A one-goal loss to one of the league’s best teams shouldn’t really be cause for alarm.
But as other clubs in the West Coast Senior Lacrosse Association improve, the DBL Timbermen don’t want to be left behind.
The senior B men lost 6-5 to the Tri-City Bandits on Saturday at the Nanaimo Ice Centre.
Timbermen coach Roger Dubyna said the Bandits were better than the last time the two teams met.
“As we get further into the season, the other teams are building and getting stronger, so you have to be more cohesive to counter that,” Dubyna said. “We’re still back at pre-season stage and they’ve moved ahead of us.”
The DBL team has collected a quality roster by this point in the summer, but Dubyna said too many guys are missing practices and games.
“A lot of times things that happen out here, like a guy misses a ball or defensively they miss a check, a lot of that is because they’re not sure what the other guy is doing,” said the coach.
Alternate captain Aaron Vanderhorst said the Timbermen made dumb mistakes that led to turnovers.
“I don’t think that’s a lack of talent, I think that’s a lack of cohesiveness,” he said.
Since the team is often undermanned, he said, it’s hard to get into a rhythm.
“There’s a lot of guys on our team like myself and other guys, one game we’re playing offence, the next we’re playing defence and we’re playing with different people,” Vanderhorst said. “We’ve just basically got to all get on the same page.”
The positive, he said, is that the T-men lost by just one goal, despite the mistakes and miscommunication.
“We’ll take what we can from this game and move on,” said Vanderhorst. “As we showed last year, it’s more what happens in July and August.”
LACROSSE TALK … In Saturday’s game, Luke MacNeil had two goals and two assists, Kyle Hofer also scored twice and Jordan Jarvis had Nanaimo’s other marker. Danny Walters suffered the loss in goal … The day before, the DBL Timbermen lost 12-8 to the North Shore Indians on the road. Vanderhorst scored four goals, George Westwood added a pair, Myles Jeffers tallied a goal and two helpers and Keith Nyberg scored the other Nanaimo goal. Walters was also the goalie of record in that game … The DBL men (6-5) don’t play again until July 5, when they visit the Langley Warriors.
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