Lacrosse
By Bernie Puchalski, St. Catharines Standard
The St. Catharines Spartans defeated the Welland Generals 16-8 in junior B lacrosse action Thursday night.
ST. CATHARINES - The St. Catharines Spartans junior B lacrosse team received offence from an unexpected source Thursday night in a 16-8 win over the visiting Welland Generals.
Rookie defender Drew Popadinac scored the first two goals of his junior career in the impressive win for the Spartans (2-0).
“He’s a hard-working kid and offence isn’t usually his thing, but he took some transition chances and he scored,” Spartans head coach Matt Attwood said.
The 17-year-old Niagara Falls native, who took up the sport at the urging of a few of his friends from St. Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake, was ecstatic about scoring twice.
“I don’t usually score, so getting a few against them felt good,” the Grade 11 student at St. Paul said.
The 5-foot-10, 185-pounder earned a spot with the Spartans with a strong showing a training camp.
“We like that he worked hard and that he likes to play defence,” Attwood said. “He doesn’t make too many mistakes out there and he is very coachable.”
Some lacrosse teams struggle to find someone willing to play defence, but that wasn’t the case for the Spartans this season.
“This year, we have a good group of guys who want to play defence and they want to just be on the team,” Attwood said.
“That’s what they need to do and it’s working.”
Popadinac is more than happy to play defence.
“Defence, you don’t get hit,” he said. “You do the hitting.”
He has been a convert to the sport since starting in minor lacrosse in St. Catharines
“I love the contact and it’s fast,” he said.
His first two games of junior B have been an adjustment.
“It’s faster and more physical and the ball movement is better,” he said.
He hopes to continue progressing in lacrosse.
“I’m trying to go somewhere higher than this,” he said,.
In the winter, he plays major midget AAA hockey in the Falls with the Niagara Falls Riverhawks and also suited up for a few games with the Chippawa Riverhawks junior C squad. He’s a forward in hockey.
On Thursday, St. Catharines led 5-4 after one period before the Generals tied it 39 seconds into the second period.
The Spartans then reeled off eight unanswered goals through the second and into the third period to send the Generals (2-1) their first loss of the season.
“We didn’t compete,” Welland coach Justin Kennedy said. “We didn’t take care of the little things and we left our goalies to hang out to dry a little bit.”
Kennedy also wasn’t impressed with the lack of discipline his team showed.
“We’re Saturday in Orangeville and Sunday in Six Nations, so it doesn’t get any easier,” he said. “We will regroup and get back at it.”
Attwood was pleased with his team’s play against a Welland squad that usually plays them tough.
“We’ve always had problems with Welland in the past, and this is the first time we’ve out-worked them from start to finish,” he said. “Our goal is to out-work teams and we did it today.”
The Scoop
Spartans 16 Generals 8
Standard Star of the Game: St. Catharines’ Danny Blocho with four goals and two assists.
For the St. Catharines Spartans: Blocho 4-2-6; Chris Robinson 3-2-5; Zach Calder 2-3-5; Mike Bosse 0-5-5; Cory Antongiovanni 1-3-4; Popadinac 2-0-2; Connor Smith and Jacob Schenck 1-1-2; Cree Blakely and Quintan Martin 0-2-2; and, Evan Scott, Sebastien Beaudoin 1-0-1.
For the Welland Generals: Jack Fitzgerald and Brandon Porga 2-1-3; Cameron Phillips and Chipewyan McCrimmon 1-2-3; Adam Barron 1-1-2; and, Caleb Ambrosio 1-0-1.
Game stats: Shots on goal: by SC on Graeme McCullogh and Dylan Carver-Busby 17-23-17=57; by Welland on Martan 18-13-22=53. Penalty minutes: SC 37, Welland 33. Powerplays: SC 5-12, Welland 3-12.
Up next: The Spartans are at London Sunday.
