Homeward bound!

Coming Home!

We packed up at Bucknell and got ready to come home, we packed up the Bus - a big thank to Klein transportation and out driver Mike! and Ashley at Klein for making it all work!

We stopped off on the way home at Lax Unlimited, Ardmore, PA to so the lads could off-load some US dollars and that they did, a huge thanks to  it is a beautiful area and home to Lacrosse powerhouse Haverford High School and Villanova Wildcats! This is easily the best Lax Unlimited I have been to, was well stocked and the people working their where knowledge-able and very helpful!

We reached the airport and waved farewell to Jake Howarth and checked in for our flight!

We arrived home on time to Manchester Airport by the parents and friends!

We found out later that Joe Harris had actually broken his wrist and not sprained it as first though, what a tough kid!

Third Day - vs Westfield

We woke up at 7 for an 8 o'clock game the boys looked tired after a busy 10 days, we had little time and didn't turn up until 5 mins before the game. I wasn't very happy but didn't rant at the boys and let them take responsibility for the game themselves the lads know what they are doing and they did a great job. Tim Nicol received a feed to shoot a high bouncer into the top of the net he's a great middie and an intelligent player that will go far in this game.

Grady Jackson-Fayle and Tim Collins did a great job and we went two up with a goals from Alex Russell who is an all star caliber player in my eyes and has been clutch in this tournament.

Captain fantastic Steve Ewing then scored.

The Westfield team aren't the nicest of teams talking trash and got a lot of penalties but we went into half time level, they came back into the game from good play and not from our errors. 

Our Defence played solid and collapsed well taking the ball away and playing physical.

In the second half Jose Cara scored on man up with a great high to low shot and ran to the box with a huge grin!

Alex Russell scored again on a jump shot around the post!

We put in a solid performance and competed but lost the game 7-5!

I've brought home 23 men!

Second Day - All Star Game

We could have had Russell, Ewing, Dags, Howarth, Condren, Johnson, Winton, Collins, Jackson-Fayle, Hurry or Baxter on this team.

Chosen where Condren, Baxter, Hurry and Johnson.

It was amazing to have two goalkeepers from same team In all star game.

They did us proud!

Second day- NJ Shamrocks

Won 5-4

Awesome performance by the defensive unit. Will Baxter made some highlight saves in the first half and we cleared the ball very well.

Both goalkeepers have played amazingly well and Hurry stepped in the second half and made some key stops at important times and won the game for us in the end made, we asked the Defense to make the stops to give the offence the opportunity to win.........

Alex Russell

Matt Rowarth has played great in this tournament and does it for the team, he stepped up to score the equalizer to toe the game and the Steve Ewing scored from close in to win the game winner, the sideline went crazy as he ran at us pointing at the squad and jumping on Dags shoulder! Crowd surfing!

Steve Ewing #10 and Ben Smith #19

Earlier in the game Cape Cods finest Jake Howarth made a great cut and scored a quick stick goal, Winton continued his impressive play with our first goal of game!

Jake Howarth

Second Day vs Webster Schroeder

We didn't know much about Webster Schroeder when we arrived at the field, they had a few good players, we have been close to a lot of teams in both tournaments but just haven't got to the point of keeping our foot on the peddle and killing teams off, I won't tell you how I or Zac described this!! But we got the message across!

The Score ended 7-4 to Webster S but we could have done better the boys looked tired on try way back and exhausted sat in the hallway of the Dorms, maybe the all star game will motivate some of them but nothing an early night couldn't cure!

Scorers:
Ewing
Howarth
Russell
Winton

Second Day - Vs Fairport

Fairport has produced some great players over the years like current Albany keeper Blaze Reardon and Syracuse's Derek DeJoe its is a great program and the coaches and players made friends with out players, I spoke to Coach Sudan who played for Team USA in Manchester in 94 We swapped stories and the guys couldn't be nicer, unlike the refs!

Coach Sudan

I thought we played very well but the refs seemed to be there for the pay cheque and ignored some obvious calls even ignoring an injured player on the floor, I wasn't happy and received a penalty! The opposition coach went on to the field to complain also and backed me up on the call, Safety first the same coach had had even brought up this scenario in the Coaches meeting!

Winton once again scored the first goal of the game to get us started he has worked tirelessly in both tournaments and has turned defenders inside out with his quick footwork!

Alex Russell scored on a great dodge and dunk!

Steven Ewing leads on the field and scored again hitching his defender tucking inside to finish! Steve also had a great diving goal which was wiped out although Fairport scored a goal that was exactly the same where the player hasn't been pushed and landed in the crease and the goal was given!

Tim Nicol came with a great roll back move off the wing but the goalie made a great save!

Scott Dagnanleach tucked inside his man changing hands to hit the bar!
It's his go to move and was unlucky not to Score!

The score ended 5-3.

We had a great time with Fairport and took a picture with the team afterwards!

Bison Brawl First Day - Vs Futures

After two games already the boys where tired, fed and watered we went to play Futures, it is made up of future Bucknell University players or recruits and will be future Div 1 talent, we decided to let this motivate the lads that you could take the ball away, face off, score or save against future Div 1 talent. The game played under the lights on a grass field! I dont think I have ever played on a floodlit Grass field before!

We went a few goals down but the lads had fun with it and if we made a play or a save the lads got excited and made them play a fun brand of Lacrosse as we had at the Gait Cup against Velocity on the last day, the boys loved to have a laugh and would let the team know if they had the upper hand in anyway! Their Goalie was very good but Jake Howarth, Matt Rowarth and Alex Russell (2 Goals) pushed to the goal and got their reward, Will Baxter made some amazing saves and it seemed Tim Collins won quite a lot of face offs! Will Allsop or "King Snurdge" as we call him had a great game!

Ben Smith was unlucky not to score with a couple of shots and we where trying to get him going!

Ciaran Johnson relished the competition and played another solid game clearing the ball with ease and using his pace.

Their didn't seem to be many people on Knights Bench as Vince Cara, Joe Harris, Tig Bancroft and Joe Baythorpe all had injuries.

We walked away from the game buzzing as we had won the second half and the boys where in high spirits, on the way back to the dorms we stopped and watched a street Basketball game as it was going dark and the skills on show where awesome, once the guys realized we where English they stopped and rushed over and gave us high fives!!!

It was the end of a tough day and felt so sorry for the boys that where injured, we waited for their return from Hospital.

Apologies for not writing the blog yesterday but we had a very busy day and needed an early night.