It’s been a challenging introduction to the Tier I ranks for the expansion Okotoks Marauders.
The newest addition to the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League (RMLL) Jr. B Tier I ranks endured a challenging first week dropping its franchise opener 17-5 to the Calgary Shamrocks on May 2. The Marauders then suffered a 19-8 home opening loss to the Saskatchewan SWAT on May 4.
“When we’re playing settled, normal ball we can keep up with these teams,” said Marauders head coach John Millar. “When things start getting scrambled and broken down, when you start having four-on-four situations, penalties and a wide open game that’s where experience really shows.
“We don’t have a gameplan for every single situation so experience and instincts takeover. When we get away from our five-on-five game we get ourselves in trouble.”
The SWAT stormed the Pason Centennial floor in the opening stages building a 4-1 lead with strong transition play and chasing Okotoks netminder out of the game in exchange for Andrew Simon. The move seemed to spark the Marauders. Okotoks responded with a 4-1 run of its own on the strength of fleet-footed Matt Westhaver’s two markers to even the tilt at 5-5 after 20 minutes. Behind a pick-and-roll heavy offence and an a physically intimidating defence Saskatchewan turned the contest into a blowout with seven unanswered goals in the 11-goal victory for the visitors.
“In the third period we were terrible and lost our grip on the game. Once it slips out it’s hard to be focused,” Millar said. “The SWAT was quite a good pick and roll aggressive team and were very physical.”
The majority of the Marauders’ issues on defence came from losing sight of checks and letting the SWAT sneak in behind defenders in transition.
“A lot of it is that we’re a young team and were getting used to the faster speed and faster pace,” said Marauder Dallas Toso, one of 20 teammates in their first year at the Tier I level. “All of our players have the skill level, the stick skills to play at this level just not at the same speed.”
Dropping the ball on offence didn’t help either.
“Just basic skills, catching and passing, we were dropping a lot of balls,” Toso said. “And those ended up being turnovers.”
Despite the early struggles, Millar, a veteran coach of a number of expansion clubs, is not fretting over the results at this early juncture.
“We’re an expansion team full of rookies and there’s lots of positive things happening on the floor,” Millar said. “It’s growing pains. If we’re losing games like this in two weeks I will be pissed off.
“A lot of it is consistency and squeezing the errors out of the broader part of the game.”
The Marauders get back on the floor this weekend in Winnipeg for three games in two days against the Manitoba Gryphons.
“I’ve never played any Manitoba teams so I don’t really know what their skill level is,” Toso said.
“It will be exciting to see what happens in the first game and then hopefully we can transition if we need to change for the next two games.
“It would be nice to even up that record a little bit.”
The Jr. B Marauders then return to the friendly confines of Pason Centennial Arena on May 25 versus the Calgary Chill. For full schedule information go to rockymountainlax.com
