The Okotoks Junior Raiders aren’t letting off the floor distractions get to them in the first round of the Alberta Junior A Lacrosse League playoffs.
The Raiders staked themselves to a commanding 2-0 lead over the St. Albert Miners in their best-out-of-five opening round series after eking out a 10-8 win on July 21 and winning in dominant fashion via a 13-7 result the following afternoon in Okotoks.
And the Raiders are doing it without two of their offensive stars.
The Canadian Lacrosse Association ruled Okotoks to be in violation of playing with more than the maximum of two-out of province import players in the Alberta Junior A Lacrosse.
Consequently, the leading scorer in league play James Delaney and late-season acquisition Jordan Daradick were deemed ineligible — as first-year Raiders Ethan Trotter and Kyle Dexter were also contentiously ruled imports from B.C. as well — and forced to watch from the Centennial Arena stands during the playoffs.
Raiders head coach Daryl Haynes said the team has handled the adversity as well as possible.
“With everything and all the distractions that have been thrown at us we’re actually really happy with how the guys are responding,” Haynes said. “It seems to have pulled them together.”
As the playoffs progress, the message from the Raiders’ brass to the players has been clear, focus on what you can control on the floor.
“Very simply their job is between the four holes,” said Haynes, referencing the lacrosse stick.
“All this other boardroom stuff has got to be left for upstairs.”
That being said, the Raiders are keeping their penalized teammates at the forefront. Haynes has sported Delaney’s jersey on the Okotoks bench while assistant coach Dave Pym dressed in Daradick’s No. 12.
“It’s really tough we consider them to be part of our team except for a small technicality,” Haynes said.
“They’re both 21-year-olds and both kids have opportunities after (Junior).
“And this is potentially affecting if they can do that.”
The Raiders are appealing the ruling and the two players may find themselves on the floor sooner rather than later.
Delaney said it has been difficult to watch the series and not be actively involved in the competition.
“It’s not something you want in your last year of Junior,” Delaney said.“But I’m confident everything is going to take care of itself, I’ll come back fresh and the team is doing okay without me for now I guess.”
“I think it’s going to work out and we’ll be stronger as a team afterwards.”2
With the notable absences from the lineup, the Raiders’ coaching staff has been forced to make some positional adjustments and switch some of the systems.
“We’re playing a little bit of a different system than we played most of the year, our transition systems are a bit different,” he said. “We’ve put different guys into those positions and they seemed to have responded pretty well.”
Raiders captain Brett Baron and veteran Raider Kevin Pym have stepped up with increased opportunities on attack with the former notching consecutive four goal games to start the series and the latter scoring four and collecting a game-high seven loose balls in game two.
“Everyone has got to step up when those guys go out and I guess I stepped up and everyone on the floor is playing well right now,” Pym said. “That low to high shot was working pretty well so I went to that and it kept working.”
Pym said it hasn’t been difficult to focus on the task at hand.
“We just let our management focus on that, we just play lacrosse,” he said. “It’s what we do, it’s what we love.”
Baron, as selfless a teammate as you’ll find in the sport, took it upon himself to become more of an offensive force given the absence of Delaney and Daradick.
“They both put up a lot of numbers and I just realized I need to fill that role,” Baron said. “I kind of lost my hands a bit during the season, but we had a week break and I went into the yard and played some backyard ball and found them back.”
The Raiders captain said it’s been an impressive start to their postseason.
“It’s tough not having those guys in the lineup, but I think we’ve adapted pretty well,” Baron said.
“We’re pushing the ball and still playing our game.”
Miners head coach Ahmed Johma said the first two games have been decided on a variety of factors.
“I think they’ve done a few things better than we have,” he said. “(Game 1) I thought we outplayed them, but we just didn’t shoot very well.”
Game 2 was a less convincing result from the St. Albert players, he said.
“They took advantage of some opportunities and we didn’t,” Johma added. “I don’t think they did anything in particular that hurt us, but right now they’re doing the little things better than we are.”
In preparation for a potential series clinching game for the Raiders, Johma said mid-week adjustments will have to be made when the series switches to St. Albert on the weekend.
“We’ve got some strategies that we tried to incorporate (in Game two) and we need to work on more,” Johma said. “Some guys figured it out, others didn’t so we need to work on that.”
The schedule for Game 3 has yet to be released but is expected to be a July 28 contest in St. Albert.
For more information go to abjralacrosse.com.
