Rock Fall To Excelsiors In OT

by Mike Hancock

Brampton holds off Rock’s late rally.

Oakville, ON – The Oakville Rock (4-4) fell 11-10 in OT to the Brampton Excelsiors (3-5) on Monday night at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre.

The Rock’s lineup was bolstered with the additions of defender Sheldon Burns and forward Dan Linter, acquired earlier in the day from Brooklin via trade.  However, it wasn’t the start the home side was looking for as Brampton’s Mike Burke opened the scoring just 1:44 into the first period. Oakville responded with a pair of their own from Dan Craig and Trevor Smyth, taking a 2-1 lead under 6 minutes in.  Brampton added two more, pulling ahead 3-2.  Both teams exchanged goals at the end of the period and the Exclesiors held a 4-3 lead after 20 minutes.

In the second period, John St. John and Adam Wiedemann scored to push Brampton’s lead to 6-3.  The Rock’s Brandon Slade found the back of the net cutting the lead down to two but the Excelsiors offence wouldn’t be denied, scoring two more goals and taking an 8-4 lead at the end of two periods. 

Right off the opening draw, Brad Kri took the ball all the way to the bank just 13 seconds into the third.  The Rock followed that up with back-to-back markers from Andrew Kew and Rob Hellyer pulling to within one. Kew fired home his second goal of the night, tying the game 8-8 and forcing overtime.

In the extra frame, the Excelsiors scored the first three goals of the 10-minute period, taking an 11-8 lead.  With time ticking away on the Rock, Ryan Smith and Brad Gillies added late ones to clip the lead to a single goal.  Nolan Clayton held the Rock at bay in the dying seconds to preserve the win for Brampton.

The Rock will be back in action on Friday, June 28th at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre when they host the Six Nations Chiefs Fans can watch every game this season live on lacrosse-tv.com.