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Salmonbellies Earn Respect With Repeat

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By RICK HARMON

Tribune correspondent

Published: January 4, 2009

WESLEY CHAPEL - When your nickname is the "Salmonbellies," it's sometimes hard to get respect.

But the New Westminster Salmonbellies won't have that problem when they return to British Columbia.

For the second consecutive year, the Salmonbellies won the Dick's Sporting Goods Tournament of Champions lacrosse tournament at the Wesley Chapel District Park on Sunday with an 8-7 win against the Maryland Lacrosse Club.

"Teams down here always thing we're a joke," said New Westminster coach Jarret Bradley. "They don't think we're going to win. They don't think we know what we're doing but we do know what we're doing. And we've done it two years in a row."

It didn't look like the Salmonbellies were going to get a chance to repeat. It took a late goal in the semifinals to defeat Headstrong Lacrosse Elite (Philadelphia) 8-7 to advance to the finals. Maryland earned its spot in the finals with a 13-5 win against Edge Junior Elite (Ontario, Canada).

Maryland scored the final two goals of the first half to take a 4-2 halftime lead and seemed to be in control of the game when Connor English scored his second of three goals only 20 seconds into the second half.

"We weren't playing our game in the first half," Bradley said. "We weren't picking up loose balls. But we settled down in the second half and made some nice passes and picked it up."

Matthew Dinsdale answered the Maryland goal at the 3:38 mark to cut the lead back to two at 5-3 but a minute later, Harry Prevas scored to but MLC back on top by 3 at 6-3.

The Salmonbellies scored four unanswered goals in a 5 minute span to take their first lead of the game at 7-6 with 8:16 remaining. English scored his third of the contest with 5:40 remaining to tie the score at 7-7.

New Westminster got control of the ball with a minute remaining and worked for the final shot. With 15 seconds remaining, Brandon Goodwin started maneuvering toward the goal and with 9 seconds remaining, blasted a shot into the net for his third goal of the game.

"I knew I had to score or I would have everybody on my back," Goodwin said. "I never had any doubt that it wasn't going to go in the net."

The 27-team Toyota Championship Bracket opened play on Saturday and New Westminster wasn't even one of the top 5 seeds, despite being defending champions.

NEW WESTMINSTER (B.C.) 8, MARYLAND 7

New Westminster 2 6 – 8
Maryland 4 3 – 7

Goals – B. Goodwin 3, Mudske, Schoemaker, Digby, Dinsdale, Lachlan (NW); English 3, Castronova, Prevas, Matthews, Fanshaw (M). Assists – Digby, Dinsdale, Church, Lachlan (NW); Castronova, Matthews, Williams, Linkous (M).

Correspondent Rick Harmon can be reached at tampabaystringer@gmail.com

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