in addition to the tunes over the loudspeaker, local singer Ty Wilson played to a crowd outside the arena before the game, sang the Lakers onto the carpet to start the game, and lit up the East Lobby with music during intermissions.
The Lakers are on the road next Wednesday, July 9 in Whitby to face the now third-place Brooklin Lacrosse Club. They return home for Every Child Matters Night against the Six Nations Chief on July 10 at the Memorial Centre. Tickets for that game are now on sale at the Grant Thornton Box Office.
Scoring for the Lakers:
Joe Resetarits (2-2)
Braedon Saris (2-2)
Holden Cattoni (2-2)
Brad McCulley (1-1)
Carter Page (1-1)
Adam Thistlethwaite (1-0)
Taite Cattoni (0-2)
Jake Withers (0-1)
Robert Hope (0-1)
Dylan Hutchison (0-1)
Ben Trumble (0-1)
Matt Gilray (0-1)
Photos by David Pickering @picks_pics





















