It was an Ontario sweep at Day 1 of the 2025 Minto Cup national Jr. A championship in St. Catharines.
The OJLL champion Orangeville Northmen kicked off the tournament at the Meridian Centre with a 12-5 win over BCJLL champion and defending Minto Cup champion Coquitlam Adanacs. In the evening game, host St. Catharines Athletics defeated the Raiders, RMLL (Alberta) champions, 13-9 in overtime.
The tournament continues until the 23rd, with round robin games on Sunday and Monday. The team with the best record gets a bye into the best-of-three final, with second and third place playing in a semifinal on Tuesday. All games can be watched for free on NLL+ or on TSN+ with a subscription.
From the opening faceoff, the result of this game was never in doubt. Orangeville took it to the defending champs six times in the first period, beginning just a minute and 41 seconds into the game. They had built up an 8-0 lead before Aidan McDonald finally got Coquitlam their first goal. Trey Deere, who finished with four goals, responded less than a minute later. The teams each scored two more times to close out a wild second period.
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The Adanacs started the third with a pair of goals, but Evan Constantopoulos and the Orangeville defence shut the door for the last 10 minutes of the game.
Jack Kask started the game for Coquitlam and made 13 saves on 21 shots before he was lifted in favour of Kaden Lee, who made 17 saves on 21 shots. Constantopoulos (Buffalo Bandits) made 41 saves on 46 shots in the Orangeville net.
Northmen player of the game Liam Matthews, who led the team with four goals and four assists, told Ashley Docking that there were nerves at the start of the game, but motivation to win kicked in pretty quickly.
“Them beating us last year 2-0, there’s no way we weren’t getting up for this game,” he said. “We knew they were gonna come out hot in the second period [after we] went up by a bunch in the first. We just weathered the storm and kept momentum on our side.”
Younger brother Ayden Matthews contributed two goals and three assists to Orangeville’s cause, Dylan Sanderson had five assists and Owen Rahn (Colorado Mammoth) had three.
As Pat Gregoire would say (and did, during the broadcast), lacrosse is a game of runs. This matchup was full of them, with the Raiders taking a 4-0 lead seven and a half minutes into the game. With 7:29 left in the period, Lukas Neilsen (Buffalo Bandits) got the Athletics on the board. Goals from Arrow Booth, Ari Steenhuis and Jamieson Bucktooth quickly followed to tie the game 4-4.
The Athletics hadn’t played a game since July 20, when they were ousted from the first round of the OJLL playoffs by Whitby in five games.
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Bucktooth told Ashley Docking after the game that he was most proud of “our resilience. We were down 4-0 early and a little bit of rust had to be shaken off and we ended up doing it and coming out with the W.”
Dexter Hannigan put Okotoks up 2:13 into the second period. Bucktooth tied the game 5-5 with a lightning-fast quick-stick goal at 5:26. Late in the period, Chuck Rawson and Tye Steenhuis both scored for an 7-5 lead. Steenhuis fell to his knees and celebrated with a low double fist pump – a celly NLL fans would be familiar with, having seen his father Mark do it with the Bandits multiple times.
Rawson and Josh Ford extended the lead to 9-5 as the third period opened. But the drama was just beginning – Dylan Belliveau got one back for Okotoks at 8:04. Carson Rowley scored just after an Okotoks penalty expired and one was coming to St. Catharines, and then 26 seconds later Brody Hergott got them back within a goal, scoring on a fast break. Cash Frijters’s hat trick goal tied the game with 2:42 left.
In overtime, it was all St. Catharines as they outscored Okotoks 4-0 in the 10-minute frame.
“Our offence is getting good shots the whole game, it’s just a matter of burying them,” said Bucktooth. “Our D is one of the best in junior lacrosse. We trust them all the way so it’s just a matter of our O burying the ball.”
Keaton Zavitz finished off a developing two-on-one, pulling up short in front of a defender and firing low. Bucktooth’s hat-trick goal came on a bouncer after he dodged a defender. Neilsen cut to the middle, took a backside hit from a defender, spun and shot as he was falling to put an emphasis on the goal. Ford hit the empty net with eight seconds to go for the 13-9 final.
Athletics goaltender Ty Wilson made 34 saves on 42 shots, and Raiders goaltender Tommy Wood stopped 51 of 63.
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For the full Minto Cup schedule, visit themintocup.com/schedule.
