A late push has the Okotoks Marauders going back to the post-season.
Okotoks won three of its final four regular season games to claim the third and final playoff seed in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League Jr. B Tier I South Division and set up a first-round showdown with an old foe on the floor.
“It came down to the wire,” said Marauders head coach Don Haynes. “It feels like we’re playing our best game going in.
“Our defence really tightened up, we were struggling to score all year and then we had a big game against the Mounties, who we’re going to playing in the first-round.”
It’s the second year in a row the Mounties and Marauders meet in the first-round with the same number two and three seeds.
Calgary took the 2018 series in three games after Okotoks took the opener.
“It’s pretty exciting, junior is definitely a step-up from minor lacrosse,” said Marauders rookie Colton Gossett. “It will probably be more intense.
“(The Mounties) have a good offence so our D needs to communicate a lot, their D is really good at staying tight so our O needs to get the ball moving to split their D.”
The Mountaineers took the season series by a 2-1 count, though Okotoks won the most recent meeting 17-10 on July 4. The Mounties slightly outscored the Marauders by a 28-26 margin during the three regular season matchups.
“We really had to go back to X and Os and really revamp our offence,” Haynes said. “I think that helped, we put a little more structure to it. We’ve got so many young kids that I had to be like ‘you’ve got to be here,” we shortened that and that’s helped out a lot.”
The Marauders punched their playoff ticket in dramatic fashion.
Okotoks took care of business in dispatching the Lethbridge Cudas, the fourth seed in the South, by a 9-8 score Friday at the Murray Arena.
Carter Walker had a hat-trick, including the game-winner, while rookie sensation Haytham Drissi contributed two goals and two assists. Jake Stegerman, Rylee Lapierre, Sean Garlock and Colton Jones also found the back of the net.
Okotoks closed out the season by doubling up the Sherwood Park Outlaws 6-3 Sunday afternoon at the Murray.
Walker had a Gordie Howe Hat-Trick with a goal, three assists and a fight to his credit while Lapierre a goal and two assists, Wallace MacRae scored two on the powerplay along with tallies from Gossett and Nick DiMaulo to round out the scoring.
The best-of-three first round series opens on July 17 with Game 1 and 3 at Calgary’s Acadia Rec Centre and Game 2 at the Murray Arena.
“The Mounties, I think we’re great with those guys,” Haynes said of the matchup. “As long as we can pump the ball into the net, the defence is probably going to hold the guys to six to eight.
“They’ve got a pretty good offence, but I think our D can match those guys.”
Game 1 of the series is July 17 at Calgary's Acadia Rec Centre at 8 p.m. The teams battle it out for Game 2 at Okotoks' Murray Arena at 8 p.m. on July 18 and if the series goes the distance, Game 3 is July 19 a 6:30 p.m. start at the Stu Peppard Arena.
The winner of the first-round set goes on to meet the Calgary Shamrocks who ran away with the South Division crown with an 19-1 record and nearly 300 goals in 20 games.
The Marauders first and only playoff series win dates back to the 2017 post-season when they shocked the heavily-favoured Shamrocks in the first-round.
For the latest schedule information go to rockymountainlax.com
