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Tigers fall goal short in OT clincher

Kamloops Venom beat Vernon Tigers 10-9 in deciding game of TOJLL championship
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Marty Hastings

Kamloops This Week

Kolby Pauwels sent the Snake Pit into orbit and snagged his small piece of local sports history on Tuesday night.

The 20-year-old Kamloops Venom runner — who was diagnosed with cancer when he was two and underwent unproven proton radiation to survive — scored with one minute and 25 seconds left in a 10-minute, non-sudden-death overtime period to give his team a 10-9 win over the Vernon Tigers in the fifth and deciding game of the Thompson Okanagan Junior Lacrosse League (TOJLL) final.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Pauwels, standing in the middle of a sea of discarded helmets and sticks as his teammates celebrated around him. “I’m speechless. I don’t know what to say, honestly. It’s a great feeling.”

Memorial Arena was a sauna, reeking at times of body odour and cigarette smoke, a balmy, smelly, perfect stage for the final act of an epic series that went the distance.

Venom captain Riley Peterson, playing the last home game of his junior B lacrosse career, scored twice in the first period.

“That was probably the craziest game I’ve ever been a part of,” Peterson said. “It had everything — overtime in Game 5 in the Snake Pit. It was a wild one tonight. No words to describe it.”

Jake Pelletier scored in the first frame for the Tigers, who trailed 2-1 heading into the second intermission.

Mack Stead pushed Kamloops out to a 3-1 lead early in the second period, but Kolten Kirschner and Chris Inscho replied quickly for Vernon to level the score at 3-3.

Brady Georget relayed a deft, looping outlet pass from goaltender Matt Hans onto Peterson at about the halfway point of the second period and the Venom captain notched his hat-trick goal.

Hans and Tigers’ netminder Darnell Hauca exchanged impressive saves before Vernon evened the score at 4-4 through Steele Pelletier, who tallied 4-on-4 after Georget had taken Kamloops off the power play with a cross-checking penalty.

“It’s not the best thing to be feeling right now,” a dejected Steele Pelletier said after the game. “It didn’t end how we wanted it to end, but we’ll get them back in the first round of provincials.”

The Tigers and Venom were heading to the provincial junior B lacrosse championship no matter who won the league final, Vernon as the host team and Kamloops as the TOJLL representative.

Champions of the four-team Pacific Northwest Lacrosse League (Vancouver Island) and 11-team West Coast Junior Lacrosse League (Lower Mainland) will join Kamloops and Vernon at the tournament, which gets underway on Aug. 4 at Kal Tire Place.

Stead’s second goal of the game and Tanner Koroluk’s first marker pushed Kamloops into a 6-4 lead heading into the second intermission.

The Tigers made a habit out of coming back throughout the series and nothing changed in Game 5.

Jordy Barr, Steele Pelletier and Brett Olsen silenced Kamloops fans inside the old barn on Victoria Street with quick-strike goals to lift the Tigers into a 7-6 lead.

“They never go away,” Peterson said. “They’re a great team and we’re going to see them in provincials.”

The Kamloops captain recorded one of his two assists on the Venom’s next goal, shipping a behind-the-back pass to Anthony Matusiak, who made no mistake in beating Hauca to tie the game at 7-7 with 6:47 to play in the third period.

Colton Boomer put the Venom in front 8-7 just more than a minute later, but Barr equalized for the Tigers with 3:38 remaining and celebrated the tying goal with a jump and a fist pump.

“It’s especially hard losing this game, but we have balls,” Barr said. “We can come back from anything.”

The public-address announcer said the game was entering 10 minutes of non-sudden-death play after neither team found a winner in regulation.

Barr’s third goal brought Vernon fans to their feet less than two minutes into the extra frame, but Monty Chisholm answered for Kamloops about 30 seconds later.

Hans made his best stop of the game to keep the Tigers from gaining the lead with 3:40 remaining in the period to set the stage for Pauwels’ heroics.

“You kind of black out and don’t know what you’re doing, but what I’ve tried to do is come in clutch late in games to take care of my team,” Hans said. “I feel like I did that today and they took care of me at the same time.”

Pauwels’ spine is fused from the C1 to C4 vertebrae, but that didn’t keep him from cradling a pass from Marcelo Bose and slotting the game-winner to seal the championship victory.

“I had couple guys on me,” Pauwels said. “I just tried to put it on net and, luckily, it went off the post and in.

“It was a hell of a series. They’re a great squad over there. I can’t say enough about them.”

Kamloops and Vernon have met in six straight TOJLL finals. The Venom have won three straight and four of six.

“How it ended sucked,” Tigers’ head coach Chris Scabar said. “My boys deserved that game. We’ve been working really hard for this. It’s a tough loss, a very tough loss.

“It’s motivation for us [ahead of provincials]. It’s a real big motivator for us. We’re not dead yet. As you can tell, we don’t sit back. We’re going to move forward.”

The Coquitlam Adanacs and New Westminster Salmonbellies are meeting in the best-of-three WCJLL final. The Adanacs were 15-1 on the season, New West 14-2.

The Westshore Bears of Victoria won the PNWJLL, beating the Saanich Tigers Wednesday to win the best-of-five final in four games and earn a trip to Vernon.

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Vernon Tigers forward Kolten Kirschner (left) checks Kamloops ball carrier Nick Milne during the fifth and deciding game of the Thompson Okanagan Junior Lacrosse League championship Tuesday in Kamloops. (Allen Douglas/Kamloops This Week)