Venom bitten

Times Reporter    

 

Three games into their lacrosse season, and the Junior B Tier 2 Strathmore Venom are still searching for their first victory. 

Their year began on April 26, with a 10-8 loss against the Lethbridge Barracudas. At one point, the Venom were leading by three. With less than ten minutes to go, the Barracudas scored to tie it. They scored the game winner eight minutes later, and the insurance marker with seven seconds remaining. Brady Morris, Logan Sept, and Logan Spooner had three points each in the loss.

“That was our first game of the season, and we have a few new players on the team learning the systems, and the line changes. We were pretty rusty for the first period or two,” said coach Hal Morris. Roughly half of his 20-man roster are new to the team, some of whom Morris coached at the midget level.

Strathmore also ran into penalty trouble against Lethbridge, losing two players who were assessed five penalties – the limit before being ejected.

“It’s just discipline control and stick control. Unfortunately we were short-manned, left with 12 runners,” Morris said. “We sort of ran out of gas by the third period. We just broke down defensively. After that game, that was a big focus for practice. Working on better positioning and basically just being at the right spots at the right time.”

However, the Venom’s next game was a similar case against the Calgary Axemen. Though the score was tied at the end of the first period, and a 4-point effort from Brady Morris, Strathmore dropped the game 11-6.

Two days later against the Medicine Hat Sun Devils, Brady Morris again scored two, but it wasn’t enough – the Venom lost 11-4.

“The ironic thing is, the first three games we’ve had, they’re the best three teams in the league. Lethbridge and Medicine Hat historically have always been really good,” Morris said. “All three games were win-able by us. Our problem has been the third period.”

The Venom switched divisions this year, moving from North to South, giving them exposure to teams they’re unfamiliar with. Their next game is against Okotoks on May 10.

“We don’t know Okotoks very well, we only played them once last year,” Morris said. “They’ve always been a pretty good team, but I think they’re also comparable to us, as far as skill. The thing we’re really going to focus on for this game is playing three full periods.”