It’s been quite a season for the Sunshine Coast Novice Rapids lacrosse team. For the second time this season, the Rapids won the gold medal in their division at a lacrosse tournament in the city. Before this year, the Novice Rapids had never won a tournament – now they’ve won two in a month.
Earlier this month the Rapids won gold at a tournament in New Westminster, while this past weekend they won gold at the 31st Annual Salmon Festival Novice Lacrosse Tournament in Richmond.
As they did two weeks earlier, the eight, nine and 10-year-old Rapids went undefeated in their five games over the course of the three-day tournament, but this time there were no ties and they won all five games.
In another thrilling gold medal game, the Rapids fell behind to the Vancouver Burrards, but, just like they had two weeks earlier in their gold medal game against Kelowna, they fought their way back for the victory. Down 3-2 in the second period, the team stepped it up a level, played shut-down defence and scored five straight goals for a 7-3 win.
In lacrosse, like hockey, the importance of having a great goalie is vital and the Rapids are lucky enough to have not just one great goalie, but two. Last tournament the team MVP was Hayden VanDer Stelt, while this time around the team’s other goalie, Duncan Service, took over in net and, like Hayden before him, was stellar in goal all weekend long, becoming the team’s tournament MVP in the process.
Coaches Mike Cowie and Mike Molina are very proud of the whole team for their effort throughout the tournament and over the course of the entire season.
Meanwhile, the Bantam and Midget Rapids are both in the midst of their playoffs this week, attempting to become 2015 division champions and then go on to the provincials. These are very exciting times for Sunshine Coast lacrosse.
