Renegades sweep Venom

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Strathmore Venom junior B lacrosse team gave it their all against the Red Deer Renegades in Round 1 of the playoffs, but fell short two straight games.
The Venom suffered a 11-10 loss on home court on July 10, before falling 13-7 the following day.
For the Venom, early injuries and suspensions ultimately cost them the series, as they could not keep up with a skilled Renegades squad.
“The first game was the game we needed to win,” said head coach Mike Olver. “We got beat by one goal and Red Deer is a very good team. We had beat them through the season, and after that game we ended up with one guy suspended and in the second game we had another guy suspended and some of our players were injured in the end.”
Olver added that due to injuries sustained by some of the key players, the Venom had a tough time catching up.
“When your players that are going to score goals are ones getting injured, it’s tough,” said Olver.
Despite a couple of losses, the boys showed a tremendous amount of sportsmanship.
Olver really noticed it after the last game how much fun the kids had this year.
“We all got together, we had a team picture, kids had smiles on their faces,” said Olver. “It’s different, 17 to 21-year-olds than kids that come to junior high and high school. Now you’re dealing with them working, they can’t make all the games, they don’t make all the practices and you got to work around all that and still put a team together.”
He expects to have a majority of his roster back next year, with the exception of some of them trying for Tier 1 in Calgary.