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Shamrocks ready to roll

Don’t count on a long Rowcliffe Cup (formerly Shaw Cup) Senior C lacrosse final series.
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Don’t count on a long Rowcliffe Cup (formerly Shaw Cup) Senior C lacrosse final series between the Armstrong Shamrocks and Kelowna Raiders.

Game 1 in the best-of-five series goes Wednesday night (7:30) at the Nor-Val Sports Centre.

The Shamrocks grounded the host Kamloops Rattlers 10-6 last Friday to cap their best regular season in 21 years. Armstrong finished first in the Thompson Okanagan Senior Lacrosse League at 8-0 while ringing up a staggering 109 goals.

Game 2 will be played Friday, July 7 at Kelowna Memorial Arena with the third game scheduled for Wednesday July 12 back in Armstrong. If necessary, Game 4 would go Friday July 14 in Kelowna. A fifth game would run Saturday July 15 in Armstrong.

Brett Hawrys of the Rocks pocketed 32 goals and 52 points to run away with the league scoring title after a few years of Junior and Senior A at the coast. While Hawrys is worth the price of admission, the rest of the Rocks are also pretty to watch with a lightning transition game and physical style.

“We really want to see every seat filled at our home playoff games this year” said Shamrocks captain Steve Clark, who played Senior A with the Nanaimo Timbermen in the Western Lacrosse Association and put up 11 goals and 22 points this season. “We feed off the energy of the crowd in our building and the noise can be very intimidating to our opponents,” added Clark.

Kelowna and the Kamloops Rattlers both ended up at 2-6 with the Rattlers taking second through a complicated tie-breaking formula. However, Kamloops could not field a competitive roster for

“It is unfortunate that Kamloops was not able to field a competitive team for the playoffs, they have 23 registered players but have struggled often this year to get commitment from everyone,” said Shamrocks coach/GM Ryan Nitchie. “On a positive note, it was great that Kelowna was able to step in to ensure we have a playoff series for the championship as our guys really want to play more lacrosse this season.

“Kelowna is a proud and competitive team with solid goaltending. We will need to be disciplined and focused on our goal of three-peating as champions in order to win.”

The Rowcliffe Cup playoffs are normally a raucous event in Armstrong with a packed audience, and the Shamrocks expect the same this year.

“People who love lacrosse will be dazzled by the calibre of this team,” said Nitchie. “We are young, fast, skilled and creative and fans will be impressed by what we bring to the floor in this series.”

Hawrys played his minor with the North Okanagan Minor Lacrosse Association then two years of Junior B with the Shamrocks before being acquired by the Nanaimo Timbermen of the B.C. Junior A League. He was drafted by the Nanaimo Timbermen of the WLA and played one season with the T-Men before returning home to play for the Shamrocks.

Teams from the Okanagan are eligible to compete in the 2017 Senior C Invitational Lacrosse Championships being hosted by the Prince George Senior Lacrosse League, Aug. 11-13.

“Our team had not committed to attending the tournament this year but given the calibre and quality of our team, we need to give it some consideration,” added Nitchie.

The Shamrocks will review their participation in the tournament over the next two weeks and make a decision by early July.

“It would be great to take this entire team to Prince George and face the best teams from the North and Lower Mainland but we would want to take our entire team and not a mix match of players,” said Nitchie.