Brooklin falls to Six Nations for first loss of MSL Classic

By Sam Laskaris

The Brooklin Lacrosse Club is still sitting atop the MSL standings but the team missed out on a golden opportunity on Tuesday night to guarantee itself a first-place finish in the five-team tournament, losing to Six Nations 15-14.

Brooklin blew a 14-10 lead late in the fourth quarter as the Chiefs scored five unanswered goals for the dramatic victory, Brooklin’s first loss of the tournament.

The loss drops Brooklin to 5-1 in the five-week Classic, with all games played at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre in Oakville.

Six Nations evened its record at 3-3.

Jason Crosbie, who handled the head coaching duties on the Brooklin bench on Tuesday, insisted team members are not thinking about the possibility of having the best record in the tournament. “It has never come out of anyone’s mouth,” he said.

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Crosbie noted the entire tournament is being used as a learning experience for his squad, which explains why he didn’t seem overly upset with the late Brooklin collapse. “It was an entertaining game right to the end,” he said. “In the last quarter we had mistakes from some young guys and (the Chiefs) got rolling a bit. You don’t want to give them any purpose or energy to keep going. But we couldn’t stem the tide.”

Thanks to a hat trick from Ryan Keenan and a pair of goals from Connor Kearnan, Brooklin found itself up 5-2 after the opening quarter and they extended the lead to 6-2 early in the second quarter. But the Chiefs responded with three straight goals to pull within one (7-6) at the half.

Brooklin was still up by just a single goal in the third quarter and four straight goals gave them what appeared to be a commanding five-goal advantage late in the game.

Cue the Chiefs’ comeback and the Six Nations club scored the game-winner with just 33 seconds remaining. “It’s a learning experience,” Crosbie said. “We’ll come back next week and we’ll reload and we’ll reset.”

Keenan ended up with five goals on the night for Brooklin while Kearnan had four. Ty Thompson and Zack Deaken added a pair of goals each.

Brooklin’s next opportunity to wrap up top spot in the tournament standings will be Wednesday, August 25, against Owen Sound. The opening faceoff is scheduled for 8 p.m.

Brooklin’s final Classic match will be the following night versus the Oakville Rock.

Photo by Tim Bates OJHL Images