The PoCo Saints’ quest to become the first lacrosse team from B.C. to win the Founders Cup begins Monday (Aug. 14).
The Saints are the host for the national Junior B championship, which has been contested by top teams of 17-21-year-old players from seven provinces and seven First Nations since 1972.
Prior to that they competed for the Castrol Cup that was last won by the Victoria McDonalds in 1971.
To end British Columbia’s 52-year drought of Junior B lacrosse supremacy, the Saints will have to prevail over five challengers:
- Victoria Shamrocks
- Edmonton Warriors
- Queen City Kings
- Onondaga Jr. Redhawks
- Akwasasne Thunder
PoCo finished third in regular season play with 14 wins and four losses in 18 games, then lost its best-of-three league playoff series to the Shamrocks in two straight.
Victoria recently defeated the Kamloops Venom, of the Thompson-Okanagan Junior Lacrosse League, to win the provincial Junior B Tier 1 championship after vanquishing the Saints and Coquitlam Adanacs in its own league playoffs.
The Warriors come to Port Coquitlam with two straight Alberta championships. The team is looking to improve upon its third-place finish in last year’s Founders Cup that was played in Brampton, Ont.
The Kings, which are based in Regina, Sask., finished first in the east division of the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League that includes the Saskatchewan Swat and Winnipeg Blizzard.
The Jr. Redhawks, from the Onondaga Nation in New York State, are champions of the four-team First Nations Junior B Lacrosse League after defeating the Seneca WarChiefs 3-1 in the best-of-five final.
The Thunder defeated Six Nations 6-2 last Monday to win the Ontario Junior B Lacrosse League championship series, three games to one.
This is the third time Port Coquitlam has hosted the Founders Cup tournament.
In 2003, the Barrie Colts defeated the Coquitlam Adanacs 16-8 in the final at the old PoCo Rec Centre and in 1982 the Owen Sound Signmen beat the Delta Islanders.
The Saints have never won a national Junior B championship. The team lost to the Orangeville Northmen in the 1990 final that was played in Esquimalt, and it finished fourth twice, in 2003 and 2008.
Preliminary round play begins Monday with the Edmonton Warriors against Queen City at 1 p.m. The host Saints face Onondaga at 4 p.m. and at 8 p.m. Victoria and Akwasasne face off.
All games are at the Jon Baillie Arena in the Port Coquitlam Community Centre (2150 Wilson Ave.).
The championship final is scheduled for next Saturday (Aug. 19) at 3 p.m.
A full schedule, as well as ticket information, can be found at the tournament’s website.
Tier 2 Jr. B Adanacs cap perfect season
Meanwhlie, the Coquitlam Adanacs Gold Tier 2 Junior B team recently put the exclamation mark on a perfect season by winning the West Coast Junior Lacrosse League championship.
The Adanacs defeated the Valley Sturgeon in two straight games in the final, that was played at the Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex. The wins were the team's 19th and 20th of the season after it ran the table in the regular season and won its first-round series 2-0 against the Adanacs' Purple.
Overall the team outscored its opponents, 255-71.
