The Blackfalds Silverbacks are provincial champions again.
The senior C lacrosse team has been around for four years and have now won their third Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League title by beating the Okotoks Erratic in two games in the best-of-three championship — 9-7 on Friday and 11-5 on Saturday in Blackfalds.
“It’s always an honour, it’s our goal at the start of the year in January when we do winter conditioning and throughout the year,” said head coach and player Geordin Flett. “It makes all those practices and bruises and sweat worth it.”
Tyler McRobbie and Scott Ebbert both scored twice for the Silverbacks while Adam Reynolds, junior call up Logan Sinclair, Luke Flett, Geordin Flett and Ray Williams all scored for the Silverbacks while Adam Mooney picked up the win in net.
Flett said Mooney was named the team’s unofficial provincial MVP for his work in the two games.
The spread in goal scoring was indicative of the way Blackfalds approached the final.
“The key was loose balls and really spreading the offence around,” said Flett. “We have a couple of guys, my brother Luke and Tyler, that they really keyed on because they led our team in scoring, but you take away those two guys, then you have a guy like Ray Williams who gets four goals and Scott Ebbert gets four goals.”
Expect the Silverbacks to be back in a similar position next year as they are returning the bulk of their roster. This year they integrated a number of young junior B program graduates into their lineup and they expect to add a few more next year.
“We wish them the best if they want to play senior C lacrosse in Calgary or Edmonton, but if they stick around we’d welcome them with open arms,” said Flett. “If we could add a couple of juniors, that really helps having those young legs running up and down the floor.”
Their continued success also opens the door for a possibility to returning to the senior B level. But, as Flett points out, they are a few years away from that happening.
“Maybe a couple of years down the road,” he said. “We really need to graduate some more juniors, you really need a lot of guys for a senior B roster. Just with the travel and the toll on the body is a lot more. It’s better athletes and a better calibre of game and it’s a grind, the senior B season. My wish would be to have a senior B and a senior C team then we could feed the senior B team with senior C players.”