Despite two good efforts, Merritt’s midget and novice lacrosse teams came up short in Easter weekend matchups on Saturday.
The midget Nicola Valley Thunder lost 7-2 to the Kelowna Kodiaks, while the novice Thunder lost 13-4 to the Kamloops Rattlers.
In midget action, the Thunder trailed the whole game, and were held off the scoresheet until midway through the second period when a leaping Dakota Grismer-Voght beat Kodiak goalie Nick Pilato to make it a 2-1 game. The Kodiaks scored to make it 3-1 about three minutes later to lead by two heading to the final frame. In the third, another Thunder goal, this time by Marcelo Bose, made it 3-2, but that was as close as the Thunder would make it.
With just over 14 minutes left in the period, a shot from well outside the box would find its way into the back of the Nicola Valley team’s net, making it 4-2.
It was all Kelowna from there as the Kodiaks scored another three goals in under four minutes to secure a 7-2 win.
In the novice division game, the Thunder trailed the Kamloops Rattlers 5-1 after one period, but came out in the second with some intensity with a goal from Lucas Schmid to make it 5-2.
The two clubs traded goals after that with Kamloops scoring at the 12-minute mark to go up 6-2 and Nicola Valley scoring about a minute later to make it 6-3.
At that point, the game got away from the Thunder as the Rattlers netted two more goals by the end of the period.
Kelowna had five goals to the local team’s one in the third period for a 13-4 final. Marshall Willis got the first goal for the Thunder and Lucas Schmid had a hat-trick for his team in the effort.
