The goal for the Redmen lacrosse team this year is simple: Win the Baggataway Cup for the second time in program history. Following a dominant 16-5 victory over the Ottawa Gee Gees on Saturday in the divisional playoff, they are well on their way to achieving that goal.
The Redmen were the only team in the CUFLA to have an undefeated regular season this year, and it was clear why on Saturday night. The combination of slick passing, precise shooting, and a relentless wave of fresh legs wore the Gee Gees out over the course of the game. Junior attackman Spencer Bromley led the way with four goals and three assists, while seniors Anders Bjella and Jake Gutman both had hat tricks. Gutman came off the bench to score three goals on three shots in the fourth quarter. In total, McGill had 12 different players score a point, a testament to the team’s deep roster.
“Depth has been a real advantage [this year],” Redmen Head Coach Tim Murdoch said. “We recruit really well and we have one of the larger rosters in the league. We have a lot of confidence in all of our players up and down the roster.”
Despite the wide margin of victory, McGill was down 2-1 until the last few minutes of the first quarter. Then Bromley took over the game. He scored an unassisted goal to tie up the score. A minute later freshman Max Murdoch assisted Bromley on another goal. To cap off the quarter, Bromley found sophomore Goose Bolton who then sniped a shot past Ottawa goaltender Mike Webster. In the span of six minutes the momentum swung clearly in favour of the Redmen.
“We work as a team as an offensive unit and Spencer is our top finisher,” Murdoch said. “I think [his success] was more a symbol of the fact that our offense is clicking well when he was getting close to the net and he was doing his job.”
Next weekend McGill travels to Bishop’s University for the semifinals of the Baggataway Cup. They will play the winner of the quarter-final between the Brock Badgers and the Trent Excalibur on Saturday at 4 p.m. Look for the Redmen to keep on rolling, regardless of who their opponent is, as they attempt to bring home the Baggataway Cup.
“Just playing as we know we can,” Murdoch said. “Consistency, staying healthy this week, and most importantly staying positive through the weekend.”
Quotable
“We have a lot of respect for Trent, they’ve typically played us very close [….] They’re scrappy and they fight hard. Brock will be the favoured team […] so we’re concentrating most of our scouting efforts on [them] because we haven’t played them since 2012.” – Murdoch on potential semifinal opponents.
Moment of the game
Bromley’s unassisted goal with 5:50 left in the first quarter helped turn the tide for the Redmen.
Stat corner
McGill had a total of 18 penalty minutes, four more than Ottawa
