Trent men's lacrosse team open 2013 season against defending national champion McGill Redmen

PETERBOROUGH It was a home opener and a grand opening all-in-one.

As the Trent Excalibur men's lacrosse team kicked-off its seventh varsity lacrosse season at the brand new Thomas A. Stewart stadium.

The Excalibur were in tough as they played host to the defending national champion McGill Redmen, and although Trent fought hard, they came up short losing 13-8.

Despite the loss, Excalibur head coach Geoff McKinley was happy with his teams effort and says he saw some good things on the field from his team today.

"We had some penalty trouble early and that hurt us," says McKinley. "But we did a great job on the face-offs. Their guy was the face-off specialist of the year last season and we held him to 40 per cent of the draws today.

"They are the defending national champion and all we need to do is tweak a few things and work on our execution and we should be in good shape."

McGill got on board first and led for the entire game, but Trent were right in it, controlling the possession time in the third quarter.

But McGill turned in on in the fourth,  their depth at the midfield wore down the opposition, outscoring Trent 5-2 final frame.

Getting the win in net for McGill, was Peterborough native Riley McGillis The 2011 goalie-of-the-year, isn't flashy but plays his angles and is tough to beat.

"It's always nice to play at home, where you know your friends and family watching," says McGills, a third-year philosophy major. "It feels good to get the win, Trent are a tough team to play against, usually our games with them are always close and today we were able to keep command out there."

McGillis and the Redmen won the national title last year at Trent University, defeating the Western Mustangs 7-6 in overtime.

And despite losing some key players this season, McGillis believes they have a team that can repeat as national champions.

"Going into a new season you always want to win a championship," says McGillis. "We lost a few of our star players this year, but we still have some depth across the field and strong group of guys. We don't know what the west will look like yet this year, but we should be able to push for a spot in the finals again."

Trent host back-to-back home games next weekend, as they host the Bishops Gaiters Saturday (Sept. 14) at 6 p.m. and then the Carleton Ravens on Sunday (Sept. 15) at 3 p.m., both game will be played at Trent's Justin Chiu Stadium.