|
  ShareMustangs Complete Baggataway Cup Four-peat with 8-5 Win Over Excalibur2019-11-11
 Western Mustangs captains group receives Baggataway Cup and championship banner from CUFLA executive. (Photo: Marika Guerin)
The Western Mustangs scored the last four goals of the game to down the Trent Excalibur 8-5 and win the Baggataway Cup for the fourth straight year.Courtesy Earl Zukerman, McGill Athletics
Nik Farrus of Edmonton tallied twice and added a pair of assists as the Western Mustangs erased a one-goal deficit with four unanswered markers in the final 20 minutes en route to an 8-5 victory Sunday to capture their fourth consecutive Baggataway Cup as champions of the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association.
The gold medal game of the three-day, six-team tourney, hosted by McGill University, was played at Concordia Stadium due to a Canadian Football League playoff game at Percival Molson Stadium between Edmonton and Montreal.
Western led 3-1 after the opening quarter and took a 4-3 edge into halftime. But the Excalibur, who dressed only 24 players -- a dozen fewer than the Mustangs -- fought back with a pair of goals in the third quarter. They then appeared to run out of steam as Western stepped on the gas pedal with four goals down the stretch.
"It's incredible to win four in a row and although people might be getting tired of us winning, I've also lost countless years in a row," said bench boss Jeremy Tallevi, who has been on the coaching staff at Western since 2002. "I have witnessed a lot more playoff losses than wins at the championship. I really don't think we felt confident that we were going to win until the final buzzer. Trent is a strong team and has the ability to score so quickly. We were fortunate to have a three-goal lead early on but knew that they would keep working hard and battle back.
"We've got a resilient team that never stops. They understand the ebbs and flows of the game. We don't get too high when things are going our way and too low when things are not going our way."
Trailing 5-4 in the third quarter, Western's Julian Simeoni of Sudbury tied the score with 5:21 remaining and Torontonian Pierson Noble tallied the game winner with just 10 seconds left in the stanza. Western added two more in the final quarter, with Cole Davis of Halifax connecting for an insurance goal at 1:02 and Tristan Simeoni (a brother of Julian) adding a shorthanded effort at 9:34.
Rounding out the scoring for the winning side was Cody Ward of St. Catharines, Ont., and Michael Byrne, from Toronto.
Cole Hanrahan, a 5-foot-11, 160-pound midfielder from Bracebridge, Ont., paced the Trent attack with a pair of goals. Singles went to Nick Chaykowsky of Bradford, Ont., along with Cole McWilliams and Adam Kitchen, both from Peterborough, Ont.
Goaltender Michael Orlando turned aside 12 of 17 shots for his third win in as many days, while Dylan Munro made five saves on 13 shots and was saddled with the loss. Both 'keepers are natives of Toronto.
"I think that this year's tournament is the best calibre that the league has ever had," added Tallevi. "The quality of teams was incredible and any team in this tournament could have won. The game comes down to little things and lucky breaks, here and there. Our semifinal win over McGill was an incredible one. Both goalies were phenomenal and it could have gone either way. It could have just as easily been McGill in the final."
It was the sixth collegiate championship for second-year medical student Hayden Nix, a 25-year-old native of Mississauga. He has now won two CUFLA titles with Western (2018, 2019) and a pair of championship rings (2012 and 2015) during his undergrad years at McGill (BSc '16). The six-foot, 185-pound defender went on to complete a master's degree in bio-medical engineering at Dalhousie, where he was part of two more titles in the maritime league.
"I feel really lucky, I've just been traveling around, landing on some really incredible teams and have sort of been riding on the coat-tails of some better players," said a humble Nix, who earned a science degree during his four undergraduate years at McGill, where he was a pharmacology major and made the Principal's Student-athlete Honour Roll.
"Coach Tim Murdoch has built an impressive program at McGill," Nix recalled. "He built it up from nothing, volunteering his time, energy and sacrificing time away from his family. I arrived at McGill in 2012 and was lucky that he kept me on the roster as a walk-on in my freshman year. I learned a lot from him and the players he recruited to the program. He's had a great impact on all of his players and has helped many players get jobs with his reference letters. He's done much for the game of lacrosse in Canada and a lot for guys like me. I wish him well in his retirement."
BOXSCORE
|
Email
Print