Adanacs down Venom in testy tilt to claim B.C. lacrosse title

Adanacs down Venom in testy tilt to claim B.C. lacrosse title

Graduating Kamloops Venom captain Tanner Koroluk and his head coach, Liam Hagerty, were banished from the floor, ejected and dejected while the Coquitlam Adanacs cruised to the tier 1 junior B provincial lacrosse title on Sunday (Aug. 6).

The Adanacs earned a 17-6 victory in Game 2 of the two-game aggregate B.C. championship series in sweltering Memorial Arena, with temperatures hovering around 33 C and tempers boiling over on the floor.

“This was the best team I ever played for, the deepest roster, the greatest guys on and outside of the floor,” said Koroluk, whose Venom last month swept the South Okanagan Flames in three games to claim the Thompson-Okanagan Junior Lacrosse League banner. “I’m going to miss these guys. We were a great team. I’m getting emotional just thinking about it.”

Coquitlam bested Kamloops 11-5 in Game 1 on Saturday in the Snake Pit, so the series was all but over after the first period on Sunday, with the visitors leading 6-1.

Referees appeared to have lost patience with jawing from the Kamloops bench and frustration was brewing among players and in the crowd, with fans was not shy in voicing displeasure.

Hagerty was given the boot with 4:32 remaining in the second period after expressing discontent with a hit on one of his top players, Temeke7 Gottfriedsen.

About six minutes into the third period, one of the referees issued a game misconduct to the individual on the Venom bench who used a curse word that begins with an F to tell the official where to go, which was to a place called “off.”

Koroluk fell on the sword when the referee was unable to identify the guilty serpent.

“If no one owns up to their penalty on the bench, they just say they’ll kick the captain instead,” Koroluk said. “No one was owning up to it. It was a pretty gone game, so I just said I’ll take it for the team.”

Spencer Vaughan of the Venom and Chase Hanson of the Adanacs engaged in a spirited tilt with 6:26 remaining in the third period.

“A lot of people were just angry,” Koroluk said. “All year, we thought we had it. We’re thinking bigger picture, bigger picture. Just coming down to the end here, we know we’re done and some old guys just wanted to get out there and give it one more shot.”

With 6:07 remaining in the third period, Kamloops runner AJ McInnis jumped Manny Mannarino of the Adanacs and began punching him, which led to a five-minute penalty for instigating, a five-minute penalty for fighting and a game misconduct.

“It’s just tempers boiling over and, being down so much, it’s pretty frustrating and some guys just kind of went over the edge a little bit,” Hagerty said.

Kamloops assistant coach and team president Doug Clark called a timeout to settle his charges.

The Adanacs had more than enough power play time to run out the clock in the final six minutes of the game and opted not to leave their own zone during the man advantage.

They repeatedly ran out the 30-second shot clock before returning the ball to the short-handed Venom, a tactic that made for an awkward end to a provincial final and gave the home team ample time to ponder defeat.

“You know what, it’s the kind of stuff we don’t want in our game, but we played hard,” Coquitlam head coach Tyson Abbott said. “We got to a point where we could just settle it down toward the end of the game and cool our jets. We just didn’t need to engage with them. No risk of injury. We’re going to nationals.”

Mannarino finished with a game-high nine points, including seven assists.

Gottfriedsen, Josh Abel, Caleb Campbell, Seamus Bankier, Jax Anderson and Nate Van Unen had goals for the Venom.

The Adanacs will compete for the national junior B lacrosse title at the Founders Cup tournament, which will run from Aug. 15 to Aug. 22 in Brampton, Ont.

“They’re a really good team,” Hagerty said. “It was an awesome season, a ton of fun and very successful up until the last weekend. I think we were just a little bit outmatched by a team that’s been tested by better teams this year.”