Novice 1 Griffins Officially Bumped to 'A' Status

Wallaceburg Novice 1 Griffins - Photo by Ian Kennedy

Traditionally, there are only 8 teams across Ontario classified as ‘A’ lacrosse teams. This year, the Novice group will have 12 ‘A’ teams at Provincials. The Wallaceburg Griffins 1 Novice team have entered that group this week as they were officially bumped from ‘B’ to ‘A’ status, which is a huge accomplishment for a small town such as Wallaceburg.

This move came following their perfect record against other ‘B’ teams and a strong performance in Owen Sound against ‘A’ centres. The upgrade represents Wallaceburg’s first ‘A’ rating in nearly 20 years.

The team travelled to Owen Sound for it’s 2nd A/B tournament of the year and followed up it’s 2nd place finish in Niagara Falls earlier this year, with a 3rd place finish in Owen Sound. The Novice Griffins went 3-1 and missed a matchup in the final with Clarington by a half point. The only lose came to Orangeville after letting a 2 goal lead slip away and giving up the winning goal with 9.4 seconds left on the clock. The 3 Orangeville goals with 2 minutes left in the game showed the kids cannot let up at this level of lacrosse because teams like Orangeville will score whenever you make a mistake. Orangeville won 8-7.

Wallaceburg had beaten Kitchener-Waterloo 8-2 earlier in the day and would face Owen Sound in the morning. Cole MacKinnon was injured late in the Orangeville game and the Griffins would have to face Owen Sound with only 10 runners. With MacKinnon out Tanner Cole, Riley Roe, Tyler Davis & Seth Ewing stepped up with 6 goals and 5 assists.

Wallaceburg would move on to face Six Nations in the 4th game and would need a win for a shot at the final. Wallaceburg started strong and never looked back winning 9-3. Wallaceburg had Cole MacKinnon back but he was a game time decision so caoch Knight dressed Mason Myers a 7 year old from the Griffin Tyke team who seems to play big in big games, Myers scored his first Novice goal of his career and fit in nice with the older Novices.

The Six Nations game was a game for the youngsters to shine. With Aidan Lucyk getting his first start in net vs an “A” oppenent and Tyler Davis leading the offense with 4 goals and 2 assists the future for Novice lacrosse looks very bright.

With the 3-1 record the Novice Griffins would need Owen Sound to steal 1 point from Burlington in the last game of the tournament but Owen Sound lost 11-2 with Burlington scoring all 5 points and beating Wallaceburg for a spot in the final vs Clarington.

The Wallaceburg Novices were the highest scoring Novice team in the tournament with 31 goals in 4 games and they have now beaten 2 “A” rated teams with 2 different goalies, the team hopes to keep getting better. They travel to Sarnia this weekend for a rematch vs Owen Sound Friday night and games vs Burlington #2 and Windsor the next day in the Herb Lea Tournament.

Now, Wallaceburg which was stated is clearly one of the top 12 teams in Ontario, will face other ‘A’ teams at the upcoming provincial championships.