Reds rally for OFSAA bronze
The Denis Morris Reds boys field lacrosse team will host next year鈥檚 Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations AAA Festival as the reigning OFSAA bronze medalists.
The Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association champions earned that distinction Thursday in Georgetown with a 7-6 victory over Christ the King in the bronze medal game. Scoring for the Reds in the game were Mason Elliott with a hat trick, Easton Lynds with two goals and single tallies from Liam Larocque and Cody Rudderham.
Denis Morris was trailing 6-3 with less than 10 minutes left in the game before rallying for the victory.
鈥榃e didn鈥檛 have a lot of momentum in the game and one of our players who hasn鈥檛 had a ton of goals (Lynds) scored on a transition opportunity, then he set up another goal and Cody Rudderham and a bunch of the other guys stepped up and it seemed like we got some life,鈥� head coach Matt Vinc said. 鈥淲e scored two goals in about 30 seconds and all of a sudden we were back in the game.鈥�
Lynds would end up netting the game-winner with less that three minutes left on the clock.鈥�
Vinc was not surprised that Lynds came up big when it counted the most.
鈥淗e is a hockey guy who was more of a role player for our team but he is an athlete who has played in big moments in life. He is very enthusiastic and he made a good move after he was set up by Matthew DiPietro.鈥�
There was plenty of happiness when the final whistle sounded.
鈥淥bviously I was proud of the guys. We were ranked third and we got our seed. We lost to the gold medalist who won pretty handily in the final,鈥� Vinc said. 鈥淚t was awesome for our group.鈥�
The Reds will only lose four players to graduation.
鈥淎 lot of our starting players are either in Grade 11 or Grade 9 and I am very proud of the guys because we are farther along than I would have thought,鈥� he said.
The Reds placed seventh at OFSAA last year and Vinc is looking forward to taking another step in 2025.
In the semifinals, DM lost 13-6 to the eventual champions from Brooklin.
鈥淲e were in tough. They were the No. 2 seed and very skilled. I think they were a lot older than our team and they got off to a 5-0 start. It put us behind the eight ball, we clawed back a little but ultimately we weren鈥檛 necessarily in the game. It was probably one of the worst games we played collectively this season.鈥�
That performance had Vinc worried heading into the bronze medal game.
鈥淲e played our best game of the year to beat the sixth seed (15-4 over Milton) the day before and we didn鈥檛 play our best or the smartest game against Brooklin.鈥�
Denis Morris opened the tournament with a 10-4 victory over 10th-seeded Sacred Heart from Ottawa.
Vinc was pleased with his team鈥檚 performance overall.
鈥淣ot too many kids can say that they won a medal at OFSAA. We have a lot of guys on our team and whether they play basketball or hockey or other sports that is the first time all those players have won an OFSAA medal,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t was a great learning experience especially the way we lost in the semifinal not playing our best. Being able to come back and have a big win shows a lot of character for our group and hopefully that is something we can build on moving forward with us hosting OFSAA听 next year.”
Members of the team, coached by Vinc and Wade Pychel were: Benjamin Arnold, Owen Bartley, Blake Berard, Connor Bolibruck, Brydon Bolus, Lachlan Cahill, Chad Canter, Adrian Crzanowski, Grier Cooper, Nathan DiPietro, Matthew DiPietro, Dominic DiFrancesco, Elliott, Alex Forrest, Samual Kramer, Larocque, Lynds, Cole McMann, Jack Millar, Owen Millar, Troy Murray, Noah Robins, Anthony Rocco, Rudderham, Gavin Sawatsky, Tyler Thompson and Michael Welsh.
