It’s been a mixed start to a campaign with a ton of promise for the Okotoks Marauders.
Following an offensive onslaught in a season opening triumph the Marauders dropped their home opener 17-8 to a high-powered Lethbridge Barracudas squad on May 8 at the Murray Arena to fall to 1-1 in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League.
“In the third we definitely had to make some adjustments,” said Marauders head coach Don Haynes. “They had one guy that was torching us and had to get some of our better guys on him and kind of reevaluate the bench on who was going out.
“After we made those adjustments things looked good, they just got on a good run there and we didn’t make those adjustments quick enough.”
Lethbridge sniper Jaxson Geddes scored eight goals and added three assists as the visitors turned a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes into a 14-4 advantage through two periods.
“I felt great about the first period because we outshot them a lot,” Haynes said. “We just couldn’t find any finish on their goalie and they got a couple that our goalie would probably like to have back too.
“And from there it was (Geddes) who is a pretty elite player in the league and we can’t make it easy on him.”
Okotoks bounced back with a 4-3 edge in the final frame to trim the deficit in the first meeting of the season between the Junior B Tier 1 South Division foes.
Alternate captains Wallace Macrae, David Bevis and Max Pocherewny led the hosts with two goal efforts with captain Jake Stegerman adding the other tally.
“I felt really good about it, to be honest, we just need to get a little more finish up front from some of our guys,” Haynes said. “Our offence is moving the ball around, it was pretty even for shots in the game and we’re just settling for outside shots.”
The early returns have been positive for the bench boss who noted a couple key figures on the defensive gate, including Jett de Paiva and Joel Schell, are set to make their season debuts.
“We’ve got a lot of young guys on offence as well, our right side is basically all really good rookies, our first three picks were all righties,” Haynes said. “And then some of our later draft picks are kind of competing for that last spot, there’s three guys that have got a lot of games in early and that’s good to see them battling and involved to try to get that last spot.”
Haynes called the South Division the ‘toughest in the league’ with the consistently strong Calgary Shamrocks off to an undefeated start alongside the Barracudas and the Calgary Mountaineers are always in the mix despite a tough start.
This week will see the Marauders make the trek east for a three-game set in Regina versus the Queen City Kings on May 14-15.
Okotoks’ next home date is May 19 against the Calgary Chill.
For more information go to rockymountainlax.com.
