Orangeville Northmen Become Seventh Team To Start 11-0

PHOTO: SAM HOSSACK

On Thursday the OJLL, along with many other lacrosse fans, were saddened to hear of the passing of Onondaga Nation stickmaker, Alf Jacques. On Friday night Orangeville’s Trey Deere used a wooden stick to honor Alf Jacques and score his third hat-trick of the season, register five points and power the Northmen to their eleventh straight victory – just the seventh ever Junior A team to start a season 11-0 – 11-6 over the Whitby Warriors.

The star of the first period was Amos Whitcomb. In his rookie season last year, Whitcomb put up 30 points in 12 games with the Oakville Buzz. He’s already surpassed his 2022 total with 37 points in 11 games, including three in the opening frame. The final two points were power play goals, ending a 4-0 Orangeville first period.

After Deere opened the scoring in the third, four-on-four opened space for the Whitby offense. Jake Darlison, Jack Oldman and Riley Knox scored three goals in 2:27 to trail by two. The teams then traded goals before Orangeville finished the period on a three-goal run of their own from Own Rahn in transition, Deere and Koleton Marquis’ second of an eventual three. The Northmen took a 9-4 victory into the final frame.

A pair of Knox goals separated by 29 seconds put Whitby within four, but that’s as close as they’d get dropping their fourth home game of the season 11-6.

Three Orangeville players finished with hat tricks; Koleton Marquis (3 goals, 3 assists), Amos Whitcomb (3 goals, 3 assists) and Trey Deere (3 goals, 2 assists). Liam Matthews and Joey Spallina each had 4 assists.

Riley Knox scored the lone hat trick for Whitby, his fourth of the season, all in the last five games.

This game was the #MilkUp Ontario OJLL Game of the Week and is available on demand on the OJLL YouTube channel.

Orangeville will attempt to become just the fifth team to start a season 12-0 when they welcome the Toronto Beaches (6-6) to Tony Rose Arena on Sunday. Whitby will be off until Monday when they travel to Peterborough (2-8).