A tie and a victory have the Cowichan Thunder’s senior C lacrosse team ranked third in the league after seven games.
On Saturday, May 25, the Thunder welcomed the Tugmen to the Cowichan Community Centre and then handed them a 10-6 defeat.
Cowichan fired in five goals before the Tugmen got on the board, dominating the first period of play with goals from Mathieu Jung, Brayden Zunti, Ty Salmon and two from Devyn Zunti.
Up 5-1 midway through the second, Jung scored his second of the game and after a Tugmen goal, Jung scored once more to put the Thunder up 7-2.
The Tugmen added another but Devyn Zunti answered with his third of the game to restore Cowichan’s lead. From there it was back and fourth until the final whistle with Clayton Vickers and Jung scoring the team’s final two goals to make it a 10-6 victory.
Jung led Cowichan’s scoring with four goals and three assists while Devyn Zunti’s hat trick was augmented with two helpers. Salmon and Josh Seward both had two assists while Vickers, Brayden Zunti and Aidan Miller also pitched in with one apiece.
On Thursday, May 23 the Thunder travelled to Archie Browning Arena to face the Jokers and the result was no laughing matter — a 7-7 draw.
The Jokers had scored first but Cowichan dominated the rest of the half, scoring three goals to end the period with a 3-1 lead.
Brayden Zunti scored two of the Thunder’s first three goals while Salmon earned the other.
After the Jokers scored first in the middle frame, the Thunder put up back-to-back goals from Rhys Mazurenko and Jung to extend their lead to 5-2.
The Jokers weren’t laughing when the third period began, rattling off three goals in a row to mount their comeback. Jung’s second of the game took Cowichan ahead by a 6-5 score and Devyn Zunti extended it even more but the Jokers had the last laugh, scoring two goals in the last two-and-a-half minutes to earn the tie.
Once again, Jung was the team’s leading scorer in the game, adding three assists to his two goal effort. Salmon also had two helpers while Both Brayden and Devyn Zunti had single assists, along with Kevin Rothbauer, who notched his first helper of the campaign.
Up next for the Thunder is the late game on Saturday, June 1 when the Blazers visit the Cowichan Community Centre for an 8:30 p.m. start.
In other Cowichan senior C news, the Cowichan River Rats are still looking for their first win of the year following an 8-4 loss to the Jokers on Saturday, May 25.
In his second game out of retirement, Josh Van Wieren scored short-handed four minutes into the contest to give the Rats an early lead. After the Jokers tied the game, Van Wieren converted a Dale Darby pass to pull Cowichan ahead by one. The Jokers scored twice to take the lead before Darby and Curt Gailey fed Jared Meservia for the second period’s opening goal.
The next five goals belonged to the Jokers but the final marker went to Jason Bernasky from Cowichan goalie Ryan Brabander to end the game at 8-4 for the Jokers.
The River Rats sit at the bottom of the table but look to turn it around on Saturday, June 1 when the Tugmen come to town for a 7 p.m. start at the Cowichan Community Centre.
