Scoring outburst leads Thistles to win in ‘home’ opener
ELORA – The Fergus Thistles erupted for seven consecutive goals to rebound from a three-goal deficit to drop the Brantford Warriors 9-6 in their Ontario Junior C Lacrosse League ‘home’ opener Saturday night at the Elora and District Community Centre.
Brantford led 5-2 at the end of the first period, but didn’t score another goal until there were 22 seconds left in the third period. Most of the seven-goal outburst for the Thistles came in the third period as Brantford clung to a 5-4 lead after the second.
Fergus Thistles 9 Brantford 6
The third-period scoring for the hosts included four goals in a span of five minutes and 16 seconds in the first seven minutes of the period.
Keegan Detweiler rifled in a hat trick for the Thistles while Garret Warnaar scored twice. Getting a goal apiece were J.J. Swanston, Cole Doherty, Brock Redwood and Connor Willmets while Swanston, Carter Coffey and Aiden Mcdougall each had two assists. Redwood, Detweiler and Curtis Dietrich each had one assist.
Justin Brennecke struck for four goals for Brantford while Cooper Joyce and Nathan Jones rounded out the scoring. Connor Kett assisted on four of the goals while Brandon Mair had three assists and Nash Kramer and Matthew Travassos had two apiece.
The Thistles outshot Brantford 34-27 and went 3-for-10 on their power play. They also had a shorthanded goal, as did the Warriors who went 2-for-8 on their power play.
Eric Krauter started in net for Fergus, but was relieved by Ethan Bratton after Brantford’s third goal 3:18 into the game. Krauter had three saves and Bratton, who picked up the win, had 18 in the remainder of the game.
Trystan Williams played the entire game in net for Brantford and had 25 saves.
The win was the second in as many days for the Thistles as they had opened the season with an 11-2 victory over the shorthanded Orangeville Northmen at Orangeville Friday night, the same night Brantford edged the Six Nations Stealth 14-13 in Brantford.
Next up for the Thistles is a game against the Wilmot Wild at Kitchener’s Queensmount Arena May 1 at 3 p.m.
- Guelph Sports Journal