ShareGryphons overcome slow starts to keep winning
2016-10-09
The Guelph Gryphons overcame a shaky second quarter to beat Laurentian 14-8 Friday night.Courtesy Gryphons.ca
For the second game in a row, the Gryphons men's lacrosse team had a slow start and needed a strong second half effort to pull out a win. The Gryphons defeated Laurentian 14-8 on Friday night at the Gryphon Soccer Complex to improve to 7-1 on the season.
After a dominating start, taking a 3-0 first quarter lead, it looked like the Gryphons would cruise to another comfortable win over the Voyageurs. But two late-quarter penalties against Guelph resulted in a two man advantage for Laurentian at the start of the second quarter. Laurentian capitalized only 16 seconds in. Stung by the early quarter goal the Gryphons could not regain any momentum. Three Guelph penalties and several turnovers in the second gave Laurentian all the opportunity they needed to get back into the game. By the 13:22 mark, the Voyageurs had tied the game and Guelph was back on their heels.
Todd Greer (Mulmur, ON) finally stopped Laurentian's scoring run after taking a feed from Mike Cavanagh (Peterborough, ON) and ripping a shot to the top right corner. Laurentian responded and the teams traded another goal each and after losing the second quarter 5-2, the Gryphons would settle on a 5-5 tie at the half. "There were some soft penalties called against us and we didn't respond well," said Gryphons head coach Sam Kosakowski. "We got into a bit of a funk in the second quarter. We were dominating face offs but couldn't maintain possession and we made some simples mistakes that we paid for."
Guelph came out strong to start the second half, winning yet another face off and applied some serious pressure in the first minute. But a Guelph turnover resulted in a Laurentian fast break and suddenly the Gryphons were down 6-5. That would be it however, for Laurentian. Greer, this time off a feed from Liam Corbett (Burlington, ON), found another top corner for his second goal of the game to tie that game at 6. Blaze McCullough(Burlington, ON) put the Gryphons ahead when he dodged down the left side and fired one inside the far pipe. Then, it was Laurentian's turn to fall into penalty trouble and the Gryphons' turn to capitalize. Cavanagh had back to back power play markers; one to end the third quarter and another to start the 4th.
Josh Manangan (Rexdale, ON) continued to dominate at face offs and rookie longstick midfielder Liam Patten, dominated on loose balls. The possession was key for Gueph as they continued to control the play deep into the 4th. At the 6:59 mark, Brent Layton (Barrie, ON) scored Guelph's seventh unanswered goal to put Guelph up 12-6. Layton would get another shortly thereafter followed by rookie attackman Colin Walker (Rexdale, ON) who capped off the Gryphon night with his first goal of his Gryphon career.
Mike Cavanagh lead all Gryphon point getters with 4 goals and 3 assists. Liam Corbett and Todd Greer each had 3 goals and a helper. Brent Layton added two goals while McCullough and Walker had one apiece. Brett Ulbikas (Oakville, ON), Alec Simons (Etobicoke, ON) had two assists and longstick defensemen Justin Martin extended his consecutive game point streak to 2, with an assist.
The Gryphons sit atop the CUFLA West Division standings, sporting a 7-1 record. Both Western and Brock have a game in hand however, and are Guelph's next opponents. The Gryphons travel to Brock on Friday, Oct. 14 and then will play back-to-back games against Western on the 19th at home and the 21st at Western.
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