The tide turned against the Nanaimo Timbermen in a road loss on Friday night.
The city's senior A lacrosse club surrendered a lead and fell 10-6 to the Burnaby Lakers on the mainland. Nanaimo led 6-4 with 12 minutes to go, but the home team went on a run and took the two points.
"When panic mode set in, guys kind of forgot what the systems were and what they were doing," said Kaleb Toth, coach of the Timbermen.
He said his team was solid defensively most of the night. Some of the problems came on offence, when guys turned the ball over due to defensive pressure or missed passes.
"Overall I didn't think we played bad, but we do need to minimize those little mistakes that we make," Toth said. "If we can do that, that game would have been in our favour."
In lacrosse, teams sometimes try different tricks to stall the opponent's momentum, whether it be getting sweat on the floor, adjusting equipment or exaggerating an injury.
"Sometimes you need to do that kind of stuff," the coach said. "Players should know when they have to do that. Having a young, inexperienced team, they just don't know the proper times to."
Shots in Friday's game were 36-34 in favour of the home team. Cayle Ratcliff had two goals and an assist for Nanaimo, Cody Bremner had a goal and two assists and Jake Emms, Macgregor Johnston and Myles Dennett were the other scorers.
Casey Jackson led the Lakers with a four-goal game and Robert Church had two goals and four assists.
GAME ON … The senior A T-men have just one game next weekend as they host the Maple Ridge Burrards on Sunday (June 8) at 7 p.m. at Frank Crane Arena.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com