The Coquitlam Adanacs were looking to get into the win column Thursday at the Founders’ Cup Canadian Junior B Lacrosse Championships in Orangeville, Ont.
The B.C. champion Adanacs – with Vernon Sun Valley Source For Sports Tigers players Ryan Sarazin, Quintin Harrish and Ethan Anderson picked up for the tournament – took on the Manitoba Blizzard after press time in a battle of 0-2 teams to wrap up the preliminary round.
Coquitlam lost its opener, 11-4, to the host Orangeville Northmen Tuesday, then fell 11-10 in overtime to the Seneca WarChiefs of New York Wednesday.
The WarChiefs tied the game with nine seconds left in regulation, then won it 24 seconds into OT.
None of the Vernon players registered a point in the first two games, and only Anderson appeared in both contests. Harrish and Sarazin did not play against Seneca.
Quarterfinals in the eight-team event go today with the semifinals Saturday and championship game set for Sunday.
The Founders’ Cup has been converted to a championship tournament. This year, the host team and representatives of the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League (Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba), the West Coast Junior B Lacrosse League (British Columbia), the Ontario Junior B Lacrosse League, the East Coast Junior Lacrosse League (Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) and the First Nations Lacrosse League will compete for the national title.
The trophy has been almost the exclusive property of teams from Ontario. Since 1972, only twice has a team from Ontario failed to win – 1999, Edmonton Miners; 2009, Calgary Mountaineers.
No team from B.C. has ever won the Founders Cup. The Victoria McDonalds won the 1971 Canadian Castrol Oil title, the year before the tournament was renamed the Founders Cup.