The 2017 Ontario Junior C lacrosse season is over for the Huntsville Hawks. It came to a close on the weekend with an 18 – 11 loss to the Cornwall Celtics in Cornwall. The Hawks were also defeated by the Celtics earlier in the week at the Jack Bionda arena, 16-7 in the first game of the best-of-three playoff series.
Caleb Creasor had four goals for Huntsville in the final game while Jack Drinkwater had three and Ross Johnson two goals.
“We gave it all we had on Saturday in Cornwall,” said coach Karl Carnduff. “I was proud of the way we stayed with them until we ran out of legs in the third period. We only had 12 runners show up. Even the Cornwall 
coaching staff mentioned to me how we were able to stay with them for so long.”
The Hawks trailed by only two goals, 11-9, going into the final period.
“The first game in Huntsville, I thought our guys were not ready to play,” said Carnduff. “Do not know why, but that is no excuse. That is our job as coaches to prepare a team for every situation in every game, so I will take the hit for that loss.”
The Hawks finished the season with only two wins in 16 games. Carnduff took over as coach half way through the year but only managed one win in seven games in the remaining schedule.
We feel the team has improved since we took over. We implemented a new offense and defensive system, and they bought into it. We are a young team, with first year goalies and don’t forget the nets are bigger in Junior. However, having said that we didn’t have good turnouts from our goalies Logan Matthews, Evan Peltier and Cole Clarke, for practice to work on that aspect. We only had between 12 and 15 guys for practice since we came aboard and that’s not good enough when you have 23 players signed.Coach Karl Carnduff
“There are seven or eight midgets coming up, so hopefully that will fix the commitment to practice issue.
“Overall I think the guys improved both in their game and more importantly attitude, and tried to have fun, which is hard to do when you are losing. We have to learn how to win and that’s what we tried to teach them.”
So the question now is what about next year? That will be the hot topic at the team’s Annual General Meeting. This was a challenging year that almost didn’t happen. Don Monahan agreed at the last minute to coach the team which made the season possible.
Coach Karl Carnduff says he is interested in staying on next year if that’s the will of the executive.
“We are going to the AGM this fall,” said Carnduff, “and me personally and hopefully Colin Boucher and Caleb McKay as well would like to continue what we started. “
Don’t miss out on Doppler! Sign up for our free newsletter here.
0 Comments