Skip to content

Rockhounds hope for Peewee 'B' glory

The Sudbury Peewee Rockhounds were knocked down a peg or two below their final summer rankings, but they were not about to complain.
230714_lacrosse
The Sudbury Novice Rockhounds have only gotten better so far this season. Supplied photo
The Sudbury Peewee Rockhounds were knocked down a peg or two below their final summer rankings, but they were not about to complain.

The local rep lacrosse team finished the season-ending OLA (Ontario Lacrosse Association) rankings in 15th place in the province, squeezing between the Kitchener-Waterloo Braves and Halton Hills Bulldogs.

Normally, that placement would see Sudbury included in the Peewee "A" grouping, a playdown system that involves two separate sets of qualifier weekends, along with a final six-team competition in mid-August.

But because of the travel that was involved, and the fact that the Sudbury rankings came as a result of a relatively small sample size, the Rockhounds were slotted into the Peewee "B" division, enjoying a three-day provincial tournament that commences on Friday.

Unlike the vast majority of other top-end OLA teams, the Sudbury lads do not compete in any regular season league, earnings their spot on the ladder solely by virtue of their performance at three different tournaments.

Yet despite their record of 12-1, which would see the Rockhounds win all three events, neither team management nor the players were the least bit upset about sliding in amongst the Peewee "B" contenders. In fact, that was their preference.

"No other Sudbury team has ever won Peewee 'B,'” noted talented sniper
Max McCue. "If we were 'A,' we would be against the top 10 teams in the province."

In fact, if this team had any kind of a history of dominating "B" opponents, perhaps a jump to "A" could be justified.

Just to be clear, all three tournament victories came by virtue of overtime wins in the championship encounters, with three more games settled by two goals or less. The Rockhounds will be among the podium hopefuls at provincials, but even a medal is not a given.

"We have to play good defense, with slides and stuff," stated McCue. "One guy (on the other team) has the ball out, and one guy forces, and then you have to keep the box. So one guy moves into the position for the guy who went to force, so then you have the box at all times."

Yet with this team, defense is really a question of one end of the rink to the other, as coach Benoit Douillette incorporated a more aggressive approach for his team when they do not possess the ball.

"This year, we’re pressing, so that it forces them to make three good passes to get down the floor," said McCue. "Usually, they cough the ball up, so we get more offensive time. We press all the time."

Part of the reason for moving to a more aggressive defense has been the confidence the coach has in his netminder, a young lady that he knows better than most.

Cloé Douillette is now in her fourth year between the pipes, a solidifying last line of defense in a sport in which goalies routinely do not have enough time to react to a shot, given the speed of the ball.

"It's really about where I am standing in the net," Douillette explained. "I hit my stick against the net, so I know where I’m positioned, and I need to stand out more, to look bigger and make sure there is less space there to score."

Like McCue, Douillette believes that playing good defense will be key for a team that has shown a definite ability to ring up some numbers on their side of the scoreboard. "The slide and collapse," exclaimed Douillette. "Our defense doesn’t look at the ball, they look at the player, where he moves. If they do a fake, we won’t go for the fake."

The Rockhounds open play early Friday afternoon, tackling the Oakville Hawks #2, before meeting up with the Akwesasne Storm later that evening. The team will close out round robin play on Saturday, facing the Caledon Bandits, and needing to finish in first or second place to move on.

The 2015 roster for the Sudbury Peewee Rockhounds is comprised of Sébastien Chartrand, Oliver Coté, Cloé Douillette, Jared Eadie-Chartrand, Benjamin Harris, Mason Lachance, Max McCue, Brandon Salem, Aidan Teeter, Ethan Teeter, Zak Thompson, Cameron Walker, Ethan Marois, head coach Benoit Douillette, assistants Jamie Teeter and Dave Lachance, trainer Kevin Chartrand and team manager Mark McCue.

Comments

Verified reader

If you would like to apply to become a verified commenter, please fill out this form.