The Trent Excalibur will defend the river while the Brock Badgers will defend the Baggataway Cup championship after each was successful in semifinal action Saturday in Justin Chiu Stadium at Trent University on the banks of the Otonabee River in Peterborough.
The game will be streamed live on Lax Sports Network.
Trent Excalibur 12, McGill Redbirds 5
Box score
Two weeks ago, McGill came to Trent with their hopes of vaulting into first place in the East Division of the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association having been dashed the day before but second place still in play. The Redbirds jumped out to a 5-1 lead in that game only to see Trent battle back and win 12-11, bumping McGill to fourth place and forcing them to win a road playoff game just to earn a berth at the Baggataway Cup final six weekend.
In the rematch in Saturday's semifinal action, Trent was ready to play from the opening whistle and didn't need to worry about a comeback. The Excalibur got goals from Colton Armstrong, Holden Lowes and Brenden Lundy in a span of 2:18 to race off to a 3-0 lead.
After the Redbirds replied with a pair, from Isaiah Cree and Dylan Chand, the game remained close through the end of the first quarter and almost seven minutes into the second. Then Trent's potent offence exploded.
Lowes got things rolling, then Lundy and Excalibur regular-season goal-scoring leader Cole Hanrahan had a pair each to spark a 5-0 run that put the game virtually out of reach by half time.
Trent, anchored by All-Canadian goalie Jackson Brown, made sure that 8-2 lead was plenty to hold up for the win with strong team defence that made it difficult for McGill to generate good scoring chances and stopped them when the Redbirds were able to create some.
Lundy and Hanrahan each would up with hat tricks while a trio of Excalibur players—Lowes, Armstrong and Taite Cattoni—all had 2 goals and 2 assists to pace a balanced Trent scoring parade.
Cree had a pair of goals for McGill while Luke Dawick led the Redbirds in points with a goal and 2 assists.
Brock stayed a step ahead of Guelph throughout the second semifinal. (Photo: Trent Athletics)
Brock Badgers 9, Guelph Gryphons 5
Box score
Brock showed that it's not necessarily how many games you win, as when you win them. The defending champions finished third in CUFLA West with a 6-4 record while their semifinal opponents were the top seed after finishing 9-1 and earning a by to the Baggataway Cup semis for the first time in program history.
The Badgers had gotten better and better as the season went on, including pushing the Gryphons to overtime when the teams played their second regular-season game on October 16 (Guelph had won their September matchup 11-6).
With the most recent game having been so close, and the Badgers clicking Friday in their quarterfinal win over Bishop's, Brock was clearly not a heavy underdog even as the third seed facing the first seed. As it turned out, the Badgers were just a little better in almost every facet of the game on Saturday and that was enough to propel them to a solid win in which they seemed to take control early on.
A pair of transition goals got Brock off to a strong start, with Andrew Rybka converting a pass from Mitchell Armstrong then Trent Hunter running with an outlet from goalie Connor O'Toole and burying a shot to make it 2-0 less than six minutes into the game.
Guelph got one back in the quarter, also in the transition game, when Jordan Ackie burst up the field and set up the Gryphon's leading scorer all season, Jabe Verbeek.
The margins weren't huge between the two teams, but Brock continued to win ground ball battles and play solid defence to limit Guelph's chances while taking advantage of enough of their own to extend the lead to 5-2 at half time.
Each team scored twice in the third quarter and as time kept ticking away on the game clock, the Gryphons pushed and pushed but were unable to close the gap, only managing consecutive goals once in the game.
Rybka and Sam Leclair each had hat tricks for Brock with Leclair adding an assist. Verbeek scored 3 of Guelph's 5 goals.
The championship game goes at 2pm ET on Lax Sports Network.
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