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Vets survive Innisfil
Tuesday July 29 2008
By Mike Rawn, Staff Writer
 
On paper, it looked like a cakewalk.
The Shelburne Junior C Veterans played Innisfil — winless in 14 games this season — in the opening round of the Ontario Lacrosse Association playoffs.
For the first year of the OLA’s Junior C league, all five teams make the playoffs, with the bottom two playing a two-out-of-three series to see who advances to play first-place Caledon.
“Innisfil played us tough all year,” Vets general manager Barry Trood said. “Their record doesn’t reflect the caliber of that team. They lost a lot of close games.”
The Vets got a wake-up call in game one Friday night in Shelburne, as Innisfil won 9-5. The visitors led 3-0 early in the first period and never trailed in the game. Despite the loss, the Vets remained confident.
“We’re going to win this series,” Vets assistant coach Matt Robertson said following the game. “We’ll be playing Caledon on Tuesday.”
Shelburne’s season looked all but over in the late stages of Saturday’s game two, as they trailed 11-9 with three minutes remaining. Led by the scoring prowess of Travis Galbraith, the Vets forced overtime and eventually won 12-11 in double overtime.
Sunday’s game three was much less dramatic, as Shelburne won 11-6 to advance to the OLA semifinals. Shelburne captain Corey Sinclair scored three goals, while Galbraith added two goals and five assists. Colin Scott, Luke Burke, Cameron Grasman, Matt Volpe, Ben Syme and Dustin Cramer rounded out the Shelburne scoring.
Caledon
Shelburne advances to face first-place Caledon in a best three-out-of-five series, beginning tonight (Tuesday) in Caledon. The Vets host game two on Friday at 8 p.m. at the Centre Dufferin Recreation Complex. Caledon won the season series three games to one, with Shelburne winning the last meeting 8-5 on July 11.
“Caledon finished in first place for a reason, they’re a good team,” Trood said. “We have beaten them so we know that we have it in us. We need a complete team effort. We need to be solid on defence and capitalize on our scoring chances, and if we do that we’ll be competitive.”
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