Brampton Excelsiors Stop St Catharines Athletics Offence

Photo: Jeramie Bailey / OLA

Goals have been hard to come by this season for the St Catharines Athletics. Throw in having to face the No 18 overall NLL draft pick, Brampton Excelsiors’ goaltender Connor O’Toole, and it was a long night for the home side, losing 7-4 to drop to 1-3.

Erich Acton scored in the opening minute to give Brampton the lead. Nate Renaud and Nolan Marshall would also score to put Brampton up 3-1 after one.

Marshall scored again in the second period. Jacob Janke followed that with another Brampton goal. He has now scored in every game this season, and already surpassed his career-high of three goals (in six games) set last year. Bowie Horsman added another 46 seconds later to give Brampton a 6-1 lead heading into the final frame.

Looking to give the home team life, playing in his first career OJLL game, Colin French scored a natural hat-trick in 4:27. That cut the lead to two, but Nolan Byrne’s goal 17 seconds into a late power play sealed Brampton’s first road win since July 5 of last season – also against St Catharines. The Excelsiors improve to 2-2 with a 7-4 victory.

Connor O’Toole matched a career-best with four goals allowed (in last year’s win over St Kitts). He needed 42 saves off 46 shots for his second win of the season. Nolan Byrne led the Excelsiors with four points (1+3). Bowie Horsman (1+2), Jacob Janke (1+2) and Darcy Thompson (0+3) all had three.

Colin French scored the fifth hat-trick of the season for St Catharines. However, it’s the second time this season the A’s have failed to register a hat-trick (12-7 loss vs Toronto, May 22). It gets even tougher with a road date on Thursday against the Toronto Beaches (3-0).