Oceanside’s Midget Sharks mined themselves a gold medal on the mainland last weekend, going unbeaten at 4-0-1 in the Richmond Roadrunner tournament then running the table with a fiercely contested 4-3 win over the Cowichan Thunder in the final.
The local squad of 16 year olds, who are currently sitting tops in their Mid-Island Midget B box lacrosse league at 7-1, opened the eight-team tourney last Saturday morning by blasting the Langley Thunder 12-0, then ran to a 7-2 win over the Surrey Rebels that evening.
The Sharks had their hands full Sunday morning and had to work hard to earn a 6-6 tie against the Delta Islanders, then closed out pool play with a 10-1 route over the Coquitlam Adanacs.
The Sharks shelled the Penticton Heat 12-1 in the semifinal Monday morning, then dug deep to beat the Cowichan Thunder 4-3 in the tournament final.
It was, said Sharks’ head coach Derek Gaughan, “a nail biter.”
This is the third time Oceanside has competed in the Richmond tourney — they won it two years ago.
And while this year’s road to the hardware saw some lopsided scores, “we had to rise to the occasion in the final, and they all played really well.”
Stepping up and leading the charge offensively for Oceanside over the weekend were Brenden Harstad and Luke Rusie and earning props for their efforts on defence were Stirling McCullough and Eric Johnston, along with forward Jory Clermont “who was phenomenal corralling loose balls the whole tournament.
GAME ON
The Sharks were in action in Comox Wednesday evening for a leauger against the Wild and return home at ‘the Place Saturday to take on Juan de Fuca in a 4 p.m. start.