The Bank of America Baggattaway Cup

The Bank of America Baggattaway Cup

Raven’s Stadium, Carleton University, Ottawa Ontario.

Brock vs McGill, noon, Saturday, November 7

Trent vs McMaster, 3pm, Saturday, November 7

Brock  Badgers

Record: 11 wins, 0 losses

Scoring: 140 goals, lead by Chris Nash #13 (22 goals), #9 Mike McLeod, (25 goals) and #88 Dustin Dunn (15 goals).

Defense: 69 goals against. Goalie Bret Kikot sports a 5.86 GAA. The long sticks, are anchored by #6, 6’4” Nate Reid,  and are even tougher on man down.

Pro Factor: Brock has four players in the NLL; Dustin Dunn, Buffalo; Mike MacLeod, Rochester; Jason Winder, Toronto and Dilan Graham, Boston.

X-factor: #17 Devon Sartor seldom shows up on the score sheet, but he’s often on important ground balls and game changing plays. #15 Clarke Robinson is a LS middie who makes you keep your head up.

Motivation: Brock was embarrassed by McGill in last year’s semi. After 17 championships they think the cup is theirs and they want it back.

McGill  Redmen

Record: 8 wins, 3 losses

Scoring: 135 goals, lead by freshman attacker # 34 Alex Kruse,(30pts) and veterans #9 Nick Moreau, (28pts) and # 22 Nick LaCava (18 goals).

Defense: 81 goals against. Goalie Simon Hudson has a 6.36 GAA. All Canadian Brendan Farrer leads a fast and skilled defense corp.

Pro Factor: McGill has no NLL players on its roster, but they have 22 Americans.

X-Factor: #16 Sean Simeson is a hard hitting middie , who gets those all important ground balls and ignites the waves of McGill attacks.

Motivation: Coach Murdoch has raised the bar for building a program in this league by recruiting players in the United States and extending full squad off-season training. McGill wants to get back to the final they lost last year to Guelph.

 Trent Excalibur

Record: 9 wins, 2 losses

Scoring: 124 goals lead by, #24 Chad Evans, (27 goals), #9 Mack O’Brien (26 goals) and #18 Josh Wasson (18 goals)

Defense: 75 goals against. Starting goalie Kalvin Thomas sports a 7.00 GAA while back up Lindsey Cassel played at a stingy 4.67 GAA. Third year long pole #10 Seamus McGee leads stingy Trent back line.

Pro Factor: High scoring middie Josh Wasson plays winter ball with the Toronto Rock.

X Factor: #9 Mack O’Brien scored 9 goals in two games against McGill. He didn’t score against Carleton last week, so #21 Joe Stanley picked up the slack with 3 counters.

Motivation: Trent is CUFLA’s Rodney Dangerfield, they get no respect. They’re the little school who can. They defeated McGill twice this season to win their second east conference championship in as many years. With the addition of leading scorer Chad Evans, they’re ready to take it all.

McMaster Marauders

Record: 8 wins, 3 losses

Scoring: 102 goals, lead by Carter Williams, #25(22goals) Sean Dechars #18(10 goals) and Mike Bottasso #4 (9 goals)

Defense: 96 goals against.  Goalies Joe Tallis, with an 8.75 GAA and Wes Kendall, with a 9.04 GAA have split the duty, but expect to see Tallis in Ottawa, following his big win over Guelph. Mac’s steady long poles are lead by veteran  #2 Shawn Mahoney.

Pro Factor: Ed Comeau, Mac’s head coach is the head coach of the Rochester Nighthawks. Ed is also the most experienced CUFLA coach in the final four.

X- Factor:  Watch for # 34 Joey Cupido a very quick middie who surprised Guelph with 3 goals. #9 Michael Dawson took all the important face-offs in Mac’s big upset.

Motivation:  Mac is this year’s Cinderella Story.  After coming back from a 7-1 deficit in the second half of the Guelph game, they’ve got to believe that the all - powerful momentum is on their side, and they can beat anybody.

These four teams are very close and should provide three great games to decide this year’s champion. Congratulations to the coaches, players and support staffs who have worked very hard to get to this critical point in the season.

 The Bank of America Baggattaway Cup championship game starts at 1pm Sunday at Raven’s Stadium on the campus of Carleton University.