The third seeds from each division beat the second seeds in the crossover quarterfinals at Day 1 of the 2023 Baggataway Cup, setting up semifinals that will see clashes between McGill and Carleton at 1:30 pm ET and Brock and Western at 4:30 pm ET.
All Baggataway Cup games can be watched live on LacrosseTV.
McGill 9, Guelph 8
The outlook wasn't brilliant for the East Division third seed McGill Redbirds when they trailed 5-3, and it didn't help that they had lost leading scorer Dylan James, who aggravated a hamstring injury, and would also fellow attack Massimo Thauvette to injury. But second-year forward Rowan Birrell put the team on his back and led them to victory.
Birrell already had a pair of goals when James went down; he added 4 more as McGill battled back to take a 6-5 lead and twice responded to Guelph going back in front. Birrell's last goal, midway through the fourth quarter, tied the game 8-8. That set the stage for heroics from Isaiah Cree, who notched the winner to propel the Redbirds to the semifinals and a rematch with East top seed Carleton.
Robbie Baxter led the Gryphons with a hat trick and Liam Aston scored a pair, including the goal that had put Guelph up 8-7 in the fourth quarter.
Brock 9, Trent 7
The second semifinal was a rematch of last year's championship game. The result was vastly different.
A year ago, Trent rolled to a 12-3 victory to earn their first Baggataway Cup title. On Friday, hat tricks from Jaden Patterson and Mitchell Zulian supported by a clutch goaltending effort from Connor O'Toole allowed the Badgers to exact some revenge.
Neither team was able to forge a lead of more than a single goal through three quarters, and when Trent All Canadian forward Cole Hanrahan scored his first of the game just under two minutes into the fourth, the score was tied 5-5.
The next five minutes proved to be decisive. Zulian scored back to back goals on similar shots from his off side to the far post, then Colton Armitage pushed the Brock advantage to 8-5 with 8:19 to play. Trent replied with a marker from Adam Hawrelak but Patterson scored a minute and a half later to make the margin just too wide for Trent to overcome.
Saturday semifinals
1:30 pm McGill vs Carleton
4:30 pm Brock vs Western
All games can be watched free and live on LacrosseTV.
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