The North Island Rage U14 field lacrosse team had a great outing on Sunday, Dec. 7 against the Nanaimo Raiders. The 11-4 win more than compensated for a couple of losses the previous weekend in closely contested battles with Pacific Rim 2, a powerhouse squad from the southern tip of the Island.
The Rage established game tempo in the second quarter with great face-off work which kept the Rage middies in the Pac Rim end of the field and presented their attacks with lots of opportunities to net the rubber.
At the other end of the field, solid goaltending from Noah Araki kept the mid-islanders down on the scoresheet.
Crisp passing, quick ground ball retrieval and lots of strong body checking by Colby Black and Carter Mulligan kept the ball in the Rage sticks and, depending on the away game next weekend against Esquimalt at UVic, are grounds for strong playoff hopes.
Light rain and seasonable temperatures brought a good cheering contingent up from Nanaimo and their enthusiasm wasn't muted by the point differential and was matched by Campbell River and Comox Valley Rage supporters.
Field lacrosse is an enjoyable spectator sport. Unlike indoor ("box") lacrosse, there are 10 players per side: a goalkeeper, three defenders (or “big-sticks”) because of their use of longer 5' “D-poles”, three midfielders (or “middies”), and three attackers (or "attacks").
The defence must always have four players on their side of centre, usually the goalie and three defenders and the attack must always have three players on the opposite side of centre. As in box lacrosse, the intent is to score a goal into a net (6’ wide x 6’ tall x 7’ deep), line changes occur “on the fly” and a number of the infractions (called “fouls”) are similar to the “penalties” in box lacrosse.
The league shuts down for the holidays with playoffs in February.
– North Island Rage