The Peterborough Century 21 Lakers picked up their first win of the season on Thursday night, beating the Brampton Excelsiors 12-6 at Brampton’s Memorial Arena.
Tied 3-3 after the first, the Lakers used a 6-0 second period to outpace the Excelsiors to move to 1-1 on the season after an opening game loss to Oakville on Monday.
Joe Resetarits led the offense with four goals and one assist. Rob Hellyer made his debut on the right side with Resetarits and contributed a goal and five assists.
“It’s fun being on the right side against those guys for once and being on that bench,” Hellyer said. “I’ve played against a lot of the Lakers for a long time so being on the same side is a lot of fun. There’s always some growing pains, the first period was a little bit like that, but at the end of the day it’s lacrosse, so it was fairly seamless.”
After Brampton opened the scoring, Taite Cattoni evened it 1-1 with a shot over goaltender Will Johnston’s left shoulder. Dylan Hutchison capitalized on a transition run to make it 2-1. Brampton took a brief 3-2 lead but Joe Resetarits popped in his first of the game with 2:38 left in the period to send the teams to the dressing room for a much needed water and air break (it was HOT in the arena) tied 3-3.
Holden Cattoni’s first of the season opened up the second period. Resetarits scored shorthanded, followed by goals from Austin Hasen, another from Holden Cattoni, Taylor Jensen with his first in transition, and Resetarits again with a low buzzer beater made it 9-3 after the second.
Brampton got a couple more early in the third, but the defence locked down and the offence kept pace. Owen Hiltz had the play of the game with a steal, picking the ball off an Excelsior looking to break out, and sending a quick pass over to Resetarits, who blasted in his fourth. That made it 10-5 with 11 minutes left in the game.
Mitch Ogilvie finally got his first of the season on a clear cut breakaway after being denied on two other attempts earlier in the game. Rob Hellyer capped the game with his first as a Laker.
Doug Buchan made a number of key saves for the Lakers and kept the Excelsiors scoreless for a span of 30:42 throughout the middle of the game.
Andrew Vradenburg and Holden Lowes were scratched for the Lakers. Missing were Turner Evans, Jake Withers, Robert Hope and Thomas Hoggarth.
Matt Gilray and Mitch Ogilvie combined to go 13/20 on faceoffs in the game in Withers’ absence, including a 7/7 first period.
The Lakers are next in action on Thursday, June 13, for their heavily-anticipated 2024 home opener. The Brooklin Lacrosse Club is in town and the Lakers are looking to move to 2-1. Game time is at the usual 8 p.m. Season tickets for the Lakers’ six-game home schedule are still available at the box office. Single-game tickets are now on sale for all six games as well.
SCORING FOR THE LAKERS:
Joe Resetarits (4-1)
Holden Cattoni (2-2)
Rob Hellyer (1-5)
Taite Cattoni (1-2)
Dylan Hutchison (1-1)
Austin Hasen (1-0)
Taylor Jensen (1-0)
Mitch Ogilvie (1-0)
Cam Milligan (0-2)
Jordan Stouros (0-2)
Owen Hiltz (0-2)
Koleton Marquis (0-1)
Joey Cupido (0-1)
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