An unanswered seven-goal outburst in the middle frame lifted the South Okanagan Flames to a 12-6 win over the North Okanagan Reapers in Thompson Okanagan Junior Lacrosse League play Sunday, May 25, at the Sunbelt Arena in Armstrong.
Trailing 3-2 early in the second period, South Okanagan's offence erupted for seven straight goals to take a 9-3 lead into the final frame.
Nash Sereda and Taynon Charters led the Flames with three goals each. Tanner Sunderman added a pair while single markers went to Cylis Charlton, Rylan Koturbash, Landen Gerow, and Elias Hunt.
Zack Milne had two goals for North Okanagan, who spotted the visitors an early 2-0 lead before evening the score by the end of the first period. Kal Bonneau and Zack Casagrande had the other goals for the Reapers.
Owen Byers made 45 saves to pick up the win in goal for South OK, while counterpart Taylor Robins-Swanson made 36 stops for North OK.
With the win, South Okanagan (5-4-2) move into third place in the league standings with 12 points, one point behind the defending champion Kamloops Venom, and four back of the Kelowna Kodiaks.
Kelowna beat Kamloops 10-4 at home Saturday, May 24, and downed the visiting Cranbrook Blackwolves 10-5 Saturday to move into top spot.
The Reapers (4-4-0) are alone in fourth, five points ahead of Cranbrook, who also lost 9-5 to South Okanagan Saturday evening.
THOMPSON OKANAGAN SENIOR LACROSSE
Armstrong Shamrocks 5 Kelowna Raiders 4
Marlon Forrest scored with eight minutes remaining in the third period to snap a 4-4 tie and send the hometown Irish to their third straight league win in front of a large hometown crowd Friday, May 23, at the Sunbelt Arena.
The loss was Kelowna's first of the year. The Raiders (4-1) are two points up on the Shamrocks (3-1) with Armstrong having a game in hand.
The star of Friday's game was Shamrocks goalie Connor Senn. He was the game's first star after making 61 saves.
Ryan Harwood scored twice, including once on a penalty shot, for Armstrong. Kris Versteeg also chipped in a pair of goals.
League scoring leader Andrew Garant added four points (3G 1A) to pace the Raiders. Garrant has 24 goals and 23 assists for 47 points, a whopping 23 points more than teammate Josh Yachney.
Ethan King had the other goal for Kelowna, who received a 38-save performance in goal from Graham Cousins.
The Shamrocks and Raiders will meet again Sunday, June 1, at 6:30 p.m. at the Rutland Arena.
Kamloops Rattlers 10 Vernon Tigers 7
With only 12 runners, the Tigers never quit in their loss to the hometown Rattlers Sunday, May 25.
Vernon fell behind 6-1 after 20 minutes but found their scoring touch in the middle frame, cutting the Kamloops lead to 6-5 before the Venom added two late powerplay goals in the period, with three Tigers in the sin bin, for an 8-5 lead.
The teams scored two goals each in the third.
Nick Hefford had three goals for Vernon, who also two goals from Jacob Brewer, and singles from Colby Kokonis, and Brennan Plante. Derek Perebook took the loss in goal for the Cats.
The Tigers (0-4), play their home opener this Friday, May 30, at 7:45 p.m. at Kal Tire Place against longtime rivals Armstrong.
