The Victoria Shamrocks lacrosse team managed to knock off the New Westminster Salmonbellies 11-8 on Thursday, Aug. 15 to punch themselves through to the Western Lacrosse Association final against the Langley Thunder.
The Salmonbellies kicked off the game with two goals in the first seven minutes, and Victoria's Patrick Dodds responded back with their first tally of the night.
New Westminster would restore their two goal lead before Dodds and Marshall King scored two goals to tie the game. Dodds made a hat trick almost 20 minutes into the period and they headed into the intermission up 4-3.
"Patrick has been great this entire series and topped it off tonight. Kind of kept us in the game to be honest with you in that first period. I thought he was fantastic," said Shamrocks head coach Mike Simpson in a news release.
Victoria continued to put pressure of the Salmonbellies' defence in the second frame, starting with King's second of the game in the first minute, and Mathieu Gauthier did much of the same, before Clarke Petterson added to the Shamrocks lead 35 seconds later to put the Shamrocks up 7-3.
New West answered back with a goal before Petterson "tickled the twine" for the second time to move Victoria's new lead to 8-4 headed to the second break.
The Salmonbellies scored three-in-a-row from the start of the third until the nine-minute mark, but the game heated up when King and Petterson "put the game to sleep" after each scoring their third of the game.
Max Wilson would add one more for Victoria on an empty net, and the Salmonbellies' would get a consolation goal near the end, with the game finishing with an 11-8 score for the Shamrocks.
"There is no question that we have the best fans in the league. It's not even really close and they give us an opportunity and extra jump in our step. We have home floor advantage [in the final] and we need to use it to our advantage," said Simpson, regarding the crowd of 2,000 at the Thursday game
The Shamrocks will take on the Langley Thunder in the WLA final starting Saturday, Aug. 17 night from the Q Centre in Colwood at 6:30 p.m.
