Riley Knox, 18 years old from Huntsville, who now plays lacrosse for the Whitby Warriors after being drafted from the Midget Huntsville team last year, has followed in his grandfather’s lacrosse footsteps as he and his team won the Minto Cup 2022, just like Jack Bionda did in 1952.
The Minto Cup was held on August 22, days before Knox had to leave for University with four teams competing: the Victoria Shamrocks, Edmonton Minors, Toronto Beaches, and the Whitby Warriors. Since Ontario was the host province, they were allowed to enter two competitive teams in the tournament which took place in Brampton, Ontario this year.
It has been said that the Minto Cup is the hardest trophy to win in Box Lacrosse due to the logistics of team changes with team players only having five years in Junior Lacrosse, but Knox and his team played a series of very close round-robin games with overtime games between Edmonton and Whitby as well as Toronto and Victoria. There was only a 1-2 goal difference in the other games. At the end of the round-robin series, the seeding was:
1st Whitby Warriors
2nd Toronto Beaches
3rd Edmonton Minors
4th Victoria Shamrocks
For this tournament, the fourth-place finisher is out and the second and third-place teams have to battle it out in one last game to see who will compete against the first-place team. The final is comprised of a 2/3 series to see who will earn the Minto Cup trophy and the title of National Junior A Box Lacrosse champs.
The Edmonton Minors took second place facing off against Knox’s team the Whitby Warriors in the 2/3 series with Whitby taking the first win by one goal. The second game saw Edmonton win in overtime which meant that Whitby needed to take game three on the eighth day of the tournament. It was a thrilling close game as both teams shredded the field with grit to win the Cup but Knox and the Whitby Warriors came out on top with a 6-5 win in regulation time. The Whitby Warriors were victorious winning 2 games to 1 with the experienced bench and dedicated players. “In game 3, we left everything on the floor that we had… the team (players) had specific roles and we completed those assignments from the bench….this lead to our victory,” Knox said.
Knox had very little time to celebrate with his team as he needed to get to school which started at the same time as the Minto Cup. Jocelyn Knox said, “We left the arena and crossed the border that night to start the drive down to Georgia.” Knox is attending his first year at Mercer University for Journalism.
“When we left Riley, he was physically battered and still emotionally exhausted,” she added. But Knox said, “the thrill of winning was worth every bruise and minute.” As for lacrosse, Knox will continue to play for the NCAA Division 1 for Mercer in the ASUN conference.
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Congratulations. Way to keep the lacrosse tradition going.
Way to go Riley! An awesome athlete.