The Coquitlam Adanacs head into the B.C. Junior A Lacrosse League playoffs on a roll while the Port Coquitlam Saints head into them with a new coaching staff.
On Monday, the Saints announced the firing of head coach Kelly Scott and the hiring of Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Famer Dan Stroup and PoCo Junior B Tier 1 head coach Josh Wahl to replace him. Stroup recently resigned as an assistant coach for the Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League.
The announcement came in a one-sentence press release. Saints owner Reg Thompson was unwilling to elaborate when contacted by The Tri-City News.
“It’s been a rather hectic three or four days trying to get things sorted out and find out what direction we’re going to go in,” said Thompson.
The move comes despite the Saints finishing third with a 13-6-2 record. PoCo will face the second-place New Westminster Salmonbellies (15-6-0) in one of the best-of-five league semifinals. The first-place Coquitlam Adanacs (18-2-1), who are riding a 13-game win streak, will take on the Victoria Shamrocks (13-7-1), who finished fourth, in the other semi.
“If we go in over-confident we’ll be in trouble for sure,” said Adanacs head coach Pat Coyle. “Going in thinking we’re just better than anyone, that’s just a recipe for disaster.
“The first weekend, a big chunk of the series could be over right away. You could get down or up in the series really fast.”
It will begin Saturday afternoon at the Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex with Game 2 on the island Sunday. Games 3 and 4 are the following Saturday and Sunday.
In a series preview, Coquitlam downed the visitors from Victoria 14-9 Sunday. It provided Coyle’s cautionary counselling to his team. Victoria scored the first four goals as the Shamrocks smelled a chance to move past the Port Coquitlam Saints into third place. But the Adanacs snuffed out any sniff of that aspiration by scoring the next six goals and 11 of 12 for an 11-5 lead after two periods. After the Shamrocks scored three to start the third period, the Adanacs got three of their own to seal the deal on their 13th consecutive victory.
Recent acquisition Dylan Foulds led the A’s charge with five goals and two assists. Gabe Procyk scored twice and added an assist. Adam Fulton also scored twice with singles going to Reid Bowering, Dennon Armstrong, Will Clayton, Tyson Kirkness and Ethan Ticehurst.
On Friday, the Adanacs disposed of the Salmonbellies 11-3. Larson Sundown was the big point producer with seven points, including two goals, while Clayton had three of each for a six-point performance. Armstrong had a goal and five assists while Foulds contributed a goal and two assists, as did Colin Munro. Other Coquitlam goal scorers were John Hofseth, Reid Bowering and Chase Scanlan. Christian Del Bianco made 38 saves in the A’s net.
Officially Foulds was the team’s top scorer with 32 goals and 96 points in just 18 games (5.3 points per game), but he only joined Coquitlam July 1 coming over in a trade with the Saints. That’s 31 more points than the next highest teammate, Armstrong (30-35-65 21GP).
Foulds finished second in the league scoring race behind Victoria’s Braylon Lumb, who had 103 points. While Lumb had a good season, it’s Marshal King who causes Coyle the most concern. King returned from his junior college season with the Drexel Dragons to score 31 goals and 72 points in 11 games, a 6.5 points-per-game average.
“He’s the guy who is the real sort of catalyst to their offence,” said Coyle. “They’re a different team (with King). The confidence he brings and the poise he brings with his experience going into the last year of junior (A). He’s a really good player.”
The New West-PoCo series will begin at Queen’s Park Arena on Friday with Game 2 Sunday at the Port Coquitlam Recreation Centre. It will continue in New Westminster on Tuesday with a fourth game, if necessary, in PoCo on Friday, July 20 and Game 5 in New West on Sunday, July 20. All games will start at 8 p.m. except for Game 5 which will be at 5 p.m.
The Saints finished out the regular season with a 16-10 loss to the Langley Thunder on Friday despite holding a 59-48 shot advantage.
Connor Frost netted four goals with Clark Walter getting two goals and an assist. Daylin Kellough also notched a pair of goals with Brodie Gillespie have a goal and four assists. Jacob Dunbar, a junior B callup, got the other Saints goal.
