Resilient Shooting Eagles capture ALL West championship

Flush it and forget it.

That was the mentality of the Shooting Eagles following a disastrous Game 1 performance in the Arena Lacrosse League West Championship Finals series.

The Shooting Eagles fell 23-11 to the Sea Spray on Saturday in the opening game of the best-of-three series with the Sea Spray scoring 10 goals to the Shooting Eagles nine shots in the first 15 minutes.

READ ALSO: Sea Spray takes lead in Arena Lacrosse League West Finals

“That is obviously not the start I wanted but you just have to forget what happened and come out the next day and just perform,” said Shooting Eagles goalie Brodie Harris.

In Game 2 on Sunday, April 2, at Langley Events Centre, the Sea Spray led for much of the game with the Shooting Eagles taking their first lead early in the fourth quarter and winning 14-11, to set-up a 15-minute mini game to determine the 2023 champion.

Spencer Bromley got the Shooting Eagles on the board 3:18 into Game 3, Mark Yingling doubled the lead 81 seconds later and Dylan McIntosh made it a three-goal game with 6:42 to play. Sea Spray’s Keegan Bell gave the Sea Spray some life with a power-play goal with 2:01 to play, but that would be as close as they could get, and Harris scored into the empty net with 37 seconds to play.

“We have a confident group here. The only thing is when we play behind, we get low. When we get too low on ourselves, we don’t play well. But when we are high, we are really high and things just started rolling our way,” said Shooting Eagles captain Coady Adamson, who led the team with four goals in Game 2.

Shooting Eagles coach Adam Smith felt his team’s Game 1 performance was an oddity for his team, which finished first in the regular season at 10-4 and riding an eight-game win streak heading into the ALL West Finals.

READ ALSO: Shooting Eagles and Sea Spray set to play for 2023 ALL West championship

“We started complacently, we played complacent, and they killed us, and that is something I haven’t been a part of for a long time. We talked about that is not us. Get back to what we do, stay out of the penalty box, play five-on-five. Play five minutes at a time, get back to the grassroots of what we started with,” he said.

ALL WEST AWARD WINNERS

Spencer Bromley, Keegan Bell, Brayden Laity and Brandon Humphrey were recognized for their outstanding seasons as the Arena Lacrosse League West wrapped up its second season over the weekend.

Bromley won the Most Valuable Player Award – the second straight year a member of the Shooting Eagles was recognized with the honour – while Brandon Humphrey (Black Fish) won the Most Outstanding Goaltender Award. He also won the award in 2022.

The other two awards went to the Sea Spray’s Keegan Bell (Offensive Player of the Year) and the Grizzlies’ Brayden Laity (Defensive Player of the Year). The final award was the Top Coaching Staff, which went to the Shooting Eagles.