Heat look sharp in bounce back against Westlock

Teammates Tyson Coles, right, and Ethan Gervais, left, celebrate Ethan Brown’s second-period goal which gave the Heat a 9-2 lead. 

The Lakeland Heat Junior B lacrosse team suffered their first loss of the season earlier in the week to Lloydminster.

After a few long discussions with the team about what went wrong, the Heat rebounded with a sound 16-8 win against the Westlock Rock on Saturday night to move to 9-1-1 on the season.

“It went kind of the way we were hoping to expect the outcome. We really wanted to focus on our motion,” said assistant coach Daryl Hodinsky who assumed head coaching duties for Saturday’s game and Wednesday’s game in Lloydminster with Dennis Hodinsky away.

 

“We had zero motion against Lloydminster. It was actually embarrassing how we played. The boys were talked to about how we played and what was to be expected and we worked on that on practice on Friday. Our goal is to make sure we have good solid motion, making that defence have to play instead of just stand there.

“That’s something you’ll see in the games to come, if they aren’t doing their motion then guys will sit,” said Hodinsky.

The Heat scored four unanswered goals to start the game, from the sticks of Eric Cooseman, Ethan Brown, Cameron Zelisko, and company.

“We came back on Wednesday after a hard loss in Lloyd, our first loss of the season, back working on the fundamentals and our motion and just playing the game of the lacrosse that we know we can play and what we want to bring to Provincials,” said Ethan Brown.

 

Brown added another goal in the second period to further extend the lead, as the Heat kept the Rock at bay with a 12-4 lead at the second intermission.

Eric Cooseman scored a hat-trick, and Mitchell Bibeau added more goals to his impressive stat sheet this year.

 

Bibeau entered Saturday night’s game with 40 goals in 10 games.

The Heat go back on the road for a mid-week game Wednesday night against the Wainwright Wolfpack, before coming back home for a three-game homestand.

They host the Edmonton Warriors Sunday afternoon at the Bonnyville Cenovus Arena.